In the World Cup England beat Ecuador on Sunday (the winning goal scored by Number 7 David Beckham). As the competition ratchets upwards in intensity there is resentment from groups who want to see England lose (Guardian journalists, Scottish devolved ministers, feminist groups – an informal coalition of sentiment that seems confirm jibes about the loony left). Over the weekend there was trouble in Stuttgart when German fans attacked English fans (is the word “fan” an abbreviation of “fanatic”?). In Scotland there have been racist attacks against people wearing England football shirts (including a child and a disabled person). In the small market town near my home there was fighting in the square following the win over Ecuador (“I have never seen bouncers in Weatherspoons before – they just picked up a big Polish bloke when he started to make trouble and took him outside until the police came”). To paraphrase Clausewitz: football is war by other means.
The political implication of supporting (or ostentatiously not supporting) a particular team has many precedents in the past. The Hippodrome stadium in Constantinople, during the period of the Later Roman Empire, was split between the Blue and Green factions. Through the mobilisation of popular feeling they had the power to decide the fate of emperors.
Above: I am currently reading The Mediterranean World In Late Antiquity by Averil Cameron. It is full of ideas – concepts that really make you stop and think. I used to go to lectures by Averil Cameron at the Institute of Archaeology in Bloomsbury (she would deliver tendentious and provocative ideas in a dry ironic style that gained her a lot of admirers).
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