RETURN OF THE FOOTY

The football’s back then (soccer).

Now. Quick question: is it less of a thing?

I mean twenty years ago or so, an England game in a Euros or a World Cup was enough to stop the nation. To be honest, I think there’s less appetite for it these days.

Hardly anyone seems willing to cover their houses in red and white, or flutter a couple of St Georges from their car windows. I mean people do, but I remember quiet streets and pubs erupting in spontaneous cheers on still summer evenings. I remember newspapers with in-depth coverage of metatarsals, and ill-advised karaoke nights in the England camp. Songs were on the telly, and adverts were everywhere - Beckham as a cowboy, David Seaman stopping a tin can in a game of street footy, John Barnes guzzling Lucosade Sport as though its isotonic ingredient magically outweighed its sugar content.

I think I must have been younger. Maybe football was aimed at me and my demographic in a way that nowadays just passes me by. We used to go to each other’s houses, to pubs, even to a farm once, where they’d rigged up a massive white screen at the end of a barn! These days, we all seem to prefer to cheer on the boys from the comfort of a laptop on a sofa.

Another explanation (other than the obvious fact that I’ve changed) is that this world itself is different. What was the geopolitical situation when England beat Tunisia 2-0 in 1998 and I almost choked on a jacket potato in the Bath university sports bar? My guess is that there wasn’t much going on. I’ve absolutely no idea.

And what about that night when everyone, and it really was everyone, stopped to watch England v Germany in the Harvester I worked in in 1996? Would that happen now? Would the staff and the diners gather around a little telly to hold their heads in hand during a penalty shoot out? Not when there’s a cost of living crisis and multiple wars brewing. The world was far less interesting back then; perhaps football was all there was to distract us from Princess Diana and the likes of John Major giving a boring speech in Brussels.

Well anyway. It’s the Euros once again: a month-long jamboree for people who like that sort of thing. I’m watching for the stats - you never know what’ll crop up in quizzes of the future. Also, I guess it might just come up in conversation, and it’ll be good to have half an eye on the things that matter to people.

I also think we’re far less comfortable being nationalistic these days. The politics of the last decade has kind of wrecked flag-waving for us, just like the hooliganism of previous years might have done. The England flag, perhaps even the Union flag these days too, has carried a bit too much sentiment, unfortunately. Maybe things are different elsewhere, but patriotism here can be a bit of a tightrope. TLDR: thanks a lot, Nigel Farage.

Anyway. The footy is on. England might win. They might not. Gareth Southgate might be a sir before the bells chime twelve; he might not. Our heroic young men (children) might get clattered by the French, or the Italians or the Germans. And yes, there might well be a good old penalty shoot out to watch from behind the sofa. All I’m saying is that somehow it seems we just don’t care quite as much as we used to, and I’m sure there are reasons for that. But then, neither do I really. And trust me, that is okay.