My Thoughts Surrounding the Euro 2020 Final

bbc.com

I want to use this blog post to dump my thoughts about the events surrounding the Euro 2020 Final. There is no real point to this blog post, nor is there an underlying message or point I am trying to make. I am just tired of the predictable events that have happened, especially after the match. This brings me to talk about English football culture (and English culture in general).

I understand the benefit of going to a football match by briefly escaping real life and losing yourself in the atmosphere of the ground, but I do not understand why some English football fans think that they can do whatever they want inside a football stadium. You hear of numerous incidents of England supporters harassing and assaulting supporters of other teams, and I watch these videos and I think about why people would do such a thing. This, once again, ties back to the English culture.

I know that there are many well-behaved, pleasant England fans, but it must be tiring trying to continue to defend England's honour when you hear about things like the amount of racial abuse that Marcus Rashford, Jadon Sancho, and Bukayo Saka had to endure when England lost to Italy in penalties. They have to fight against the abuse by a bunch of Twitter and Instagram idiots, but also have to fight against certain English media publications who write slanderous articles about black athletes and then after the match, have the gall to say that they 'have their back'.

Then you have the conservative British government, where certain figures engage in racist messaging and stoke the flames of racism by taking issue with England players taking the knee before matches. Just like certain English media outlets, they encourage vitriol, then turn around and pretend to be against it when it actually happens. If you are criticizing a black athlete for being an upstanding citizen in their community and feeding underprivileged children, then you are a special kind of evil.

This is not a post to pick on England, as every other country has their issues with their own culture, but the people of England need to take a hard look at themselves. People say that this is a minority of England fans that engage in racism and hatred, but then again, the Conservative Party are in power in the UK, so is this minority of idiots really a part of a silent majority? The Conservatives have convinced enough people that Brexit is good for the country, and the foundation of racism is what Brexit is built on(they like to call it 'immigration control' but who are they really fooling).

I went a bit off topic there, but the Euro 2020 Final between England and Italy was a great summary of what is wrong with English culture. This was supposed to be coming of age moment of a new golden generation of England players. Instead, you have fans crashing the gates and breaching the stadium, numerous assaults, and racial abuse as much as the eyes can read on social media.

Oh, and there is a bare-bottomed Englishman with a flare in his ass. I think his name was Boris Johnson or something...

If you are one of the good English fans, just be proud of the squad for getting this far and be an example of good in your community like many of the England players already are.