I will do my very best to avoid watching any of the games
that will take place in Euro 2021. I can see the point of taking part in sport
for health reasons, but I have always struggled with the idea of watching it.
As entertainment it is inferior to literature and art because sport is
essentially transient. A novel from 1905 may still be interesting and
important, but a football match from 1905 holds minimal interest even for those
interested in football. Rarely do football fans rewatch matches from even the
recent past, otherwise rather than paying for a continual Sky subscription you
would merely record the matches from one season or one tournament and simply
rewatch them. At most those interested in sport watch clips of previous events,
which is the equivalent of reading the best part of a novel and ignoring the
rest. No one would sit down and rewatch the whole of Euro 2016, because it
would be boring and pointless. But if it is pointless to watch Euro 2016 now, there
can have no particular point watching Euro 2021 for it too will be merely of
transitory interest and apart from a few goals and the celebration of the
winner will quickly be forgotten. I will not therefore dedicate my spare time
to something that is of only transitory interest even to those who are
supposedly interested. I will ignore.
But while I don’t like sport and in particular don’t
like football, I am forced to accept that it is of great importance in the world.
Millions will watch and it will be something vital to their lives. For this reason,
I pay attention to the cultural phenomenon of football even while not
understanding the rules nor taking part in the spectacle.
The most baffling aspect of Euro 2021 is that it is an
international tournament involving places that do not have an international
relationship to each other. If the EU is the process of becoming a federation,
which can be the only interpretation of its goal of “ever closer union” why
does it continue to have 27 separate football teams? The only teams that ought
to be taking part are Turkey, Switzerland, Russia, Ukraine and North Macedonia,
with only people from the European parts of Russia and a tiny corner of Turkey
allowed to play. Clearly if you believe in the unity of the EU, and if you don’t
what is the point of remaining, then the EU should have a single team as this
would help develop the common identity so crucial for the EU project.
More confusing still is that while Germany had to give
up its West German and East German teams when it achieved reunification in 1990,
the United Kingdom has three teams in the tournament even though Wales united
with England in 1284 and Scotland united in 1707. Italy reached unification in
1871, but it does not retain international football teams for the Kingdom of
the Two Sicilies, Lombardy etc.
Some people think that the United Kingdom is a sort of
confederation of four nation states, each part being a sovereign state. But if
that were the case then Scotland would already be independent, part of a loose
relationship with the other parts of the UK rather like the Commonwealth. But
if there were no sovereign state called the UK, just the four parts relating to
each other, there would be no political union, no monetary union and more importantly
no reason for tax payers in one part of the UK to send their taxes to any other.
But if there were no fiscal union, there would be no monetary union either. You
cannot expect British taxpayers to pay your furlough or bail out your business if
you deny that there is any identity called British which unites us. We don’t
expect fiscal transfers from Japan after all.
I understand fully the anomaly of the United Kingdom
having four teams rather than one because football was invented in Britain and
when “international” football began with a match between England and Scotland
in 1872 there were no other teams to play. This anomaly extends to the International
Football Association Board which determines the laws of Association football being
made up of the four British associations plus Fifa. Northern Ireland has one
vote but Brazil is just one of 191 members of Fifa.
The criterion for members of Fifa is being a sovereign
state with wide diplomatic recognition. In 2016 Fifa defined a country as "an
independent state recognized by the international community". But Scotland
is not an independent state, precisely because we rejected the chance to become
one in 2014. Having explicitly done so it would have been logical for the Scottish
Football Association to have disbanded just as the West German one did. It’s no
use those who lost complaining about this. It is like arguing that Scotland is
both independent and not independent. Of course, the SNP like to treat Scotland
as being something that it is not (independent), but you cannot logically
campaign for independence if you already have it.
Jersey has self-government and judicial independence.
It is not a part of the United Kingdom, which must mean that it has rather more
autonomy and independence than Scotland, but it does not have an international football
team recognised by Fifa because it was deemed to be not a sovereign country as
defined by the UN. But if that is the case why does the United Kingdom still
have four teams rather than one? After all you won’t find Scotland in a list of
UN member states.
There are other anomalies around the world. Martinique
in the Caribbean has an international football team though it is a region of
France. Puerto Rico has a team though it is an unincorporated territory of the United
States which voted for statehood in 2020, which makes it the equivalent of New
Mexico territory prior to statehood in 1912. There may be a reason to bend the
rules when a place is geographically distinct, but it is hard to see the sense
when one island that forms one sovereign nation state has three teams in a so-called
international tournament.
Just as the British Government has finally seen the
sense of ceasing to refer to the United Kingdom as four nations, because this
only helps the separatists, so it should do what Germany did in 1990. It should
unite our football teams. If the EU is serious about unification, it should do
the same. At least then Scottish nationalists would understand that independence
in Europe is a senseless concept as it would make clear that the parts of the
EU are mere regions.
Europe is itself a fake concept. We are part of
Eurasia. There is no logical reason why the watershed of the Ural Mountains
should divide a continent when the Himalayas don’t. “European” teams include Israel
and Cyprus which are clearly not in Europe by the standard definition of Europe’s
boundaries. Nor for that matter are Armenia, Georgia and Azerbaijan within
those boundaries.
European football is neither European nor international.
It contributes to the continuing division of both the EU and the UK, but enjoy
it if you wish. I hope for a British team one day, which would have a better
chance than trying to win by dividing our football forces four ways.
You will experience flag waving and nationalism, which
Europe could do without. It might seem harmless fun and maybe you couldn’t bear
to give up your separate teams. But there would be no SNP today if the first “international”
match between England and Scotland in 1872 had never taken place.
