Sport

Football United

The last 7 days have been dominated by one story, by one night of terror on the streets of Paris that resulted in the premature deaths of 129 civilians; seven coordinated terror attacks in the French capital that both shook and shocked the world, but unified a community of billions eager to stand up in the face of sickening atrocities and condemn the actions of a cruel and malicious few.

The killings, carried out not only to highlight the situation in Syria but also in the hope of making the western world cower and hide away in fear, have in reality achieved the very opposite, and there is no better example of the subsequent unity and harmony than Tuesday night’s international friendly between England and France at Wembley.

 

Never has the term friendly been so apt; never before have so many flocked to north London not only with the intention of cheering on the Three Lions, but to make a point, to say that they will not be frightened into submission by the cowardly actions of militant extremists. Rarely have English and French football fans stood so solemnly side by side, old rivalries entirely forgotten, meticulously observing 60 seconds of silence to remember those taken too soon.

 

Wembley bosses offered fans the opportunity to get a refund on their tickets; around 100 people took them up on the offer, while an estimated 10,000 additional tickets were sold in the wake of the attacks. People who would generally avoid international friendlies – myself included – journeyed to the national stadium to show solidarity with the French people and to bellow out the unfamiliar lyrics of La Marseillaise. The football game itself was merely a sideshow, overshadowed as it was by the message – together, we are stronger.