13th July 2021. Fans | Identity
The other half of football; notions of ‘home’
Welcome to Just Two Things, which I try to publish daily, five days a week. Some links may also appear on my blog from time to time. Links to the main articles are in cross-heads as well as the story.
#1: Fans are the other half of football
One of the things we’ve learnt during the pandemic is that sport is a lot better with fans. Now that the football is over, The Atlantic pulled together a terrific selection of pictures from a range of agencies of fans at Euro 2020. Now that the football is over, let’s take a moment to celebrate the fans.
There are some great photographs here, which catch the whole range of emotions—the highs and the lows, as well as the expectations and the togetherness.
(Image: Andy Rain/AP)
I’ve written here during Euro 2020 about the relationship between England, football, and identity. Just before the final, the Poetry Book Society shared a poem from Hannah Lowe that touched on a similar idea. It’s from her collection The Kids, written from her experience teaching in an inner London school.
I’m re-sharing this here:
The Only English Kid
When the debate got going on ‘Englishness’,
I’d pity the only English kid – poor Johnny
in his spotless Reeboks and blue Fred Perry.
He had a voice from history: Dunno-miss,
Yes-miss, No-miss – all treacly-cockney,
rag-and-bone – and while the others claimed Poland,
Ghana, Bulgaria, and shook off England
like the wrong team’s shirt, John brewed his tea
exclusively on Holloway Road. So when Aasif
mourned the George Cross banner swinging freely
like a warning from his neighbour’s roof —
the subway tunnel sprayed with ‘Muslim Scum’ —
poor John would sit there quietly, looking guilty
for all the awful things he hadn’t done.
There are more poems on the same theme from the same collection by Hannah Lowe here—which, like ‘The Only English Kid’, are also sonnets.
The Kids is published by Bloodaxe Books.
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