Comments on: British Sporting Heroes

By: Andy

Andy — Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000

And just how often these days will Scotland do better than England in International Football tournaments? I’m free to ask this dicey question, due to being half-English and half-Scottish. :)

By: dsquared

dsquared — Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000

Yeah, there’s a big problem with England trying to pass off Irish football players as English

coughAldridgecascarinomcateersheedyhoughtontownsend*cough*

By: dismembermentplanfan

dismembermentplanfan — Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000

Yeah, I was gonna point out wjhat dsquared said. All those brummie accents in green shirts.

By: Kieran Healy

Kieran Healy — Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000

coughAldridgecascarinomcateersheedyhoughtontownsend*cough*

coughJohnBarnes*cough*ZolaBudd*cough*

Amazing how all that ‘imagined community’ stuff falls by the wayside when it comes to this issue, and we’re right back to primordialism.

By: Kieran Healy

Kieran Healy — Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000

As for the Scottish football team—well, their main talent is to get themselves into a position where they need to beat, eg, Bolivia 8-0 in order to progress to the next round. So I argree this rarely happens.

By: chuck

chuck — Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000

Seems like several European countries manage to pull this off, as in France’s 1998 World Cup victory.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000

I’ve no real objection to sportsmen and women using whatever quirks of family history or residency laws they can find to play sport at the highest level – but that doesn’t mean national sporting bodies have to pick them (or encourage them to “change” nationality).
Kieran is wrong, however, to suggest some equivalence between John Barnes (playing football for England because his parents moved from Jamaica when he was a child) and Zola Budd (or as Steve Bell had it “Notta Bleck”) who was brought over to Britain as an apartheid sanctions-busting exercise by a right wing paper.
As a socialist, of course I am longing for Henman to be knocked out of Wimbledon; Britain’s a SO much nicer place when he’s out, since he’s become an icon for the Tory press.
Harsh, but fair….

By: Dan Hardie

Dan Hardie — Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000

Yes, but what about the Act of Parliament that obliges all BBC Sports commentators to sit through every display by the Republic of Ireland football team saying ‘Oh, the plucky Irish…haven’t they got spirit? Isn’t it marvellous to see them playing their hearts out? Such marvellous fans…etc’- as some ‘Irishman’ attempts to plant his studs into an opponent’s leg, or hoofs the ball the length of the pitch for the sixtieth time.

(Christ, what am I saying? If the Irish play lousy football, and the media greet this with a gross outpouring of sentimental cliche, that’s because of Bloody Sunday. Or the Potato Famine. Or something.)

By: Kieran Healy

Kieran Healy — Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000

Oh, the plucky Irish…haven’t they got spirit? Isn’t it marvellous to see them playing their hearts out?

Good point. The subtext of talk like this is “Wait till the last 25 minutes, when they’ll get tired, fall to bits, and lose.” Sadly, this very often happens.

By: dsquared

dsquared — Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000

Personally I will Henman to lose because I just can’t stand that clenched-fist victory gesture he does when he wins. Anyone who’s seen him knows what I’m talking about.

By the way, if it’s patronising sports commentary you’re after, try watching a Wales rugby game …