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Don’t be fooled by “Two World Wars and one World Cup, doodah!” -With songs, or an imitation of Royal Air Force bombing aircraft stretched out by English fans. The truth is, what a loss that England’s competition with unilateral football Germany has lost. For most English fans, the final part is the second round on Tuesday Euro 2020 the match at Wembley should be a friendly affair. This is largely because the English define each other more against each other than against the Germans.
The match boomed for 30 years, starting with the 1966 England-West Germany World Cup final. Until then, the English football team had never been the center of national identity. The previous British heroes were soldiers, kings, cricketers or masochists who hurt themselves for no apparent reason: Captain Scott died at the South Pole, Edmund Hillary climbed Everest or Roger Bannister did a four-minute mile.
The 1966 final was the first major football game of the era owned by almost universal television. Its 32.2 million viewers remain the largest audience for British home television. However, England’s victory caused little hysteria. Jimmy Greaves, the unfortunate reserve in England, recalled: “Everyone was encouraged, a few thousand came out to say well done and in a week they were all gone.” People who had experienced one or both world wars understood that football was just a game. However, in the 1960s the English still took global dominance: at that time their team had not yet lost against the Germans.
But then came the trilogy of major English defeats: Germany at the 1970 and 1990 World Cups and finally the 96th Euro Cup. The results symbolized a time when, unfairly, in the opinion of many Britons, Germany won peace. Even at this time, the hostility of the English had an element of pantomime. “Two World Wars and a World Cup, doodah,” is a self-consciously ridiculous song, at least for most people who sing it. It’s mostly about setting the mood for a football game.
What hostility the English felt on July 4, 1990. In the semi-finals of the World Cup in Turin, the West Germans met a stereotype: charming, invincible and mechanically skilled on penalties. Three months later a German unification was organized. British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher feared the new country would become an aggressive superpower; West German coach Franz Beckenbauer boasted that he would be perfect in football.
Both scenarios did not come true. The United Germany became a soft power, and the Allies refused to beg to build an army, while their football team was innocent. The German neighbors were quiet. The hostility of the English diminished, as did the Dutch-German and Franco-German football encounters.
The British tabloids tried to keep the show going. Before the Euro 96 semi-final at Wembley, the Daily Mirror made a photomontage on the front page of two England players wearing World War II army helmets, “ACHTUNG!” Under the title. PRESENT! For you Fritz, your Euro 96 Tournament is over. “But the Mirror took the mood badly. The headline caused so much rebellion that the paper canceled its intention to take a tank to the German embassy in London.
By 2010, when Germany beat England again in the World Cup, the ritual defeat was hardly traumatic at all. Beyond the Ukip voting contingent (probably over-represented among party fans in England), the British have learned to love the Germans.
This is especially true of the liberal left in the UK, which is a quiet professional leader in Germany that respects manufacturing exports and its reception of refugees in 2015. 58% of Britons have a positive opinion of Germany and 10% a negative one. opinion, report polls YouGov.
There is a broader reason to reduce passions: after five decades of football on television, international matches have become a repetition of each other. Tuesday’s England-Germany match will be a pastiche or mash-up of past England-Germany games. Fans will see that they have 1966, 1970, 1990 and 1996 in mind. This means that the emotions will be less than before – even if it is a mere second round match of a European Championship.
On the pitch, millions of English and German players, some of whom play for clubs in other countries, will bear more resemblance to their opponents than to their fans.
And for many English fans, the enemy is now inside. England’s biggest needle in recent years was the June 23, 2016 Remain-Leave derby, which saw the Leavers take a 52-48 victory over the resignation of ash-faced chief David Cameron. The referendum marked the beginning of the ongoing civil war at Wembley, where English nativists will boo and English liberals applauded England players for kneeling in favor of the Black Lives Matter. The Germans have gone from fools to guests caught in the middle of an embarrassing queue at home.
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