Three Lions fans faced a bittersweet evening on Wednesday as even Bellingham’s heroics were unable to end a sixty year wait for trophy success. Yet as the World Cup draws to a close, the countdown commences for Euro 2028 – soon to be held across the UK and Ireland. Amidst a feisty debate around our flags, Jake Puddle explores whether footy fever can help us to knit more common ground in our national identities in time for the Euros.
Football offers a unique, shared narrative of national identity
Characterised by packed pubs, fan-zones and friends clinging to the edge of sofas, the World Cup once again demonstrated football’s power to glue together a nation that can other times feel fractious. Few other institutions have the same reach across our varied ages, ethnicities or economic backgrounds as the beautiful game.
In fact, British Future polling for our England United toolkit found that seven in ten see the England team as a symbol of inclusive identity, a feeling held equally by white and ethnic minority respondents alike. In a hotly contested national conversation about identity, flags and race, this foundation of shared pride matters more. Perhaps most poignant of all, the image of Djed Spence’s prayer to Allah hit the headlines as England’s first Muslim player helped mark a pivotal defence against Norway. New research with the BMT suggests that Muslims, more so than any other faith minority, face a growing hostility and heightened prejudice against their right to be English or British. Sending his country to the semi-final on the world’s biggest sporting stage helped firmly put to bed suggestions that one must choose between faith and country.
Euro 2028 should deliver a major sporting, cultural and heritage programme to harness this, in and beyond the host cities.
Looking ahead to Euro 2028, the government, FA and footballing bodies should harness this power of sport to foster togetherness. Hosting major tournaments provides unique, extended opportunities to encourage new social connections between people from all walks of life – as around the country we come together to participate as volunteers and spectators. Research shows that social contact, such as through shared participation in sporting occasions, can help develop shared norms of behaviour, trust, respect for difference, empathy and kindness. The nine host cities could each look to build free, welcoming fan-zones to which everyone can feel invited that encourage coming together both through playing the sport and cheering on the team. Ensuring these are accessible, use neutral spaces and provide spaces to non-alcohol drinkers would help those of all ages, classes and cultures to feel the Euros are for them.
What’s more, Euro 2028 will coincide with a major anniversary of fifty years since Viv Anderson became England’s first Black player. Beyond the host stadiums, clubs of all sizes nationwide from Watford to West Brom and Wimborne Town can stake a historic connection to multi-ethnic English icons. A major campaign involving the Premier League and EFL could celebrate this success story of diversity under one flag. The BBC could build on its popular adaptation of Dear England to bring their stories to our screens, while the Arts Councils could help take the conversation of Englishness and sporting heritage beyond the terraces across our thriving cultural sector.
Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland have important stories to tell too.
Lessons go beyond England too and there will be important opportunities for Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland to explore building shared belonging, over a tournament that will see the five nations of the UK and Ireland share the limelight. Scotland is arguably a trailblazer or inclusive patriotism, showcased by scenes of Sikhs and Muslims in the viral Tartan army making its way through Boston streets. Nonetheless, there is growing need to defend this progress amid a hardening on sections of the Scottish right and the outbreak of anti-asylum protests, brandishing the Saltire, earlier this year. Wales and Northern Ireland too have seen their flags contested more than at any point in recent memory.
Online campaigns to highlight the coming together of fans across matchdays in Cardiff and Glasgow, beyond the diverse centres to rural environs and post-industrial towns could help push back against these growing ethnonational narratives, to reassure those who might feel more anxious and socially distant from an increasingly diverse national society. There is enormous potential also, to seize the aligned anniversary of Windrush 80 in 2028 as a moment to mark why Brennan Johnson and Che Adams came to carry their nations into new footballing heights, and how pride in country can embrace the histories of migration.
The Euros can unlock pride in country but rarely pride across the participating countries.
Football can work wonders across fans of one club or nation. Yet a word of caution might also be made for those who over-estimate comradery between the countries represented in the tournament. There may be attempts to tell shared stories across the UK and Ireland of football’s home, yet these would do well to recognise that fans will first and foremost see one another as rivals – albeit in collegiate spirit – more so than under the red white and blue of Team GB at the Olympics or the shared Ireland rugby team.
Similarly, amidst resurging debates on the UK’s place in Europe, the tournament may not prove easy ground to build bonhomie with Brussels. Our research suggests Brits struggle to engage a sense of European identity and that sport has more potency in conversations about our country than our continent. Where the tournament can shift hearts and minds, politically, is in demonstrating how five-nations can project a stronger image on a global stage, and a reminder of the economic gains where the UK seeks closer links with its neighbours.
Run-up time is crucial to build a lasting legacy.
Yet importantly, while tournament remains two years away, there is an urgency to getting these foundations of sporting shared ground right. In the context of ever-deepening divides from Brexit to borders, it becomes more crucial than ever to think about how these rare moments can be maximised to shift the culture and conversation away from ‘them’ and ‘us’ to a shared sense of ‘we’. This will need action, intention and strategy now from the major institutions overseeing the Euros delivery to secure a lasting cultural legacy beyond the 90-minutes.
As England and Scotland make their journeys home after this year’s heartbreak, conversations will already be turning toward coming back brighter and stronger next time around. As football prepares to come home, lets seize the power of sport to bring us together around our flags, not pull us apart. In the words of Hey Jude, ‘take a sad song, and make it better’.
