Urban75 Home About Offline BrixtonBuzz Contact

Are You "Anyone But England"?

Nah. My old man would never have let that slide. Approach is where people barred from the salmon and the hare drink now.

Do people think nasty international rivalry is unique to England? Granted the Germany thing is embarrassing because they don't give a shit about us. Germany/Holland, Brazil/Argentina, Croatia/Serbia etc etc.
To be fair to the Dutch they still, however irrationally, object to the events of 1940-44.
 
Bit odd reading about people annoyed by 'football's coming home' as a lot of it's tongue-in-cheek. England supporters are a long-suffering bunch and like to take the piss out of our rather (ahem) 'varied' track record. The song itself is self-deprecating but hopeful. I can't really interpret that as the chest-beating call to arms that some seem to think it is.
 
However, unfortunately, I think England will win.
I don’t think so. I reckon the wheels come off this afternoon. It doesn’t matter though. We’ve already gone further than anyone reasonably expected so anything from here is a massive bonus. The football has been pretty ordinary but there’s been an air of fun about for the last couple of weeks and Gareth Southgate has come across as one of the most decent men in sport.
 
I don’t think so. I reckon the wheels come off this afternoon. It doesn’t matter though. We’ve already gone further than anyone reasonably expected so anything from here is a massive bonus. The football has been pretty ordinary but there’s been an air of fun about for the last couple of weeks and Gareth Southgate has come across as one of the most decent men in sport.
Spot on :thumbs:
 
The football has been pretty ordinary but there’s been an air of fun about for the last couple of weeks and Gareth Southgate has come across as one of the most decent men in sport.
Have to agree with this. The current England setup is genuinely testing the limits of my customary ABEness. Very few figures of hate in the squad, a decent bloke as a manager, well-behaved fans, etc. I actually have to make a conscious effort to want them to lose this time around rather than it flowing naturally and freely ;)
 
To be fair lots of ungerman cars were smashed too in the riot in central London after the Germany match, saw at least one cop car and lots of wholly English windows smashed
lol, I had to do a double take there before realising that "ungerman cars" meant "non German cars".

I didn't see any rioting personally only what was reported on the news, and a brief encounter with pissed up irate England fans hitting my car outside a pub on the Addiscombe Road, however it was widely reported at the time that England fans were directing their ire specifically at anything German, including a poor Russian man who got stabbed after being mistaken for a German.

"Yet for the English press, particularly the tabloids, the big international contest is often an opportunity to broadcast cultural prejudices and circulate jingoistic sentiment. Arguably, one of the most telling and alarming examples of recent times was the press coverage of Euro ’96. Persistently vitriolic and hateful in nature, the coverage provoked many complaints from the public and led to a report by the National Heritage Select Committee which expressed its disgust at the “xenophobic, chauvinistic and jingoistic gutter journalism” of the tabloids. The report also suggested inflammatory links between such coverage and rioting that occurred following the England-Germany semi-final (violence in Trafalgar Square saw, along with damage to German-made motor cars, an English mob set upon, and seriously injure, a Russian bystander mistaken for being German)."
Source



Hopefully we've since moved on from all that nonsense, and Saabs, Volvos and Ikea won't be targets of English hooliganism should the Swedes win.

PS. I've just heard on Danny Baker that on this day in 1971, Bjorn and Agnetha got married. Hopefully that's a good omen for the Swedes. ;)
 
David Baddiel, Frank Skinner and the Lightning Seeds( all Labour supporters as I recall) are hardly Screwdriver are they? Anyway Three Lions made the German charts, got adopted by German fans and attempts by UKIP to adopt it didnt get far.
 
I don’t think so. I reckon the wheels come off this afternoon. It doesn’t matter though. We’ve already gone further than anyone reasonably expected so anything from here is a massive bonus. The football has been pretty ordinary but there’s been an air of fun about for the last couple of weeks and Gareth Southgate has come across as one of the most decent men in sport.
Well I do hope you're right, however England are the better team and should win on paper. Hopefully the Swedes will do an Iceland.

I agree with you about Southgate, he does appear to be a reasonable chap, however the fickle nature of reporters and fans might not have been so complimentary if the disgraceful Columbia had won the penalty shoot out.
 
As England was my host country for so many years, I wish them well. The arrogance of some supporters and media commentatros gets a bit tedios, though.

