To say that these men paid their shillings to watch twenty-two hirelings kick a ball is merely to say that a violin is wood and catgut, that Hamlet is so much paper and ink. For a shilling the Bruddersford United AFC offered you Conflict and Art; it turned you into a critic happy in your judgement of fine points, ready in a second to estimate the worth of a well-judged pass, a run down the touchline, a lightening shot, a clearance by your back or goalkeeper; it turned you into a partisan, holding your breath when the ball came sailing into your own goalmouth, ecstatic when your forwards raced away towards the opposite goal, elated, down cast, bitter, triumphant by turns at the fortunes of your side, watching a ball shaped Iliads and Odysseys for you; and, what is more, it turned you into a member of a new community, all brothers together for an hour and a half, for not only had you escaped from the clanking machinery of this lesser life, from work, wages, rent, doles, sick pay, insurance cards, nagging wives, ailing children, bad bosses, idle workmen, but you had escaped with most of your mates and your neighbours, with half the town, and there you were, cheering together, thumping one another on the shoulders, swopping judgements like lords of the earth, having pushed your way through aturnstile into another and altogether more splendid kind of life, hurtling with Conflict and yet passionate and beautiful in its Art. Moreover it offered you more than a shilling’s worth of material for talk during the rest of the week. A man who had missed the last home match of ‘t’United’ had to enter social life on tiptoe in Bruddersford.
Well I found that quite sweet considering I have zero interest in the subject matter and zero stake in it, as a neutral had I have been watching the game live and not in a circle pit at 42 for system of a down I would have been supporting England which is as rare af for me as I’m Welsh and the reason for this is exactly what you’ve said, this England squad are a terrific bunch of lads and great role models to young boys like my own. The World cup and the Euros are a lovely band wagon we all willingly jump on every 4 years and any collective experience is to be treasured. Right thats enough of that - if you are looking for cultural inspiration now the World cup run is over might a suggest Series 2 of Xmen97 because quite simply cartoob or not it is without the doubt the best thing the MCU has ever produced and I am as obsessed now as I was when I was in 1996 and the script writers are sensational - the last episode had so much playful geely reference to Aliens and the thing as well as comic classic I was giddy with joy - but the whole series has been exceptional. New hobby loading?
Loved this take. I too get into football only every two years since I moved around a lot as a kid and have no loyalty to a specific town. But I gave up on it in the Terry era. I couldn't see why these men deserved any of my adulation or investment. Southgate rehabilitated the game for me, and the new team seems to have moved forward with his gentle genuine thoughtfulness. They look like role models again. So yes, we lost a battle, but just maybe we've made strides in the much more important war.
Sorry but I have to object to your ‘no culture this week it’s all about football’
Football is the most successful shared cultural experience humanity has ever invented (either football or movies i guess) so this was all culture this week
What a thoughtful, heartening post - thank you very much. And thank you, too, for saying you 'don't see the point in speculating when we'll have confirmation Monday' - I gave a mental cheer when I read that.
Really enjoyed this piece. I have an affiliation (affliction?) with my childhood home team but as I have moved around the country for work I have got involved in local clubs too. Currently I live nearEvesham and join the 300/400 faithful each home game at Evesham United FC in tier 7 of the football pyramid. What I love is the possibility of playing Chelsea after six promotions and a wealthy sponsor, or getting through four qualifying rounds and playing a league team in the FA Cup this season. I also have football friends - people who always stand near me and we talk about the game together, rarely going beyond football as the subject matter. Thanks for being who you are and doing what you do.
This made me feel slightly better, especially the paragraph about the Argentine team. From now on only time can heal.
The ridiculous pressure put on the team to "End the years of hurt" as if it's both totally unbelievable and unbelievably unfair that we haven't won since 1966 is a big part of the self-doubt syndrome too. Who the hell started that nonsense? Thank gods there won't be another 'anniversary' till 2036, and 2046 for the world cup. Maybe they'll have shut up about it by then and they'll just let them play football.
I agree about the new generation of heroes. Let's hope against hope that that photo of Bellingham and Haaland after their match is the one on kids' bedroom walls for the next few years.
"They are also shameless, graceless, dishonourable fucking cheating bastards." True since at least 1966 and the gifted but psychotic centre back Rattin in quarter finals against us. Before red cards, referee informed him that his latest leg breaking tackle was one too many and invited him to absent himself from the field of play. Cunt flat refused. Had to be frog matched off by linesman and a member of Argentina coaching staff. Marahandagodonna, cunt. Parades in the latest encounter, cunt.
