I was going to post something tomorrow, after the round of 16 ends (or oitavos da final, as you'd say in Portuguese), but it struck me today:
I don't particularly want England to win. In fact, I'd be happy to see them crash out tomorrow.
This is kind of a difficult thing to say... not because I've previously wanted them to win, but I suspect I'm going to piss off a bunch of friends (assuming they read this blog).
To unpack this for a second, I like English football, and a whole bunch of other things about England (I'm currently listening to my third album by an English band in a row today). I like being there, and the country has provided the bulk of my work experience, including randomly pulling up three months of work earlier this year, when I'd just lost my previous job (at a UK company). I also like my British friends, many of whom have impeccable taste in movies, music and books, among other stuff.
But there are other considerations. It's fashionable to say that you need to separate the people from the government, that football rises above these considerations, and that it's a harmless form of patriotism.
But uh, fuck that.
England is the only country participating in this World Cup that voted to kick people like me (i.e. Europeans) out. Even as bad as things are getting here in the US, I'm not currently in danger of being deported or losing my ability to live here. Russia may be a shitty kleptocracy, but it hasn't thrown up any further barriers to my living there in the last couple of years. France, Germany, Belgium, etc? They'd all be moderately happy to have me, even if I talk funny.
And you know where this idea of leaving the European Union came from? This impulse to stop people coming in and "taking their jobs" or whatever? It wasn't the government - it was the people. Or more appropriately, one faction of the Tories tried to shut up the more vociferously racist and xenophobic wing of their party by holding this referendum, and discovered to its surprise that actually a majority of Brits wanted to leave, and to kick out other Europeans in the process.
I have a long history of rooting against England, of course. If you're a foreigner in a particular country, it can be fun to have some #bants by rooting against a different team than what everyone else is supporting. And the team has veered between dour and calamitous in the years since I moved there - a far cry from the heroic and slightly manic 2-2 draw with Argentina in 1998. Standout moments include England failing to qualify for Euro 2008 (despite having actually played with some flair in a couple of matches), or the "Gazza's tears" phenomenon taken to an illogical extreme by David Beckham and Wayne Rooney crying in impotent frustration as they got outplayed by Portugal in 2006.
More to the point, there are knock-on effects to stuff like World Cup wins. In his wonderful Game of our Lives podcast, David Goldblatt talks about how England's loss to Germany in the 1970 World Cup may have led to the shock Conservative election victory four days later, on 18 June, suggesting that a successful quarterfinal might have helped the national mood and lessened voters' desire to dump Labour out of power.
It could be nonsense, but with the current climate in the UK, it's not hard to see that a UK win would immediately be seized on by Theresa May and her current Tory administration for positive PR value, including in the negotiations against the EU over separation. Compare this with two years ago, when England lost abjectly to Iceland just days after voting to exit the EU (leading to jokes about leaving Europe twice in one week).
Am I saying I'd like doom and gloom to descend on England, that green and pleasant land where I've spent much of my youth? Not really. But it's not a good time for complacency and unearned good feelings. I'd like to see the UK remain good and angry, and unwilling to give the Tories an inch in the Brexit negotiations. Not that I'm confident of things changing if Labour were to win a snap election, as Jeremy Corbyn isn't that keen on the EU either. But putting the likes of Boris Johnson and Michael Gove out of a job would be a step forward.
So if England lose tomorrow, or later in the week, or whenever, I won't particularly celebrate, but I also won't be too distraught. Because, while I'm sure very few people pulled the lever for Brexit because they explicitly wanted to kick me or my relatives out of Britain, this is a decision that directly affects me, and my family, and I'm not prepared to let it go.
Also, screw the Welsh national team, who also voted to leave, but while we're at it, thumbs up to Scotland and Northern Ireland, who voted to stay.
No comments:
Post a Comment