The Staggers

The New Statesman’s rolling politics blog

In defence of football: a lefty writes

Crude caricatures of all football supporters as sexist homophobes insult readers’ intelligence.

By Laurence Durnan Published 03 February 2011 11:17

An article claiming that "all Tories hate women and gays" would rightly receive short thrift from NS editors and readers alike. When it comes to football, however, such easy stereotypes have twice graced these web pages in the past year.

A polemic smearing football lovers as fascists was followed yesterday by another post attacking supporters, calling on them to "justify [their] decisions" to support misogyny and homophobia, and asking: "How on earth can lefties like football?" Such crude caricatures insult readers' intelligence.

Left-wingers in football are not only to be found haring up the port flank on a Saturday afternoon. Indeed, the sport has been home to many intelligent, progressive voices. The manager Brian Clough was chair of the Anti-Nazi League, while Alex Ferguson is still a regular fixture on Labour Party campaign material. In November, Eric Cantona called for a run on banks to start "a real revolution" against institutions at the heart of a system that "must be destroyed".

Outspoken left-leaning stars are matched by a growing grass-roots movement to counter the greed and commercialism rightly criticised by Laurie Penny and Helen Lewis-Hasteley. The formation of FC United in protest at Malcolm Glazer's controversial takeover of Manchester United was followed in 2007 by the mutualised purchase of Ebbsfleet United by ordinary fans, each paying £35 through the website myfootballclub.co.uk.

It is fans who are leading the battle against the tide of capital sweeping through the modern game. When Red Bull bought SV Austria Salzburg, summarily changing the club's name and kit and declaring that "this is a new club with no history", the drinks giant was forced into concessions, in the wake of a Europe-wide campaign by supporters' organisations. Ridicule of grotesque consumption in football, such as El Hadji Diouf's absurd gold Cadillac Escalade, will first gain traction in online forums.

Sweeping generalisations that "women are nothing more than baubles" are insulting to those blazing a trail of equality within the sport. The second target of Richard Keys's career-wrecking remarks was Karren Brady, married to the Canadian football club manager Paul Peschisolido and, as such, a "footballer's wife". As the former managing director of Birmingham City Football Club and the youngest ever director of a UK plc, however, she would surely object to being referred to as maîtresse-en-titre.

The sport has made huge strides in confronting head-on issues of racism that were rife on the terraces in the 1980s, but no one will deny that football – like politics – still has issues with sexism and homophobia. Rather than champion the cause of women within sport, however, Lewis-Hasteley counsels abandoning the Beautiful Game to what is now a small minority of bigots. To suggest that those taking their daughter to under-11 training or cheering Stonewall FC from the touchline are wasting their time is more Helen Kendrick Johnson than Emmeline Pankhurst.

A myopic scrutiny of testosterone-fuelled Premier League excess will never recognise the spirit of community and solidarity engendered in local areas by the tens of thousands of clubs outside of football's elite. In the words of Bill Shankly:

The socialism I believe in is not really politics. It is a way of living. It is humanity. I believe the only way to live and to be truly successful is by collective effort, with everyone working for each other, everyone helping each other, and everyone having a share of the rewards at the end of the day. That might be asking a lot, but it's the way I see football and the way I see life.

This sounds more like the game I know.

Football isn't fox-hunting. Attempts to link something so gloriously variegated to a single political outlook are doomed to failure. We're not asking you to enjoy our sport. But stop tarring those who do with the same sexist, homophobic brush.

Laurence Durnan is the editor of Political Scrapbook.

More from Laurence Durnan

42 comments

Thu, 2011-02-03 22:12 — Rowan Davies (not verified)

He shoots, he scores

Duncan Green tells an interesting story about the Bolivian indigenous rights movement that culminated in the election of Evo Morales. It began on the sidelines of local football matches between teams made up of indentured indigenous workers on Bolivian agricultural estates. Not many people know that. More importantly, I've finally found an appropriate thread into which I can crowbar the information.

