5 societal obervations during the World Cup in London
With no mention of tactics, players or results
By Ed Hewitt — founder of World in London
Over the course of the last month I’ve been traversing London watching matches with fans from as many different nations in the World Cup as possible (24 in total). All as part of World in London’s World Cup Festival.
I’m personally a bit of a football stato (some may say sad0) and have an unhealthy obsession with a very mediocre club team, Wolverhampton Wanderers, but I’ll leave the analysis of the players, tactics and football ‘in jokes’ to the pundits. Instead this blog is about 5 things I observed about the effects of football on society during the World Cup.
1. Supporting your team at the World Cup is not really about football
The amount of people from all different nationalities who told me they had no interest in football outside of the World Cup was quite incredible. For them — especially expats living in London — it was a time when a community could get together and celebrate their country & heritage. Although a huge football fan myself, I personally found the stuff which happened around the match much more interesting and enjoyable than the games themselves. And many people told me the same. The chance to eat great food from your home nation, to sing and dance to national songs, to be surrounded by friends from from similar backgrounds. That was what the World Cup was all about — not the football.
2. It has an incredible power to unite and build expat communities
This is a similar theme to the above, but I was bowled over by the way that World Cup football acted as a focal point and a reason to bring people from expat communities together. I was particularly inspired by the Costa Rican story which I was fortunate enough to follow during the World Cup. There are only around 200 Costa Ricans in the whole of the UK. They’ve never all gathered together until now. At the start a few (around 20 or so) from the Central American Society gathered to watch ‘Los Ticos’ together. By the knockout stages, they had colonised a whole bar in Moorgate — the place was a sea of red ‘Ticos’ shirts. Carlos from the Costa Rican embassy told me over half the entire population of Costa Ricans in the UK were thought to be there — some had travelled down from Yorkshire, one had even come across from Belgium! He never thought he’d see a gathering of Costa Rican pride like it in London — until football bought the community together.
3. Females are the most passionate supporters at World Cup time
Having watched lots of football in male dominated stadiums and pubs it was a marked contrast to see the amount of females supporting their nations during the World Cup. In fact, it was the females who were by far the most passionate and vocal during the games, and also the most likely to get well and truly ‘kitted out’. I don’t know the exact stats for numbers wearing national shirts, face paint and nail varnish, but observationally there were loads more girls with all the gear than boys (especially nail varnish!).
4. European nations have poor atmospheres in comparison to others.
In general the the European nations such as France, Belgium and Switzerland had some of the least passionate fans (from my experience anyway). The Dutch and German’s were occasional exceptions, but only really during their wins as the tournament progressed rather than judging by their performance during the group stages.
Instead the best atmospheres I experienced and most passionate fans were from Algeria, Costa Rica, Colombia, Iran & Ghana. Argentina & Brazil were good — but not even they could rival the aforementioned 5.
Being the most ‘developed’ cultures (economically) it seems that the Europeans have forgotten how to really let go and have a great time. Further, the ‘developed’ football nations such as Brazil & Argentina seemed so consumed by fear of losing that they too didn’t generate the really top atmospheres. Instead it was left to countries with relatively low football expectations, proud national identities and large populations in London to generate the best. Of course the Costa Rican fans are the slight exception with only a tiny London population — but as mentioned before the euphoria of their journey captured the hearts (and voices) of the community.
5. We don’t quite get it right as England fans
Must say I was left pretty underwhelmed by the English performance both on and off the pitch. Maybe I didn’t choose the right places, but I watched all 3 England games in different bars and none of them had anything to match the atmospheres generated by other nations. OK — the boys didn’t give people much to shout about, but there just seemed to be a general lack of passion amongst the public. All of the 3 places I went were well known football venues — and in all you could count the numbers wearing England shirts on a single hand. Nobody really sang the national anthem, people yelled alot of obscenities at the screen and that was about it.
I don’t know if we as English people in London are afraid to celebrate or take pride in our own culture in the way other nations do. There’s certainly a negative reputation associated with being overtly proudly English and being a football fan. There must be a balance between passionately supporting England and not being THAT English football hooligan and I think we haven’t quite found it. This was made especially clear to me when you see the fun we could have been having (win or loose) by spending time with the other nationalities.
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