Should we encourage Welsh young people to support England in the final of Euro 2020?

I grew up in Blackpool, just three hundred yards from the local pub, and every time that England was playing in a tournament, we could hear the roar of the crowd from our living room. I remember if England scored, we would mute the volume of the TV and listen to the whole pub screaming in delight.

That was normal to me. England flags were everywhere, shops played the games over the radio, and lessons finished early so we could catch the kick-off. This carried on when I moved to London – we even ran huge World Cup viewing parties in our church. There is a level of mania about it, a fanaticism that’s all too easy to surrender to.

When I moved to Wales, I was delighted to find more football fans than I expected. Even though Rugby is really where it’s at here, there is real deep-seated passion for the national team. Ramsey, Allen, Bale truly are heroes, and the Welsh fans are great! They love their team, their country, their anthem – and you get a strong feeling of pride, no matter how far the team goes. There’s something that feels really pure about their support. I would have loved to see Wales go further!

This is a different shape and style of support than I’m used to in England though. In England it’s all peaks and troughs; emotional extremes of highs and lows. If England win then they’re the greatest team on Earth and nothing can stop them from bringing it home! If they lose, however, then they’re gutless, disjointed, and destined to keep breaking hearts, dashing dreams, and drawing out endless failure.

I used to think it was odd, and frankly spiteful, when Wales fans always seems to support whoever England was playing rather than their neighbour to the East. I’m far from an expert, but I want to speak to this a little today with a few thoughts.

Looking a little closer

Politically, Wales get little help or financial support from Westminster, and the Welsh Assembly have far less devolved powers than the Scottish Parliament. There is often a misguided sense that Wales just another limb of England, despite its very different cultural values, heritage, and national needs.

Then of course there’s a problem with short memories. Wales have endured a long history of invasion, violence, and conquest from the English. Even in the last century, a Welsh Village near Bala was completely flooded by act of Parliament to provide water for parts of Liverpool.

English people today don’t always endear themselves to Wales either. There is very dismissive rhetoric about the Welsh language for instance – something of fundamental cultural and historic significance to a Welsh person. People still use the phrase ‘Welshing’ on an agreement, which comes from intentional propaganda to make the Welsh appear less trustworthy.

I’ve also heard, from many people, the old story of going into a Welsh pub where ‘everyone was speaking English, until I came in.’ This is a weird myth for a lot of reasons. I’ve travelled extensively across Wales for over a decade and have never experienced this. Welsh speaking areas do speak Welsh – in pubs, shops and on the streets. Welsh is not only a heart-language for these cultures, put is the language that they know the best. Did you know this is true for about twenty percent of the population? One in five people is not a small number and is way more than other groups that we rightly fight for in terms of inclusivity.

Some of the English media has also been well known to be – frankly – downright racist towards the Welsh. Sunday Times journalist Adrian Gill called the Welsh ‘immoral liars, stunted, bigoted, dark, ugly, pugnacious little trolls’ and Spectator editor Rod Liddle said those in Wales are ‘miserable, seaweed munching, sheep-bothering pinch-faced hill-tribes.’ I won’t even quote Clarkson.

Closer to home I’ve noticed just how side-lined Welsh young people feel when people on stage at conferences and festivals ask where people have come from, going through a list that invariably includes Scotland, Northern Ireland and Ireland, but rarely Wales. It’s a sense that they’ve grown up with.

Welsh people are not entirely innocent, of course. A Welsh militant group set three-hundred English-owned homes alight from the seventies to the nineties for instance. But it’s not hard to see why Welsh nationalism has grown so intensely and why this would come out in sporting rivalries.

So, back to football.

When it comes to football, English and Welsh fans are just a little different. It can be very hard to identify with another nation’s passion, when the way that passion presents itself is just a different cultural phenomenon. This is going to be even harder when you feel that other nation has persecuted yours for centuries.

I, on the whole, would like Welsh football fans to cheer on their neighbour, England. I will be, and I know of many others who will. That said, I understand why they might not. It’s not just spite or racism. It’s rarely that simple. There is deep seated distrust and heartfelt uneasiness in Wales towards England that goes back into the roots of the two nations. This isn’t going to fixed by Sunday.

So, my instinct says that it’s not about who you support, but about how you hold yourself as a supporter. It’s not about who you support, but about how you show it.

I believe a true supporter should reach to hold a team up upon the best of humanity. They should behave with dignity, grace, and compassion – the essence of good sportsmanship. As politically fuelled as football can be, I’d urge supporters of any team to provide a fan-base for a country to be proud of.

With our young people, let’s set an example. Let’s lead with love, grace and do our best to be understanding of the complicated relational past between nations. Let’s show our support in a way that models what a true, passionate sports fan can look like.

Again, it’s not about who you support, but about how you show it. Let’s not criticise who a supporter supports, but urge them to do so with dignity, compassion, and fairness – and make sure we’re showing that ourselves.

As with all things, let’s seek the best of others, reach far and deep to be servant-hearted, and demonstrate as much extreme love for our neighbours as we can muster. All of us.

Photo by Thomas Serer on Unsplash