And so, it’s not “coming home”. It’s gutting when any of our national teams – football, rugby, cricket, or any other sport, fail to win a key championship. But genuinely don’t understand the fanaticism and hysteria associated with football. The 2019 Rugby Union World Cup final seems a distant memory, but yes, England were there and yes, we lost. But this saturation of media coverage, social commentary, emotional outbursts, was simply not there. Reminder, it was a WORLD CUP FINAL. In recent years, there has been an absolute arrogance associated with top level football. The sheer fact that the England football team have the social media handle of simply “@England” is a demonstration of this – cricket and rugby are of course “@EnglandRugby” and “@EnglandCricket”, because they represent a national sporting team, not a nation.
And now social media will be looking for blame. Racist abuse against black players who missed penalties, inevitable backlash against Italians because they were the better team. Let’s also not forget the horrific stats – when the national team plays, domestic violence in England increases by 26 per cent. If England loses, the figure is even higher — DV surges by 38 per cent. It’s not confined to football, but watching football fans behaviour, responses and the overall testosterone fuelled responses on TV…. Well, the correlation is only too clear.
They did well, they played well, they didn’t play well enough. Well done Italy.
Saarf London Bird 