Tensions between the English soccer team and fans are increasing

Whistles and boos when they kneel for BLM 

The English national soccer team kneels down for BLM shortly before the game kicks off – like many other teams – much to the chagrin of the fans. As long as they weren’t playing in front of spectators, it was quiet, but now that there are fans in the stadium again, loud whistles and boos ring out during these actions.

With regard to their national soccer team, there are hardly any fans in the world who are so emotionally enthusiastic and, above all, suffer with them as those of the “Three Lions”, the English team, even though the number of titles is relatively manageable: In 1966, due to a serious mistake by the Soviet linesman (he recognized a goal for England, although the ball had not fully crossed the line), they won the World Cup against Germany in their own country. But that was the only title so far. Nevertheless, the fans of their team travel all over the world and cheer them on frenetically. Nothing, no matter how thin, would be brought between the players and the fans.

Unless the association and the players start to politicize and allow themselves to be abused for propaganda purposes. The English are very clear in their opinion: whoever wants to do politics belongs in politics; the job of athletes is to practice their sport. As successful as possible, of course. When it comes to the national soccer team, please add the English virtues: fight and commitment to self-abandonment for the “motherland of soccer” (so the English self-perception).

English footballers shouldn’t be political, that’s an unwritten law in the country. English national players certainly not at all. When the bad habit of getting on your knees before matches – the BLM kneeling – exploded in soccer forums across the country. That was a shame. In the stadiums, the fans could not express their displeasure; the stadiums were closed to spectators. But now that fans are allowed back again, the whistles and boos of the English viewers when they kneel for BLM are unmistakable. They don’t want their players to be used for politics.

The negative reactions of the fans are supported by conservative English politicians. For example, the Tory Dudley Marco Longhi says that fans want to watch soccer without “being bothered with an agenda that supports Marxism and is celebrated by overpaid prima donnas on the pitch.”

Lee Anderson, also a member of the Tory’s lower house, even advises a boycott of the internationals. For the first time in his life he refrained from watching a game played by his beloved Three Lions because they “support a criminal political movement whose goals are not in line with his principles.” If this bad habit is not abolished immediately, Anderson said, he will also boycott the games of the English team at the upcoming European Championship.