It's Time to Reclaim English Football

The Euros this summer haven’t just been interesting to watch. They’ve raised some interesting and important conversations around English football, racism and whether we can genuinely oppose racism whilst still supporting the England football team due to the infamous reputation of England fans as far right bigots.

The decision by our players to take the knee in a stance against racism has been met with opposition by some England fans, who shamed themselves by booing our players for doing so (whilst still cheering every time Sterling put the ball in the back of the net). If this wasn’t bad enough, the vile racist abuse that Rashford, Sancho & Saka were subject to after the final makes clear that racism is still rife in English football.  

The question of whether English football goes hand in hand with racism is one that I’ve discussed with different people in pubs and workplaces since the Euros began, and each person seems to have a different perspective based on their own experiences. Whilst for lots of people, expressions of pride in England cannot be detached from racism; many others have asked “what on earth does football have to do with racism?”

As someone who grew up following Chelsea, I am under no illusion that unfortunately the answer to that question is – a lot. Both overt and subtle racism are commonplace in football grounds across the country, and the booing of the knee, as well as the racist abuse following the final, are further examples of this. It is worth pointing out that sadly this is a reflection of England as a whole, and isn’t exclusive to football.

The hijacking of the St. George’s cross by far right groups such as the National Front & EDL also goes a long way to explaining why many minority communities cannot bring themselves to get behind a country that has shown hatred & intolerance to them, their parents & their grandparents since they arrived here as a consequence of Britain’s brutal imperialism. 

However, if we concede both our national flag and support of our national football team to the far right, where do we go from there? Racists & fascists have always tried to hijack & permeate any part of working class culture they can get their hands on; from different music genres and football to the skinhead scene in the 60s and 70s. We cannot let them do this, because if supporting England becomes synonymous with racism, people who grow up loving football and naturally supporting our nation’s football team will feel as though they have a lot more in common with racists than they actually do. Without opposition, their ideas & confidence will grow.

“Let the racists know their time is up-they are not welcome in our pubs and stadiums”

Instead, we need to reclaim football and Englishness from the far right, and make it clear that we can be completely opposed to racism at the same time as loving football and the England football team. Now that our team is made up almost completely of lads from working class backgrounds with heritage all over the world, there is no better time to let racists know that their time is up – they are not welcome in our pubs and stadiums, and their hateful, divisive ideas will not be tolerated. Racism needs to be opposed wherever it rears its head, and football is no different.

This won’t be easy, because we’re countering the division & lies pushed by all the institutions of the system every day, as well as catching up on 40 years of anti-racist organising in football that didn’t happen when it should have. However, if we’re serious about building anti-racism in this country, it has to be done. We cannot just concede football and pretend it was always a lost cause.

"we need to cultivate and build our anti-racist response”

As working class people living in England, obviously our identities are diverse and based on our very different experiences in this country. Some of us are English going back several generations, whereas many others have heritage all over the world and have more personal experiences with this country’s wicked colonial past (and present). This diversity is made clear by the different responses to the question of whether we can get behind our national football team whilst opposing racism. For me, supporting a team of players who have consistently stood up to, been victims of and spoken out against racism in the face of condemnation from their own ‘fans’ is in itself an anti-racist act. The support and solidarity shown for Saka, Sancho and Rashford showed us that supporting the national football team in an actively anti-racist way is possible.In fact,instead of it being impossible to be anti-racist and support England, the opposite is now the case – it is impossible to be racist and support England. However, I certainly won’t be judging or condemning anyone who feels uncomfortable with the England flags being flown everywhere and who can’t bring themselves to support England.

For every racist message sent to our players, there were 10 acts of solidarity and love sent in response. Rather than write off English football as a sport for racists and bigots, we need to cultivate and build the anti-racist response that has been seen across the country. Believe it or not, working class anti-racist football fans exist. We’re here to stay, to fight racism and to build in our communities.