Sat, 2011-02-05 09:39 — Stuart Eels (not verified)

Mulligrubs and Ehtch Tee, hope you both enjoyed last night, a fantastic Rugby lesson to our celtic friends and neighbours Yaky dah!

Thu, 2011-02-03 22:35 — Des Demona (not verified)

@ Rowan Davies
Nowt wrong with crowbaring in stuff apparently - I've just read Sam's post. lol

Fri, 2011-02-04 00:41 — matt s (not verified)

"Geraint
03 February 2011 at 16:13

Has football become the new opium of the masses?
.... surely there are more important issues to talk about?"

I think the problem with Helen Lewis Hastely's article is that it illustrates a big problem for the intellectual left- an unacknowledged subconscious fear/contempt of the working/non-working classes and their hopes, aspirations and attitudes. Its going to be difficult indeed for the the left to succeed without rebuilding alliances with the football watching "masses".

Thu, 2011-02-03 11:46 — Tony (not verified)

The middle class ‘never had a job’ lefties who so hate football (and have taken over the Labour party) seem to hate it because it is one of the last refuges of the working class man. These types are worse than the Tories telling us what to do, how to behave, what is good for us.

Thu, 2011-02-03 11:51 — Mr. Divine (not verified)

Brilliant Laurence. I love the Shankley quote. I'm a Liverpool fan but the great man had a way with words.

It's good to see you attacking stereo-types.

Thu, 2011-02-03 11:54 — dave campbell (not verified)

A balanced response to an ill thought out article, back of the net Laurence!

Thu, 2011-02-03 12:00 — CarsmileSteve (not verified)

blimey, don't bring myfootballclub in to it, useless bunch of chancers. How about looking at Supporters Direct instead where pretty much every professional club and loads of semi-professional clubs have supporter run organisations to try and give us a voice at our football club. And don't forget Wimbledon and Exeter City which are both fan-owned and several divisions above FCUM.

Thu, 2011-02-03 12:01 — Arturo Bandini (not verified)

I refused to dignify the article by Helen Lewis-Hasteley you mention with a comment.

Well played.

Thu, 2011-02-03 12:09 — A Concerned YL Member (not verified)

Che Guevara called football a weapon of the revolution, as it happens.

I'm fed up with trendy progressives looking down on working class activities.

Thu, 2011-02-03 12:34 — Peter, Liverpool (not verified)

Mr Divine, as a Liverpool fan, should know the correct spelling of "Shankly"!

Fans suffer from association with Murdoch's Sky Sports and all its horrendous manifestations. Real supporters should vote with their purses/wallets and boycott that force of evil.

Fri, 2011-02-04 09:17 — Steve Cockburn (not verified)

Great article. I hope we're still allowed to have instinctive and blind passions without having them pre-approved by a Fabian Society working group. Maybe we should ban love too, or intellectualise the enjoyment out of it at least. Bound to be *something* inegalitarian in there somewhere...

Thu, 2011-02-03 12:40 — Iden (not verified)

For most fans I think this quote perfectly sums up why we attend matches and love the sport:

"It turned you into a member of a new community, all brothers together for an hour and a half, for not only had you escaped the clanking machinery of this lesser life, from work, from wages, rent, doles, sick pay, insurance cards, nagging wives, ailing children, bad bosses, idle workmen, but you had escaped with most of your mates and your neighbours, with half the town, cheering together, thumping one another on the shoulders, swapping judgments like Lords of the Earth, having pushed your way through a turnstile into another and altogether more splendid life."
J. B. Priestley

Thu, 2011-02-03 13:19 — Smith14 (not verified)

To label all fans of Football as one thing or another is wildly inappropriate. How about, like with almost any other huge collection of people, they come from a wide range of backgrounds and have a wide range of views. Some are undoubtedly sexist or racist but the majority emphatically are not. The common trait is an interest in Football and little else.

It seems that Football, and the wider working class, are the last outpost at whom it is acceptable to throw wild generalisations without fear of being tarred with an "ism".

Sure, many Footballers bring the game into disrepute but that is a seperate debate, it's not right to write of the whole game and all it's followers just because of the indescretions of some practitioners.

