Photo Credit: Citizen59
As Euro 2016, is about to kick off in France, the honest game will mean so much more than what happens on the pitch. Football, the game that inspires millions worldwide, a game that knows no borders and that unites people no matter of their faith or creed, might once again bring us all together. This might sound pretty dramatic and it might come as no surprise that I value the game a fair bit, but let me explain why.
Eyes have been on Paris for the past couple of years. The terror attacks in Paris, in November 2015 and Charlie Hebdo prior to that add a heightened sense of tension and security to the competition for fans and players alike. Equally, the Paris Climate Change conference this year, marked commitment across the world to solve what people are slowly realising is the greatest challenge to have ever threatened the Human race. What do these questions have in common? Both do not require a turning of attention to our own borders to solve them.
The EU referendum in the UK will have a huge impact on the future of the European project. As right wing and nationalist ideologies across Europe have been slowly simmering since the Economic crash in 2008, we could be nearing its boiling point. These age-old questions of national identity and borders have been surfacing once again amidst the seismic Migration Crisis that moved the world this year.
As the BBC has reminded us, in ‘France: Fear, Faith and Football’, the World Cup ’96, hosted by France, came at a time of national unrest too. Jean Marie Le Pen denounced the national football team, during a time where people were asking what it was to support France. As, the football writer, Julian Laurens described,
“There was a lack of patriotism. What is it to be French when your parents are from Spain, Senegal, Mali, Italy, Eastern Europe, wherever?”
The French squad went on to win the world cup on home soil. The national hero? Zinedine Zidane, a second-generation migrant, who grew up on a housing estate in Marseille. More than just a football icon, his image helped encapsulate the new feelings of a Multi-cultural France.
Yet people forget as quickly as they remember. Almost a mirror image of the animosity of the 1990’s is brewing once again; Le Pen’s daughter, Marine, last week surged ahead of President Hollande in the polls, making her twice as favourable to the current President of the country.
National pride is not something I dislike. Having spent some time in Canada, I was always interested as to why I was never uncomfortable around the odd Canadian wearing a national Flag boldly on their T-shirts or caps, whereas I probably would have squirmed a little at the same dress code of an American. I think though this was due to a difference in pride. Canadians represented a sense of pride in the land they inhabited in a “This is where we live, isn’t it beautiful, you’ll love this, this and this, m’kay” kind of way, whereas I often felt with American pride there was more of a “This is our land, and we gon’ defend it” (both in respective accents) . Obviously that’s a large generalisation, as is often the case when talking about ‘a people’. However the point being, that there is a kind of pride that I find warming and pleasing to see. (For me, that is recognition of the natural beauty of a geographical area and how it influences a culture - but that might be another topic of debate!).
I am a proud fan of England’s national football team and I get the same buzz in my stomach from anticipation and excitement as I do when I’m watching Southampton play at St. Mary’s or when my brother goes on stage and acts in front of a large crowd. I strongly encourage everyone to get behind his or her national team. But let’s not forget that what will bring us together is not our nationalities but the honest game itself; I would eagerly look forward to the possibility of watching an England - Italy knockout game with my Italian relatives, but I know that if that happened I would not be thanking Jamie Vardy for making this possible, but Football itself.
In the same way, I look forward to overcoming the pervasive fear that spreads across the world today, in racism and in the self interested behaviour that promotes personal wealth ahead of social interests, as with the climate crisis – but when that happens I know that I will not thank the borders of the small nation of the UK but humanity itself from wherever in the world…
No pressure France.
By Honest Game Contributor, Seb O'Connor