Scottish-English rivalry is normal

Gerry Hassan’s written a piece about the 'Anyone But England' phenomenon for this World Cup.

Personally, I’ve been giving good free advice to see that our nearest neighbours make the most of their potential at this tournament.

The fact is that neighbouring countries around the world have banter, and hope against the triumph of those sharing their border. It happens with Spain and Portugal, Brazil and Argentina, Peru and Chile, Turkey and Greece, Holland and Germany, Poland and Germany, Switzerland and Germany, Germany and indeed just about all their neighbours.

It’s not just football. Canadians like to beat the US in whatever it is that they play in North America. In cricket, there is no more hot a rivalry than Pakistan and India. Pakistan also like to do well against England and see them beaten. So do Australia. It’s a colonial thing - England have a wider sphere of rivalry than Germany.

Sometimes geopolitics and historic wars are involved, sometimes they are not. Some are banter, some are pathological (in Scotland it is by far the former, and it shouldn’t be more). Some countries do support their neighbours more than others, but there isn’t any correlation between that and their success or otherwise as nations outwith the sport.

Rinus Michels said after Holland lifted the European Championship trophy with Van Basten et al in 1988 that their real win was against Germany in the semis:

"We won the tournament, but we all know that the semi-final was the real final".

I can’t imagine that if Scotland won an international tournament (go with me on this), their main win would be considered beating England along the way (give imagination a well-earned rest now). Neither would we find the unusual language of Portugal manager Luis Filipe Scolari before their 'do-or-die' match against Spain in Euro 2004:

“This is war, and I have to kill and not be killed.”

Maybe the main reason we don’t hear of “Anyone but [Spain/Germany/Argentina]” tshirts elsewhere in the world, is because their main rivals actually made it to the World Cup and have something positive to support.

And for those that still think that the Scottish psyche is unhealthy, consider the following point by Hassan:

“Many Scottish football fans have a clear sense of why all of this is happening and list a litany of supposed sins to justify the above. They include the English going on about 1966, supposed English arrogance, the assumption in the English media that England might win the World Cup, the constant confusion of ‘England’ and ‘Britain’, and even, the passionate and partisan nature of English commentators getting behind their team (as if Scottish commentators don’t do the same).”

True, media and commentators around the world are partisan for their respective countries. English commentary is no different in this. What is different, and gives the ABE phenomenon more of an edge than would otherwise be the case, is that people in other nations do not have to sit and consume the news coverage and sports punditry of their nearest and dearest rivals. If they did, and had to pay for the privilege, it would get their backs up.

Comments

[Kenneth]

I agree that one of the main reasons for the Anyone But England phenomenon is that, even though we are different countries, we share the same media.

Perhaps if Broadcasting were devolved much of it would die a death.

But then again the Unionists will do everything they can to avoid the devolution of broadcasting. That would be too dangerous to their "precious" Union.

[joe kane]

Excellent stuff OS.

As for the pathological,
try the excellent left-wing American sports journalist and writer Dave Zirin on the American right-wing view of the USA involvement in the World Cup -

http://www.socialistunity.com/?p=6172>Joy or Jingoism
by Dave Zirin
Socialist Unity
24 June 2010

[joe kane]

My apologies for that rubbish link.
Here it is again -

Joy or Jingoism
by Dave Zirin
Socialist Unity
24 June 2010
http://www.socialistunity.com/?p=6172