The problem with supporting England
There's an explosion of sport this summer and at the moment it's currently football's turn to hold the spotlight with the Euro 2012 championships.
To tell you the truth, International tournaments are one of the few times I take an interest in football - the rest of the time it seems over hyped. But at least when the Euros or the World Cup comes about I pretend at least to understand football.
It's not always easy to support the England team though. The players themselves are mostly a bit bland and at worst the kind of attack dogs you'd like to set loose in the House of Commons. That would be acceptable if they played interesting football but sometimes the matches can seem to last an eternity. There are occasional flashes of brilliance but it often fades very quickly and all too frequently everyone seems to latch their hopes onto one player (a look at the number of column inches dedicated to him today I'd say it's currently Rooney). This doesn't stop the complete loss of sanity when England do win a match and the pundits begin screeching about how we can now win the whole tournament.
There is also the problem of the England supporters band. This collection of drum beating fat men with brass instruments make the matches torturous with their four track playlist which comprises the Great Escape theme - Seriously? They play this at every match. It only works when we're playing Germany and even then the war ended over 77 years ago. Move on - Carnival De Paris (which is French), Rule Britannia and God Save the Queen. Interestingly however, the band was not allowed to play at England's first match in Ukraine and this received a more positive reaction from the fans than I was expecting.
The national anthem itself is another issue. All rise for the most droning and dull national anthem ever written. Don't be fooled by the patriotic chest beaters, not even the insanely proud Englishmen actually know the second verse of the national anthem (we just put it on the UK Citizenship test to scare off immigrants). Even the other home nations of the UK have better national anthems. Scotland has Flower of Scotland, Wales has Land of My Fathers, which are both superior to the monarch fawning bilge we have. Watching the players sing it is also a grim experience as they either mumble it like they are tripping over their own lips or bark it like an angry Sergent-Major.
Advertisers love to really get behind "our boys" too. During this time we often get bombarded with brands that love to emphasize the passion, bravery, glory, pride and other nauseating cliches that are carted out for nationalistic purposes. For some reason though any radio advert following this form has to be voiced by a dull sounding middle aged London cabbie, who'll probably be croaking out more emotion about the English football team than on his wedding day. Men are strange like that. It's no surprise the Welsh and Scots get utterly sick of us for the duration (although this could just be annoyance at the fact their teams never qualify for tournaments) as they are bombarded with English propaganda like this.
Supporting England isn't perfect. I know it but I'll still support them in world tournaments, why not eh? Maybe one day we'll even win something.
To tell you the truth, International tournaments are one of the few times I take an interest in football - the rest of the time it seems over hyped. But at least when the Euros or the World Cup comes about I pretend at least to understand football.
| There's a joke involving light bulbs in here somewhere... |
There is also the problem of the England supporters band. This collection of drum beating fat men with brass instruments make the matches torturous with their four track playlist which comprises the Great Escape theme - Seriously? They play this at every match. It only works when we're playing Germany and even then the war ended over 77 years ago. Move on - Carnival De Paris (which is French), Rule Britannia and God Save the Queen. Interestingly however, the band was not allowed to play at England's first match in Ukraine and this received a more positive reaction from the fans than I was expecting.
The national anthem itself is another issue. All rise for the most droning and dull national anthem ever written. Don't be fooled by the patriotic chest beaters, not even the insanely proud Englishmen actually know the second verse of the national anthem (we just put it on the UK Citizenship test to scare off immigrants). Even the other home nations of the UK have better national anthems. Scotland has Flower of Scotland, Wales has Land of My Fathers, which are both superior to the monarch fawning bilge we have. Watching the players sing it is also a grim experience as they either mumble it like they are tripping over their own lips or bark it like an angry Sergent-Major.
Advertisers love to really get behind "our boys" too. During this time we often get bombarded with brands that love to emphasize the passion, bravery, glory, pride and other nauseating cliches that are carted out for nationalistic purposes. For some reason though any radio advert following this form has to be voiced by a dull sounding middle aged London cabbie, who'll probably be croaking out more emotion about the English football team than on his wedding day. Men are strange like that. It's no surprise the Welsh and Scots get utterly sick of us for the duration (although this could just be annoyance at the fact their teams never qualify for tournaments) as they are bombarded with English propaganda like this.
Supporting England isn't perfect. I know it but I'll still support them in world tournaments, why not eh? Maybe one day we'll even win something.
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