NEIL MOXLEY Two world wars one World Cup ... are we ever going to stop it?
Follow us on Twitter: @peoplesport WITHIN 18 hours of three roadside bombs almost blowing up Borussia Dortmund’s team bus, English football fans were preparing for a Champions League quarter-final in Madrid.
They were Leicester City supporters. The overwhelming majority was well behaved.
Unfortunately, the actions of the many were not viewed widely on social media as the Spanish police waded into a group congregated in the main square, using thrown bottles and broken tables as an excuse to bang a few heads together.
This, of course, came on the back of England fans’ boorish behaviour in Berlin last month.
Chanting songs about carpetbombing your hosts isn’t going to endear them to you any more than it did with some Foxes fans standing in the Plaza Mayor, crowing about the sovereignty of Gibraltar.
Army
But put into sharper focus – set against news of a terrorist incident in Dortmund – surely we, both as a nation of football followers and as one that has just witnessed its own atrocity on the streets of Westminster, need to ditch this approach.
Is it acceptable any longer to wrap yourself in the cross of St George, splatter your club, city or country’s name across the middle and act like some invading army? If, indeed, it ever was.
Don’t get me wrong. I travelled abroad with England as a supporter in my younger days.
I was in Glasgow to see Steve Bull score his first goal in 1989 against the Auld Enemy. In Poznan, two years later, where Gary Lineker grabbed a late equaliser that fired us to the European Championships.
More pointedly, perhaps, I stepped on to a train – having spent a couple of days on a campsite near Montpellier in 1998 – for the short journey to Marseille during the World Cup. The atmosphere was, frankly, evil. But it doesn’t have to be this way. For instance, Wales painted Bordeaux red – or should that be claret – ahead of their history-making game against Slovakia last summer. Blow me, there were some sore heads that weekend.
It may surprise fans here – but, generally, there are whenever football is played.
If you go to Germany, the fans love beer more than us. In Slovakia, Slovenia and Austria, they drink plenty. The game is meant to be pleasurable and act as a unifying influence – not as an excuse to re-enact the Battle of the Bulge.
And yes, there were issues in Lyon against Besiktas in the Europa League.
But why do our football supporters feel the need to issue a challenge?
You know, Englishmen aren’t unique. Most people are proud of their own country. They just don’t feel the need to view a trip to Madrid or Berlin as an exercise in temporary annexation.
Powerful
Football is the one sport which can bring people together.
Despite UEFA dictating that the game in Dortmund should be staged within 24 hours of the original kick-off, the hand of friendship spanned into the visiting section.
Within an hour, the club was trying to ensure Monaco supporters had a bed for the night. Our national sport can be a fantastically powerful force for good.
Which all makes it so depressing as to why we haven’t moved on.
The world is becoming more dangerous. Terrorism is no longer an issue simply in faraway lands. It’s on your doorstep.