I don t do football, especially not when the times are in the middle of the night but nevertheless each morning in the middle of the heat wave I was up at 5:30 nervously checking the results of the night before. When we reached the quarter-final and it was a reasonable time I almost wanted to watch, but I’d convinced myself that my not watching had helped them win and that if I did watch I would jinx it. I live in France where we had the tragedy of the first semi-final and then I had to live through the disappointment of all my friends in England over the second semi-final. So even though I don’t get the football, I absolutely get the spirit of belonging. Actually now I just want Spain to thrashArgentina on behalf of everybody who was a little bit appalled by them dragging politics into the beautiful game. Even if I don’t really know why it’s beautiful.
enjoyed listening to this, Ian. I think the local connection to a team is probably key in club football. or an emotional one - I have gradually moved towards a team because of my mother/grandfathers connection to a particular area (ok, it's West Ham, I'll admit it!).
Have loved how a international tournament allows club fans to put the banter, and sometimes nastier things than that, to one side and pull for same team together.
Ian, this is absolutely brilliant writing. As someone who loves my club far more than my national team, I could give you a long response to that part of the text, but it's fascinating to see the opposite view put with so much eloquance.
....and, as someone who lives in South America, you're *spot on* about Argentina and the Falklands.
Suffice it to say that I wouldn't read a substack about football (yawn) written by anybody else.
I remember you asking for ideas for a quiet holiday location. I suggested Lincolnshire. I would love to know where you plumped for, in the very vaguest terms?
On the match itself, most pundits have falied to acknowledge that prior to the Gordon goal, magnificent as it was, England had done nothing to warrant a sense of confidence, never mind swagger. The one exception was the indefatigable Alan Shearer who described the performance as the worst he had ever seen from England from the start to the finish. With four centrehalves on the pitch at the very end, they allowed a goal to be scored by an unmarked player inside their six-yard box while they all seemed to be transfixed watching what Messi was doing. How in the Hell can you blame the coach for that sort of carelessness?
J. B. Priestley, The Good Companions, 1929:
To say that these men paid their shillings to watch twenty-two hirelings kick a ball is merely to say that a violin is wood and catgut, that Hamlet is so much paper and ink. For a shilling the Bruddersford United AFC offered you Conflict and Art; it turned you into a critic happy in your judgement of fine points, ready in a second to estimate the worth of a well-judged pass, a run down the touchline, a lightening shot, a clearance by your back or goalkeeper; it turned you into a partisan, holding your breath when the ball came sailing into your own goalmouth, ecstatic when your forwards raced away towards the opposite goal, elated, down cast, bitter, triumphant by turns at the fortunes of your side, watching a ball shaped Iliads and Odysseys for you; and, what is more, it turned you into a member of a new community, all brothers together for an hour and a half, for not only had you escaped from the clanking machinery of this lesser life, from work, wages, rent, doles, sick pay, insurance cards, nagging wives, ailing children, bad bosses, idle workmen, but you had escaped with most of your mates and your neighbours, with half the town, and there you were, cheering together, thumping one another on the shoulders, swopping judgements like lords of the earth, having pushed your way through aturnstile into another and altogether more splendid kind of life, hurtling with Conflict and yet passionate and beautiful in its Art. Moreover it offered you more than a shilling’s worth of material for talk during the rest of the week. A man who had missed the last home match of ‘t’United’ had to enter social life on tiptoe in Bruddersford.
Holy shit that's lovely
Well I found that quite sweet considering I have zero interest in the subject matter and zero stake in it, as a neutral had I have been watching the game live and not in a circle pit at 42 for system of a down I would have been supporting England which is as rare af for me as I’m Welsh and the reason for this is exactly what you’ve said, this England squad are a terrific bunch of lads and great role models to young boys like my own. The World cup and the Euros are a lovely band wagon we all willingly jump on every 4 years and any collective experience is to be treasured. Right thats enough of that - if you are looking for cultural inspiration now the World cup run is over might a suggest Series 2 of Xmen97 because quite simply cartoob or not it is without the doubt the best thing the MCU has ever produced and I am as obsessed now as I was when I was in 1996 and the script writers are sensational - the last episode had so much playful geely reference to Aliens and the thing as well as comic classic I was giddy with joy - but the whole series has been exceptional. New hobby loading?
I wasn't there, but apparently Serj announced the score via song lyrics?
He did and I did giggle a bit (sorry)
Loved this take. I too get into football only every two years since I moved around a lot as a kid and have no loyalty to a specific town. But I gave up on it in the Terry era. I couldn't see why these men deserved any of my adulation or investment. Southgate rehabilitated the game for me, and the new team seems to have moved forward with his gentle genuine thoughtfulness. They look like role models again. So yes, we lost a battle, but just maybe we've made strides in the much more important war.
