Christmas truce
When war took a backseat
LOUIS van Gaal, Jurgen Klopp – these are just a couple of the managers who have been calling for a winter break in the Premier League: an end to the Christmas football schedule that we all know and love.
You would have thought they would have known that the Premier League doesn’t stop for winter before they signed up, but that’s another point entirely.
Given that football on Christmas is a tradition, they really should take note from the brave men that looked forward to one football match on Christmas Day.
The Christmas Truce of 1914 signifies how powerful football and sport can be.
The battlefields were so often littered with bodies and blood, with death being the only thing that greeted innocent men. One day that all stopped. On Christmas Day 1914, with the war at a stalemate and the promise that the conflict would be over by Christmas well and truly broken, morale was at an all-time low.
The winter was harsh, trench-foot and frostbite had set in, and the men on the front were missing home.
Given that the Victorian period had seen a massive boom in the leisure industry and sport in particular, many of these soldiers had either played or seen football before being shipped off. Of the 5,000 professional players on the British Football Associations books, 2,000 of them joined the Armed Forces, highlighting just how important football was.
When it came round to Christmas Day 1914, no one knows who enforced the truce, but what is known that men on both sides left the security of their trench and made the dangerous decision to meet in no man’s land.
What followed next can only really be linked to when as kids we used jumpers as goalposts and played, no matter how many people there were. Gifts were exchanged amongst the soldiers, and although no end results were confirmed, you can imagine it was a case of next goal wins.
Of course, the result of the truce, sadly, did nothing to change the shape of the war: instead, the war to end all wars would last for four more years, and take many more lives. But the significance is that, for just one day, a bloody conflict was stopped purely for men to be men again, and enjoy football. When you hear of managers complaining that there is no winter break in football, just remember how grateful these players were to play football, and have a break from the war. When you are tucking in and enjoying your lovely Christmas dinners this year, or if you’re watching any of the football over the holiday, just take a minute to remember those brave men who fought for our futures and who were thankful to have the beautiful game. For them, it was a distraction from the horrors that awaited them, and that one day probably boosted their morale more than we will ever know.