The Point
Last updated:
27 June 2022.
Last updated:
27 June 2022.
...red sky thinking for an open and diverse left
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Too much politics in football? Or too little?
Conor Cheyne of Highland Socialist Alliance and The Green Brigade gives his view
Football is no place for Politics …or so we are told.
We football fans have been getting told more and more in the past decade that politics and football should be kept apart. That the two are total different entities and mixing the two is just asking for something to blow. The thing is though, is that since its foundation, professional football has been heavily linked to politics and it always will be. In fact, the powers at be who are trying to tell us that the two shouldn't be mixed are doing so for political gain.
Saturday was the call for vast waves of working class men (and some women) to descend onto the terracing and for 90 minutes go through the emotions of a lifetime, letting out all the past weeks hardships and aches. A real release valve for thousands. This was a time when football was in its pure form. The Beautiful Game. What more could you ask for?
Fast forward 30 years down the line and football is far from what it once was. The game is controlled by money, in the form of multi-million pound TV deals with SKY, BT and ESPN. The men in charge of the game only care about how much they will be pocketing each year, not if something is going to be easier or cheaper for the supporters. “Enhancing The Match Day Experience” is a term which is thrown around by the majority of top clubs today. In this they talk about better hospitality in the stadium, having free WI-FI available, Higher Standard of Coffee. These things coupled with rising ticket prices are what has moved football away from being a working class sport.
The working man (or woman) can no longer go and enjoy the football on a Saturday. If he wants to go watch a game, he will need to attend a 17:15 kick off on a Sunday night paying upwards of £45 for himself, let alone kids. If you use foul language at a football game now or let out too much emotion then you are seriously frowned upon and can be ejected from the stadium. The days of 40-80 thousand people inside a stadium, singing their club songs are near dead too. The better “match day experience” is ripping the life and soul out of football. As Roy Keane once so famously called them, “The Prawn Sandwich Brigade” who come along to the football, who to them it isn’t a great expense nor a fantastic occasion, just a simple day out, these are the people that the football elite are trying to lure in. They have the money. The working class lads cause too much trouble and make far too much noise.
My club, Celtic, are going through this exact thing at this moment. The Green Brigade are a group of Ultras…which is an idea adopted from European teams in which the teams go that extra mile in order to support the team with chanting, banners and displays. They are not hooligans or “Casuals” as the media may make out. Ultras across Europe usually also have a political stance as a group.
The Green Brigade have a Anti-racism, Fascism, Sectarianism Policy with big support for Left-Wing and Republican politics. Ultra Groups in other European countries do not face the same persecution that the Green Brigade do. Like minded Ultra groups commonly form partnerships. For instance, St.Pauli Ultras in Germany and Standard Liege Ultras in Belgium among others have very close links with the Green Brigade due to them being Left-Wing groups. Many Left-Wing Ultra groups are part of the “Alerta Network” which is a group against Fascism. But, the Green Brigade also have links to other Ultras such as Athletico Bilbao in Spain as their politics are not only left-wing but they support Basque independence similar to that of The Green Brigade supporting the re-joining of Northern Ireland and The Republic.
There are also Far Right-Wing groups though. Lazio Ultras are among some of the most notorious with former Celtic and West Ham striker Paolo Di Canio giving them a what was widely perceived as a fascist salute after a game. The politics of these groups can vary from Moderate to Far Left and Right Wing with even one Ultras group known as “Stalinist Heritage”
The Green Brigade made headline news across Britain with an Anti-Poppy banner which was widely criticised throughout the media and by Celtic Football Club without anyone actually reading the Groups official Statement as to why they did the protest. (That working class lads are being sent to fight in illegal wars for power and oil amongst other things). The group has recently been under attack by the club’s board. Now, they have been effectively dispersed on the basis that their jumping up and down has been deemed unsafe.
Like many I believe that there is a hidden agenda. The club have been chasing the Green Brigade and looking to kick them out of Celtic Park for a long time over political singing. Whether or not you agree with the topics the group sing about, it is neither sectarian nor bigoted, it is political. Yet the same goes for any club in any country who preaches “Democracy” and “Freedom of Political Opinion”. As long as that opinion is not racist, sectarian etc. then there should be no problem.
This stems from the bill past last year by the SNP in which football fans are now being targeted and prosecuted for “Offensive Behaviour and Singing”. This whole bill is against football fans expressing their opinions. Something they could sing or should in a pub or in the street suddenly becomes illegal due to it being shouted in a football ground. On top of political opinions being subdued due to this, police are now picking up anyone who shouts anything which can be deemed “Offensive” which of course could be anything as something that one person will find a joke will be found offensive by another.
There have been cases, one in particular, of a 17 year old boy having his door booted down by Police Officers at 6am in the morning (while his sisters and parents were also in the house) and taken away, kept in police custody for 2 days for being caught on camera singing “The Roll of Honour”. – a song which doesn't glorify the Provisional IRA but commemorates the 1981 Hunger Strike in The Maze Prison. If this stamping down on political expression with an iron fist happened in the streets the Police and Government would be accused of stopping the freedom of speech yet it happens in a football ground and it is acceptable due to the fact the media have built up an image that anyone who does anything political in a football ground must be a Thug.
Going back to my original point on class, Football has long been a focal point for communities and the working class. To go and enjoy themselves, let off steam. Politics is part of life and particularly an important part of working class life. During football, political views have long been voiced and different opinions fought over. But, this is part of democracy. It is different or same political opinions meeting in a large place over something they all have in common. The drive to stop politics entering our football stadiums is another ploy by football clubs to attract more of a middle-class crowed but also by the Government who are still trying to make everyone believe that we will all be middle class in a few years. But, when politicians such as David Miliband and John Reid are board members at football clubs and others are becoming more involved with Football Associations for their own progress thenis this “No Politics in Football” really just another lie? I think so.
I ask, is there really no place in football for politics? Or is football really just becoming another pawn of politics?