Thu, 2011-02-03 14:21 — Abdullah (not verified)

Manchester City was founded by a woman. Beat that.

Thu, 2011-02-03 14:22 — David Coleman (not verified)

One Nil

Thu, 2011-02-03 14:21 — Mr. Divine (not verified)

@ET: I was in Swansea when they got promoted to the first division in 82. Looks like they have another chance.

Thu, 2011-02-03 13:57 — Gemma Hallam (not verified)

Get in there. Get in!

Thank you for this. I have never understood those who think that not liking football should be worn as a badge of superiority or of intellectualism, never mind of progressivism.

Thu, 2011-02-03 14:18 — Mr. Divine (not verified)

@peter, Liverpool: You're right. I got it right first time and then I doubted it and then I copied it from the article. I do have problems with spelling especially e between l and y.. I just can't remember. Forgive me.

Thu, 2011-02-03 15:36 — Shamik

Get. In! A perfect riposte to those attention-seeking football haters!

Fri, 2011-02-04 16:10 — WIlliam Campbell (not verified)

Shame the original writer of the witless piece about "lefties" (note, that marks her out as a non-"leftie") hasn't got the guts to come on here and defend her own writing.

Mon, 2011-02-07 17:34 — Stuart Eels (not verified)

Oh you mean the real shows based on the real facts where celts are driven back to the border do you mate?

Thu, 2011-02-03 16:09 — Daniel (not verified)

I agree! I'm not really a football fan (which I regret), but I think it's important and shouldn't be insulted.

http://danieljfrost.blogspot.com/2010/11/musings-on-football.html

Thu, 2011-02-03 16:11 — Mulligrubs (not verified)

Football; It's like religion - tribal, divisive and with each tribe claiming to follow the one true path - the truth is - it is the new opium of the masses and the majority of the masses end up losers. I hope that isn't too controversial.

Sat, 2011-02-05 17:55 — Stuart Eels (not verified)

No no no yes Ehtch Tee, any real Englishman who has read his history well knows that the English amry was full of Welsh bowmen at Againcourt but it's not the English who make these claims it's Hollywood. Now don't stir that wooded spoon too much!

Thu, 2011-02-03 17:13 — Geraint (not verified)

Has football become the new opiunm of the masses?

With the ConDems driving Britain to the ground, it's class warfare on the poor, doctors threaterning strike action, and importatn elections coming up (March 3rd referendum, Welsh, Scottish and Northern Irish referendums and a possible AV referendum) surely there are more important issues to talk about?

Thu, 2011-02-03 18:00 — JJJJS (not verified)

This is horribly-structured panic writing. The previous article on football being anti-left was problematic but I can pilot a spaceship through the holes in this BAAAAAAAWWWing reactionary drivel. You got to be an editor... how?

Thu, 2011-02-03 18:31 — Mulligrubs (not verified)

Geraint:

Oh Yes boyo! - so much serious and depressing stuff looming - that's why they need the opium innit?

Thu, 2011-02-03 18:37 — Mulligrubs (not verified)

EtchTee;

Ha! ha! - Well bach - insofar as I give a monkeys armpit - Good luck to you - I hope Wales stuff England - then we'll have a few chinless Twickers Tories in tears eh? Plenty good enough - now it's their turn to cry! Up the reds!

Thu, 2011-02-03 18:48 — Sam (not verified)

I love fuseball and I'm not a leftie. Does that make me homophobic, sexist ruffian?

To me, the generalisation of football fans that Laurance Durnan makes is just as bad as the ones' Laurie Penny and Helen Lewis-Hasteley make.

I come from a low-income background but that doesn't automatically mean my sympathies lie with Labour. I may not have been to Oxbridge but I can see clearly the destruction that Labour has wrought on low-income earners. They nationalised dying industries which led to millions of people getting skilled up for jobs in industries that were obviously going to have their taxpayer subsidy taken away from them at some point. The Atlee government was the beginning of the road in which Labour have turned those of the working class who didn't move up into the middle classes into an underclass.