Like any human activity, politics seeps in everywhere. It is the same with the current international football tournament dominating the news cycle. People speculate how England’s success will boost Starmer’s honeymoon period. Guardian editorials pontificate on how this England team reflects a diverse modern nation at ease with itself. Neo-fascists in Spain and France lament the lack of white faces in their country’s squads. France’s star players of African heritage joined in the call to block Le Pen from forming the next parliamentary majority. Their intervention made a difference. English left-wingers on social media gleefully point out that only three or so of the starting line-up do not have migrant backgrounds. Most beneficial to us all, I suppose, is the possibility of an extra day off if Starmer wants to cash in on the vibes with an extra bank holiday.

Is it Wrong to Cheer on the England Team?

Many people on the left make a big deal of supporting anyone but England. It apparently shows their true internationalism. But, guys, this is not the outbreak of the First World War where it really did make a difference if you condemned an inter-imperialist butchery of millions of workers. It is perfectly possible to support the team you know, the people closest to you, without having a racist attitude to migrants. You do not have to shout “No Surrender” or sing the anti-German songs about the Second World War.

“It is perfectly possible to support the team you know, the people closest to you, without having a racist attitude to migrants.”

I watched the semi-final at a mini-brewery pub in Hackney. Apart from me being one of the few older people there, I did not spot more than a few St George’s flags. Nobody sang the national anthem and there were no racist songs or chants. Okay, this is Hackney, where nearly everybody voted for Diane Abbott and the other 24% voted Green.

I know other public showings of the games probably had a different buzz. Football fans still retain a certain relationship with people like them who grew up in their neighbourhoods and were lucky enough to find success in the professional game. This applies to the England squad too. Much has been made of how there is something in the water in Stockport because three of the team – Foden, Mainoo, and Palmer – grew up there. Local people interviewed on TV rightly took pride in their achievements.

On the other hand, the left should not waste time trying to recuperate the St George’s flag and reassign it with some sort of progressive patriotism. Billy Bragg and others have tried to do this. Socialists are internationalists, and they should not encourage any form of nationalism. You can combat racism within English supporters’ groups without adopting the flag as a banner to engage with them. Labour under Starmer has gone back to flag-waving big time, competing with the Tories in how many Union Jacks you can sit in front of in photo shoots. His strategy has not been very effective in pushing back the surge of Farage’s racist Reform party.

Is the ‘Blackness’ of England’s Team a Good Argument in Defence of Migration?

Yes and no. It does highlight the contradictions of many racists, who lament the so-called great replacement and threat to national identity while cheering on wildly the successful replacement of ‘native’ players by all those Black footballers. This is happening in a number of the top European teams like France and Spain and not just here. Clearly, it shows that migrants contribute as much as anyone else to our societies.

England haven’t been convincing so far, but without players born outside the UK or with at least 1 parent or grandparent born abroad, we wouldn’t still be here. And today, we’d be down to just 3 players.#ENGSWI #ThreeLions pic.twitter.com/IBcp2xUHZw

— Migration Museum (@MigrationUK) July 6, 2024

But here’s the problem with this line of argument. Not all migrants are great footballers. They do not all become doctors. Not all of them work keeping the NHS going. We defend all migrants, whatever they achieve. Everyone has value and should be treated equally. I remember the cartoon when the British authorities let Zola Budd, a South African athlete, into Britain in order to get her into the 1984 Olympics. A border official is saying to a migrant – sprint around the arrivals hall in less than two minutes, and you are in.

“We defend all migrants, whatever they achieve. Everyone has value and should be treated equally.”

Does the England Team Today Show What a Successfully Diverse Nation We Are?

Certainly, it shows that at least in the football world there is a sort of meritocracy for Black and African heritage young people. They are proportionally overrepresented in the professional game – 43% in the Premier League and 35% across the other three divisions. However, how many black managers are there in the Premier League – 11 since it was formed in 1992? There must have been hundreds and hundreds of managers hired and fired since then. Look at the English manager’s bench and there are few Black faces. If we were to look at the administrators of the game, you will find the same story. Brown players from a South Asian background are much less prevalent in football. If you take cricket, which is very popular in South Asian culture, you see that, although there are some players who have made the English test team, the proportionality is much less positive than in football.

“Certainly, it shows that at least in the football world there is a sort of meritocracy for Black and African heritage young people.”

Gareth Southgate, to give him some credit, has developed a positive narrative about diversity. He supported the taking of the knee for Black Lives Matter and defended his players against racist abuse. This was a break with all previous England football managers. Such good intentions are just a start, whether we are talking just about football or in society as a whole. I remember when the City Academy programme was started for schools under the Blair government, there was a lot of opposition by parents in Black communities to having sports specialist academies in their areas. For them, it just reinforced the stereotypes about the funnelling of Black ambition into sports.

Isn’t it Just a Huge Money-Making Operation?

Yes, of course, huge profits are generated through the Euros. The hospitality sector has been rubbing its hands. At the brewery pub the other night, we were trying to calculate their takings and we stopped estimating after we got past twenty grand. Unfortunately, all professional sport and culture is subject to capitalist organisation and exploitation. If we condemn the excessive commercialisation of the beautiful game, then the same applies to most of the sporting and cultural events we attend. The huge profits from subscription broadcasting, advertising, sponsorship and merchandising mean astronomical salaries are paid to the top footballers whilst the stadium and technical staff are often badly paid. Given that governments always say that sport should not just be a commercial enterprise but has important health and community impacts, we should demand a health and community tax or commission on the business. This money could then go back into providing free community sports provision.

Why shouldn’t all sports and leisure centres be free like libraries or museums? Challenging the control of sport today means taking on global capital which controls the big clubs and the broadcasting revenues. Socialising this set-up is part and parcel of our overall project of a different form of society. From an ecological point of view, this would mean downsizing the sheer amount of resources that go into this sector so as to free up resources for more grassroots sports and healthy living. Another demand we can make today is the restriction of gambling advertising which dominates in this sector. We could drastically tax and restrict this activity which has such devastating personal and social consequences. Once again, it is an example of capital’s huge investment in non-productive, negative use of our resources.

“Given that governments always say that sport should not just be a commercial enterprise but has important health and community impacts, we should demand a health and community tax or commission on the business.”

It is a Beautiful Game, and We Celebrate it

The best football can be similar to experiencing great music, art, cinema, or theatre. Its specificity is the connection to a community, to a huge mass response. Stadium concerts or big opera venues can create a similar effect on a different scale, but the ‘fan’ identity is not the same. Although capitalism intervenes and controls sports and culture’s management and products, it can never totally extinguish the way people experience it as something outside of the tyranny of their daily alienation. As the state and the neoliberal capitalist economy has destroyed much mass involvement and community through the domination of individual commodity consumption, attendance at football still retains a certain social residue. We still watch football in groups; it is not the same watching it on your own in front of the television. Workplaces used to group thousands of workers in one place. Trade union mass meetings in factories are quite rare today. Going to watch your local team is one of the last expressions of mass community involvement.

So, Bellingham’s bicycle kick, Saka’s long shot, or Ollie Watkins’ last-minute magic are moments we can all share and wonder at. You are not capitulating to nationalism or the capitalist spectacle if you stand up, roar, and embrace the nearest person to you.

“You are not capitulating to nationalism or the capitalist spectacle if you stand up, roar, and embrace the nearest person to you.”

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