Sorry but I have to object to your ‘no culture this week it’s all about football’
Football is the most successful shared cultural experience humanity has ever invented (either football or movies i guess) so this was all culture this week
What a thoughtful, heartening post - thank you very much. And thank you, too, for saying you 'don't see the point in speculating when we'll have confirmation Monday' - I gave a mental cheer when I read that.
Bravo, Ian, for finding the best kind of insight.
Really enjoyed this piece. I have an affiliation (affliction?) with my childhood home team but as I have moved around the country for work I have got involved in local clubs too. Currently I live nearEvesham and join the 300/400 faithful each home game at Evesham United FC in tier 7 of the football pyramid. What I love is the possibility of playing Chelsea after six promotions and a wealthy sponsor, or getting through four qualifying rounds and playing a league team in the FA Cup this season. I also have football friends - people who always stand near me and we talk about the game together, rarely going beyond football as the subject matter. Thanks for being who you are and doing what you do.
I support Berkhamsted in the same division. Two good games last season, see you on the terraces.
This made me feel slightly better, especially the paragraph about the Argentine team. From now on only time can heal.
The ridiculous pressure put on the team to "End the years of hurt" as if it's both totally unbelievable and unbelievably unfair that we haven't won since 1966 is a big part of the self-doubt syndrome too. Who the hell started that nonsense? Thank gods there won't be another 'anniversary' till 2036, and 2046 for the world cup. Maybe they'll have shut up about it by then and they'll just let them play football.
I agree about the new generation of heroes. Let's hope against hope that that photo of Bellingham and Haaland after their match is the one on kids' bedroom walls for the next few years.
"They are also shameless, graceless, dishonourable fucking cheating bastards." True since at least 1966 and the gifted but psychotic centre back Rattin in quarter finals against us. Before red cards, referee informed him that his latest leg breaking tackle was one too many and invited him to absent himself from the field of play. Cunt flat refused. Had to be frog matched off by linesman and a member of Argentina coaching staff. Marahandagodonna, cunt. Parades in the latest encounter, cunt.
Lower league football feels more inclusive and is cheaper!
I don t do football, especially not when the times are in the middle of the night but nevertheless each morning in the middle of the heat wave I was up at 5:30 nervously checking the results of the night before. When we reached the quarter-final and it was a reasonable time I almost wanted to watch, but I’d convinced myself that my not watching had helped them win and that if I did watch I would jinx it. I live in France where we had the tragedy of the first semi-final and then I had to live through the disappointment of all my friends in England over the second semi-final. So even though I don’t get the football, I absolutely get the spirit of belonging. Actually now I just want Spain to thrashArgentina on behalf of everybody who was a little bit appalled by them dragging politics into the beautiful game. Even if I don’t really know why it’s beautiful.
Beautiful piece, Ian….Absolutely agree with ALL OF IT! 👏🏻
enjoyed listening to this, Ian. I think the local connection to a team is probably key in club football. or an emotional one - I have gradually moved towards a team because of my mother/grandfathers connection to a particular area (ok, it's West Ham, I'll admit it!).
Have loved how a international tournament allows club fans to put the banter, and sometimes nastier things than that, to one side and pull for same team together.
Ian, this is absolutely brilliant writing. As someone who loves my club far more than my national team, I could give you a long response to that part of the text, but it's fascinating to see the opposite view put with so much eloquance.
....and, as someone who lives in South America, you're *spot on* about Argentina and the Falklands.
Thank you.
Suffice it to say that I wouldn't read a substack about football (yawn) written by anybody else.
I remember you asking for ideas for a quiet holiday location. I suggested Lincolnshire. I would love to know where you plumped for, in the very vaguest terms?
In actually away now and I think this is Sussex? But it might be Kent. It's very green
Thanks Ian. I’m a little further out of the hole I’ve been down since Wednesday night. A lovely take x
On the match itself, most pundits have falied to acknowledge that prior to the Gordon goal, magnificent as it was, England had done nothing to warrant a sense of confidence, never mind swagger. The one exception was the indefatigable Alan Shearer who described the performance as the worst he had ever seen from England from the start to the finish. With four centrehalves on the pitch at the very end, they allowed a goal to be scored by an unmarked player inside their six-yard box while they all seemed to be transfixed watching what Messi was doing. How in the Hell can you blame the coach for that sort of carelessness?