From all accounts, German football fans stood in bewilderment last night when the buffoons who follow the England national team launched into their “10 German bombers” routine, shortly after booing the home national anthem and in between singing a succession of tired songs, many of which referred to the Second World War, which, according to my calculations, ended 72 years ago. “Well, it was only a minority, wasn’t it?” said the usual apologists. Not this time.
“It certainly wasn’t a minority,” said Henry Winter, the best football writer of them all, on a BBC Radio Five Live discussion tonight. And of course it wasn’t. ITV’s mute and distortion buttons could not fully dampen the ugly noise from the drunken hordes who still shame us abroad. Why do they behave like this?
It did not appear that the German fans were even offended by this nonsense, although I was offended and embarrassment. Their fans generally shook their heads, probably more in pity than anything else. They had managed to move on and build a new country whereas England football supporters were more keen on launching inflatable spitfires around the terraces and amusing themselves and no one else with their outdated antics.
The England fans’ behaviour is as cutting edge as a Jim Davidson joke or a pint of Watney’s Red Barrel. It is Love Thy Neighbour and a Vesta curry. It is SO yesterday. It isn’t just banter because it’s not supposed to be. The aim of the abuse is to anger, to hurt and to provoke Germans. “We won the war” even though none of us were even born when it was going on. Who knows how many of those present at the game, on both sets of terraces, lost family members in that terrible war? Is that a joke, too? They wanted to wind up the Germans and they failed dismally, with the Germans gazing over at fat, middle aged, pissed up Englishmen acting like arses.
It’s not big and it’s certainly not clever and it really is time for the powers that be to take a stronger stance. We probably can’t ban people from going to games because they are idiots, so it’s time to tell them they are not welcome. A good friend of mine whose identity I will protect (is that okay, Gary?) has the answer: we should disown them. The FA, the manager and the players make a simple statement: if you are going to carry on with your stupid behaviour we do not want you to support us. Save your money, stay at home, let those who only want to support the national team attend England games. You are a national embarrassment. It might not work to start with, but hopefully somehow the message will get through. The usual platitudes about how wonderful the England fans are must be qualified by condemnation of those who let the country down. If some of them boo the manager and the players for telling them to shut up, isn’t that vindication enough?
