I think I have been out socially more in the last fortnight than I did in the 18 months prior! And it was all because the England football team kept on winning their matches during the Euros. Unprecedented (in my lifetime at least!) Once they made it to the final (first time in a major tournament in 55 years!), it dawned on me that the crowded bars I had been frequenting would be completely packed to the rafters. So I opted to play it safe and watch the final match with a small(ish) group, in a friend’s back garden. It was a very last minute (but sensible) decision, all of the guests were asked to bring something along to help create a bit of atmosphere. I naively volunteered to get St George’s Cross bunting. Sounds easy right? I called around to a few of the British stores and had a bit of a Google but couldn’t find anywhere that would deliver before August! However, I did learn that many people think the England flag is the Union Jack though, so do take heed.
I love a bit of DIY so decided that spray painting white ‘pennant banners’ (American for bunting!) was a good idea. Turns out I am NOT a dab hand with spray paint, but fortunately my boyfriend is. I managed to persuade him to decorate 50 feet of it for our gathering. It was a lovely afternoon, except for the result of course! I was feeling very nostalgic for England and my home town of London in particular, wishing I could be there to celebrate and commiserate with everyone. Sadly my romantic vision was immediately shattered the following morning when I read about the mayhem that fans had caused post match, and on top of that all of the vile stories of racist abuse that was directed towards some of the England players. It is truly despicable and I will never be able to understand why some people think that way.
Thankfully, a few of the offenders have since been arrested and the social media platforms are supposedly taking action. Boris Johnson announced earlier this week that online racists will be banned from football matches for life. I have no idea how he thinks he can enforce that, especially when most of them are too cowardly to reveal who they actually are. It doesn’t really solve the problem either. Racists will be racist with or without social media. The only way to combat this is with education, and that needs to be started at a young age.
Whilst disheartening, please don’t forget that this is just a very small section of the population, they just have very loud voices and a large platform. To put it in to perspective I looked up some of the statistics. Over 30 million people in the UK tuned in to the football and from what I can gather 0.1% of that 30 million decided that posting racial abuse was a good idea. If you can’t visualize that, it translates in to 1 person in 1000, considering there were at least 60,000 fans at Wembley stadium that would mean 60 of the attendees would be racist. Still too many for my liking, but I don’t think that number would surprise any of us?
According to some reports 70% of abuse directed at Premier League players comes from outside of the UK. Which dilutes this number even more, but also shows this is a global issue, which living in the USA is something I think we are well aware of. I take some solace in knowing that they are a minority but it is still not acceptable. If you want to learn more on how you can help eliminate this problem the charity Kick It Out is a great place to start. They are a British organization who have now gone international and their aim is to tackle all forms of discrimination within the football community.
Visit www.kickitout.org for more details
Please do get in touch if you have any comments or suggestions. The best way to reach us is by emailing BritsinLA@gmail.com
Cheers!
Eileen
