Sport
5 reasons everybody seems to hate England at Euro 2020
The Three Lions are in the final of Euro 2020. With a squad filled to the brim with quality players, it shouldn’t be a shock. But the pessimist inside every English fan suspected that it would go wrong somewhere along the line. Yet the success of Gareth Southgate’s side hasn’t been met with positivity across the continent with a strange level of hate directed towards England.
In fact it is only England fans seemingly willing to commend Southgate and his men, with everyone else in Europe supporting whoever they are taking on. Indeed, logging onto Twitter over the last few days revealed more Danish flags than in the actual streets of Copenhagen.
There’s nothing wrong with wanting a big team to lose but at Euro 2020 it has been much more than that. So, why does everyone hate England?
5 reasons everybody seems to hate England
Football’s Coming Home
No song has united people like Three Lions by Frank Skinner, David Baddiel and The Lightning Seeds. It unites all England fans in perfect harmony and unites the rest of Europe in having collective short-term rage for precisely 3m46seconds.
The idea that English fans have been singing ‘Football’s Coming Home’ because they have wholeheartedly believed Harry Kane will lift the trophy on July the 11th is a myth, it’s only become a reality in the past game or two. The 1996 chart-topper could be heard echoing around Wembley recently and even on TV, it was enough to give you goosebumps.
However, fans of other nations despise the song. With Kasper Schmeichel even joking ‘Has it ever been home?’ in a press conference before Denmark’s game with England. The chances of it coming home have improved massively due to that parried penalty, thanks, Kasper. Many are fooled by the chorus into thinking the song is English arrogance, instead of listening to the lyrics that discuss the underwhelming and disappointing previous tournaments.
It is understandable for others to dislike the song but to want a nation to be knocked out of a tournament because of a few lyrics seems a bit much. It’s clearly part of the reason behind the hate for England, however.
No Travel
Despite Euro 2020 being hosted by numerous countries, it has felt like England has been the home nation for England fans. The Three Lions have only played away from Wembley once when they travelled to Rome to beat Ukraine 4-0, whereas most other squads have been crossing borders regularly.
Compared to the Belgium team, who never played in the same country for consecutive games, this England team has had a big advantage. Although the thought of sitting on a private plane with five-star service doesn’t sound particularly strenuous, travel can tire players out. It also takes diminishes the amount of time available for tactical analysis, recovery sessions and training – all very important for a knockout tournament when games are played every few days.
However, England did have to win their Wembley path by coming first in their group, and if they came second then they would’ve had to travel to Denmark for the Round of 16, etc. Also, of course, there is a home advantage when playing in front of a crowd dominated by your fans, but we are talking about full-time professional footballers and they should be capable of performing to near-best wherever they are.
Booing Anthems
Over the past few games, some England fans have booed the opposition’s national anthems before kick-off, which is obviously quite classless and disrespectful. The jeers drowned out the German national anthem at Wembley just over a week ago and it happened again earlier this week when the Denmark team was singing their anthem.
Is it defendable? Not really. UEFA has made that very clear by charging the English FA with ‘disturbances caused by its supporters during the national anthem’. But, that booing has only noticeably taken place in the past few fixtures, whereas the anti-England brigade has been out in force from the get-go so this cannot be their only justification to hate England.
History
The past is the past. Yet many still seem to, rightfully or wrongfully, hate England for its colonial history. Slowly but surely Britain’s reign over other countries came to an end, with most being given independence. However, the historians amongst football fans still detest England’s national football teams for the rulings of their country before their time.
Nowadays, England is one of the most diverse nations in the world. Almost half of the England Euro 2020 squad come from families that have immigrated to England, with the story of star player Raheem Sterling, who came to England from Jamaica as a child, highlighting that.
Additionally, to show how far away from the past England has come, the Three Lions are the only team to still be taking the knee before every fixture.
Because it’s England
One reason that will go a long way to explaining why everyone seems to hate England at the moment is that there is no reason. There is no ‘one size fits all’ explanation as to why Europe has taken it upon themselves to support every team Gareth Southgate’s men are facing this summer. They just hate English football fans.
You can’t help but feel that if the French, Italians or Belgians were singing a song about winning a trophy then there wouldn’t be universal outrage. If they were booing national anthems then there may be a few passing comments but nothing too major. Yet when it is England it is the worst thing in the world. Maybe it’s the nations overwhelming passion for football that is just being misinterpreted? We’ll never know. But what we do know is that if Southgate and co do manage to bring it home then it isn’t going to go down well.
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