Last summer, early in his mixed reign as Chelsea manager, Maurizio Sarri was asked about the World Cup. His response was illuminating and damning. He said that he hadn’t watched it and that international football could teach him nothing. He was right. The best football has long been played in the latter stages of the Champions League and, in recent years, at the top of the Premier League. Repeated sporting and commercial success, allied with considerable outside financing has led to an extreme concentration of money and talent. The best players, coaches and football executives have been recruited, refined and retained. Competition and cooperation have bred high standards, the quality of pitches, stadia, training facilities, data analysis – even ballboys – are high. Everything is set up for top class football.
International football is, on the other hand, an anti-spectacle. The qualifying format for World Cups and European Championships is in many continents dismal. Especially in Europe, where most of the best national teams are based. So many meaningless games where results are so predictable as to be almost pre-determined. Ninety minutes of attack versus defence, late in the game a goal or two or three are scored. This is the proforma for 75% or more games, including at major tournaments.
Even the good teams aren’t that good. The Portugal team who won Euro 2016 were pragmatic, dour. Aside from a few electric flashes from Kylian Mbappé, France’s World Cup winning side hardly set the world alight last year. England’s success in the same tournament was built on four pillars; a fortunate draw, a decent defence, some innovative(ish) set piece goals and adjusting to the all seeing eye of VAR.
But though international football reveals little new about the sport it exposes a great deal about the modern world. Since Brazil’s last World Cup win in 2002, Europe has provided 13 of 16 semi-finalists and all of the winners. It cannot be a coincidence that in the era of peak globalization, rich countries have gotten better while poorer countries have sagged behind. South American teams have consistently underperformed. Yes, Argentina were finalists in 2014, but were dragged there by Barcelona trained Leo Messi. Brazil’s semi-final appearance in the same year was dreadful, their 7-1 loss to Germany has to rank among the worst suffered in history. Poorer European nations have also suffered; after winning Euro 2004, Greece failed to qualify for World Cup 2006, were eliminated from their group in 2010, at the first knockout stage in 2014, then failed to qualify again in 2018. After making it to the quarter-finals in 1994, Romania managed to reach the last sixteen in 1998 but then failed to qualify for the 2002, 2006, 2010, 2014 and 2018 finals. Portugal and Croatia have had success, but both of those teams were based around generational talents developed in England, then Spain (Ronaldo, Modrić).
Over the last few years, international football has also become a theatre of conflict. We have had a swastika burned into a pitch before a Euro 2016 qualifier between Croatia and Italy, the Saudi blockade spilling into an Asian Cup Final between Qatar and Japan and many stadium closures due to racism, including those handed out to Slovakia, Hungary and Romania last month
The complexity of modern identity has been displayed again and again: Swiss international Xherdan Shaqiri’s double-eagle goal celebration in a World Cup win over Serbia, highlighting his Kosovan-Albanian heritage (and perhaps an animosity against the Serbians). The painful end to Mesut Özil’s Germany career – an overlooked reason for his disappointing form at Arsenal. Declan Rice’s shift of allegiance from the Republic of Ireland to England, Wilfried Zaha’s from England to Ivory Coast. The furious backlash to all of the above.
England’s big win in Bulgaria this week has not been overshadowed by racism, it’s been eclipsed by it. The monkey chants and Nazi salutes were ugly and disturbing. To see Tyrone Mings’ indignant, restrained rage while pointing out racist abuse half an hour into his England debut was heart-breaking. This is a young man who only seven years ago was playing non-league football and training to be a mortgage advisor. He has overcome improbable odds since his £10,000 move from Chippenham Town – a non-league background, two serious injuries, being frozen out at Bournemouth, a drop down to the Championship with Aston Villa. He deserved better. Every player, every human deserves better.
But we live in ugly, angry, stupid times. Bulgaria, like many other countries, has seen a rise in overtly racist right-wing politics in the last few years. As has the UK and as a nation is far from blameless in creating an atmosphere of intolerance. David Cameron’s decision to pal up in the European Parliament with the likes of Poland’s Law & Justice Party (whose current leader, Jarosław Kaczyński, stated during the migrant crisis of 2015 that Poland couldn’t accept any refugees as they could spread infectious diseases)helped to legitimise a dangerous, angry brand of politics. His decision to offer a referendum on EU membership without having worked out how to win the argument left an open goal for xenophobes and chameleon-chancers in xenophobe skin. The Brexit process has made the UK and Europe a more intolerant and markedly less kind place.
Racism is a real and very infectious disease. It is a virus and in difficult, angry times, people are vulnerable to infection. It is naïve to believe that education is the only cure. Most racists know that racism is wrong. What racism provides is an opportunity to hurt others, to sap from them their self-worth. For those who have little else to distinguish themselves, it is a chance to feel more than somebody else. It is an ugly weapon used by the weak and strong alike. It is a power-grab.
In the UK, its spread has been encouraged by extremely cynical men and women, with awful results. In the period April 2018 – March 2019 there were 78,991 racially aggravated hate crimes, a rise of over 7,000 from 2017-18. In the three years prior to the start of the EU Referendum Campaign, there were never more than 4,000 hate crimes reported in one month. In the three years after the campaigning began, there have been twenty-six such months, with 6,000 reported in July 2017 alone. So many victims – it is difficult to believe that Bulgarians have not been among them.
None of this is offered as an excuse for the abuse suffered by England players this week. It is to contextualise the behaviour as part of a Europe-wide – worldwide in truth – epidemic of inchoate, misplaced rage, one from which the UK is far from immune. Maybe this is where the inquest should start.
Fioruisce 