If I can stay awake, I'll watch it.

Anyways, good luck. And if you're reading this tomorrow; thoughts & prayers.
 
lol, I had to do a double take there before realising that "ungerman cars" meant "non German cars".

I didn't see any rioting personally only what was reported on the news, and a brief encounter with pissed up irate England fans hitting my car outside a pub on the Addiscombe Road, however it was widely reported at the time that England fans were directing their ire specifically at anything German, including a poor Russian man who got stabbed after being mistaken for a German.

"Yet for the English press, particularly the tabloids, the big international contest is often an opportunity to broadcast cultural prejudices and circulate jingoistic sentiment. Arguably, one of the most telling and alarming examples of recent times was the press coverage of Euro ’96. Persistently vitriolic and hateful in nature, the coverage provoked many complaints from the public and led to a report by the National Heritage Select Committee which expressed its disgust at the “xenophobic, chauvinistic and jingoistic gutter journalism” of the tabloids. The report also suggested inflammatory links between such coverage and rioting that occurred following the England-Germany semi-final (violence in Trafalgar Square saw, along with damage to German-made motor cars, an English mob set upon, and seriously injure, a Russian bystander mistaken for being German)."
Source



Hopefully we've since moved on from all that nonsense, and Saabs, Volvos and Ikea won't be targets of English hooliganism should the Swedes win.

PS. I've just heard on Danny Baker that on this day in 1971, Bjorn and Agnetha got married. Hopefully that's a good omen for the Swedes. ;)
oh there was rioting in London after England went out
 
I think things are much, much better now.
pleased to hear it. Maybe that's the flipside of there being so many fewer flags, not only Ingurland but last time there were loads of Portugal, Ghana, Nigeria, Poland and so on as well as loads of enthusiastic banter. All very muted this time. So far.
 
If you aren't English, don't support them. Fair enough.

ABE, though, makes you seem petty and bitter.

Agreed. It's like when, for example, a team is beaten and the supporters say they hope that the winner is beaten in the next game.

Surely you should be rooting for the team who were quality enough to beat you? As in, fair play to them, hope they go far?
 
I never say 'we' when referring to the English football team (or any national team) because I don't feel very nationalistically aligned (mix of Argentinian, Armenian, Irish but born here). Have 'supported' many teams depending on a range of criteria, but mostly accessibility and costs...and disliked even more teams for a whole variety of perceived crimes (the most egregious being plodding but also including cheats, horrible sports uniforms, dreary managers, negative play, politics, bad haircuts, or had a holiday and hated the place). Sharing a household with a person who has no such ambiguities (always England) has led to total hatred of the national team if feeling slighted by my sofa partner.
So far, have been supporting England...but if Henderson continues to witlessly pass the ball back to Pickford, that support will vanish.
 
If you aren't English, don't support them. Fair enough.

ABE, though, makes you seem petty and bitter.
Well I am English (by birth anyway) and I don't support them at all (unless they're playing USA).

I'm proudly ABE, and from some of the reactions in this thread appears to generate a fair amount of petty bitterness from England supporters.
I'm not bitter at all, I just have a personal preference for England opponents in cricket and football in particular. As the previous poster indicated, it's just like how Tottenham fans will support anyone but Arsenal, even if Arsenal were the only English team in the Champions League.

Fans loyalties are weird like that. ;)
 
I have to confess, for my sins, I am also mostly ABU.

#ThreeHailMarys
:cool:

Tjapukai-Aboriginal-Cultural-Park.jpg
 
Bit odd reading about people annoyed by 'football's coming home' as a lot of it's tongue-in-cheek. England supporters are a long-suffering bunch and like to take the piss out of our rather (ahem) 'varied' track record. The song itself is self-deprecating but hopeful. I can't really interpret that as the chest-beating call to arms that some seem to think it is.
Yeah, that bit on the story of Euro 96 made me laugh - Ian Broudie, famous for bittersweet love songs, gets in Skinner and Baddiel to help cos they're 'Everyman' footie fans...and they write a bittersweet love song about supporting England.
 
sure, its a hard question to answer without writing a book on it...
I think there has always been a patriotic/nationalist type progressive trend in the working class that is also compatable with internationalism. Wouldn't necessarily recomend the content but things like the British Road to Socialism?
 
Back
Top Bottom