Ahead of the England vs Scotland game Mark Perryman responds to FIFA’s Poppies ban The last time England played Scotland in a competitive match at Hampden Park, in November, 1999, it was preceded by none of the manufactured row about whether the teams should have poppies embroidered on their shirts. The tabloids were more interested […]
Posts Tagged ‘Football’
Englishness and Welshness in the Battle of Britons
Jun 15th, 2016 by Mark Perryman.Mark Perryman previews England v Wales as competing versions of nationhood The traditional ‘Battle of Britain’ match is of course England v Scotland, the very first recognised international football match dating back to 1872 and the most intense of rivalries ever since. The last time two ‘home’ nations met in a major tournament it was […]
Football: Catching up with Portugal
Jun 1st, 2016 by Mark Perryman.50 years ago England beat Portugal in the ’66 World Cup but Mark Perryman argues English decline has left England racing to keep up with their Euro rivals Thursday night’s pre-Euro England friendly versus Portugal is bound to provoke a 50th anniversary revisiting of England’s best match of the ’66 World Cup. No, not the much feted […]
The symbolic politics of England football: an imagined community of eleven people
May 15th, 2016 by Mark Perryman.Mark Perryman of Philosophy Football explores what Monday’s announcement of the England Euro 2016 squad tells us about modern Englishness I was six at the time of England winning the World Cup in ’66. Despite it remaining somewhat of an obsession of mine – to declare an interest I’ve just edited the collection 1966 and […]
In a stink about a pink St George Cross
Apr 2nd, 2016 by Mark Perryman.Professional controversialist Toby Young has got himself all in a froth about a pink St George Cross at England’s international this week Oh dear. Toby Young is all in a lather, a victim once more of the ‘PC brigade’. Writing in the Daily Mail, he describes the scene he seems to have witnessed at Tuesday night’s […]
Football for fans not consumers: they took the words right out of our mouth
Mar 19th, 2016 by Mark Perryman.Mark Perryman of Philosophy Football applauds Dortmund fans’ resistance to a European Superleague When the Borussia Dortmund fans held up their brilliant banner at White Hart Lane on Thursday night ‘UEFA Super League? Shut the Fuck Up’ for many fans in England too the response would be ‘you took the words right out of our […]
When it comes to FIFA the FA’s not got a leg to stand on
Jun 1st, 2015 by Mark Perryman.Mark Perryman of Philosophy Football is unconvinced by English football’s occupation of any moral high ground vs FiFA Corruption I’m incredibly disappointed with the timing of what the BBC seem to be proposing with Panorama. To do it the week before the vote – I don’t think think it’s patriotic.” So said Andy Anson, Director of […]
Stop foul play in Qatar
Oct 8th, 2014 by Newsdesk.The TUC has launched the campaign – Playfair Qatar – to draw football fans into the protests against Qatar’s treatment of the workforce building the infrastructure for its 2022 World Cup. The campaign will complement other campaigns already running by bringing in new allies. Fans – many of whom are also trade unionists – are as […]
Qatar: Concern grows for missing human rights investigators
Sep 4th, 2014 by John Millington.Two British human rights campaigners, investigating the treatment of migrant workers in Qatar have gone missing. Ghimire Gundev and Krishna Upadhyaya were last seen on Sunday when they sent panicked texts to colleagues saying they were being followed by police. Speaking to ITV News, the Norwegian charity employing the men said it had yet to receive […]
The World Cup of our dreams
Jun 12th, 2014 by Mark Perryman.To drag ourselves away from the banalities of the Brazil 2014 TV studio punditariat Mark Perryman provides a World Cup reading list. The professionally cautious Roy Hodgson just couldn’t resist it could he? ‘England can win this World Cup’ he declares on the eve of the tournament. Not if Roy consults the match histories elegantly […]