When people think of politics, the temptation is to think of boring old men and women, sitting around on green benches debating the most boring of issues. When they think of football, they think of the glitz and glamour of the Premier League – young millionaire men driving fast cars and living the life most people can only dream of.
The two seem a million miles apart. And in all reality they are.
Yet the relationship between football and politics is unique. Football and politics share more similarities than some may at first assume.
Both have audiences of millions. Both generate extreme tribalism. Both share expectation, revel in triumphs and, yes, in rivals’ defeats. Like in all teams, there is infighting and disagreement along the way. There are tantrums and disciplinary proceedings. Some ‘players’ reach their sell by date quickly, whilst others have a longevity that is admired the nation over.
In both, there are role models and inspiring figures – from the internationally recognised greats, to the locally loved unsung heroes. There are some who are true team players, others who are individuals within a team setting – and there are the occasional mavericks who appear to deliberately kick back at the constraints of the rules they are governed by.
Both share a constant command of the limelight, an intrusive media and fierce loyalty from their supporters.
And at certain moments both have the ability to unite a nation – dignified in times of tragedy and joyous in times of victory.
For Labour, football is a mechanism that can be used to tackle one of the single biggest issues in our constituencies: a poverty of aspiration.
Football knows no boundaries: class, race or religion. It bears no impact on a player’s ability to shine for 90 minutes on the green, green, grass of England’s football pitches.
Conversely, it also mirrors many social issues; women being paid less than their male counterparts; racism in its ugliest forms; homophobia; Islamophobia; antisemitism; sectarianism and sexism, which, despite being societal problems, attract extra attention due to the immense popularity of the beautiful game.
Its influence on ordinary working-class families is profound. Without football, Wayne Rooney and Steven Gerrard would still be working in Liverpool, struggling to make ends meet, just like every other would-be footballer. Would their stories have been possible if they were brilliant rugby union players or cricketers, where all too often private education and daddy’s boardroom chums are a prerequisite for access to sporting success?
Not a chance. Football has an ability to absent itself from class warfare in a way that other sports sometimes cannot achieve. In fact, politics can learn lessons from football in this respect. As we set to work on creating a parliament that truly is representative of our country, we must do more to encourage working-class, men and women into the decision making process. I don’t want to be the only bricky in parliament, but the first bricky in parliament from Walton.
Attendances at football continue to grow despite the worrying economic climate and the expense of match tickets. Football provides light relief from the drudgery of day-to-day life and what is, in the current climate, very uncertain and tough times for families. Football offers ordinary people the chance to escape financial worries and the anxiety over whether you will have a job to go to on Monday morning.
Like so many of this country’s achievements, football is underpinned by Labour values. The camaraderie of being there for each other, on and off the field; taking pride in your town or city; and above all, working together for the greater good.
The Labour party’s voice on football has, in recent years, been lost on the terraces.
We need to reinvent our football message so that we can, once again, celebrate all that is good about our national game and through it, celebrate all that is good about the ordinary families up and down the country who are passionate about their support.
I am the only member of parliament with two Premier League football clubs in my constituency. As a result, football truly is at the heart of my politics. Everton FC and Liverpool FC are the main economic drivers for the area, but are seen by many in the adjoining communities as being too distant a neighbour. I have been campaigning since I became an MP for greater involvement of fans in the decision making process at their clubs. Fan involvement will better link clubs with their supporters.
As a party, Labour should take great pride in the fact that we initiated Supporters Direct, but now is the time to go further. If the DCMS select committee’s recommendations for a new FA board are to be enforced, then we must look at ways to increase the level of influence that supporters can have on the running of their clubs.
Too many people are dependent upon us as politicians getting this right. Football clubs are key to our local communities’ identity, but, more than that, very often the clubs run programmes that have a real beneficial effect on ordinary people and their lives.
In Britain in 2012, a football club’s role is not simply confined to entertaining thousands of people on a Saturday afternoon. Club foundations and community projects are influential in driving down antisocial behaviour and driving up educational attainment. They are often a gateway into making better citizens out of young people accessing their programmes.
The award winning ‘Everton in the Community’ is a first-class example of that in my own constituency, as is LFC’s community outreach work.
When a football club falls into the wrong owners’ hands it often results in inevitable mismanagement of company finances with many clubs ending up in administration. As a result it is the community projects and foundations that are the first to suffer.
I have long believed that the relationship between football and politics is a reservoir of opportunity. In previous generations, it was the norm for politicians to be more accustomed to Lords and Twickenham rather than Anfield or Goodison Park.
Fans are not gullible and openly accept genuine offers of help from politicians with the best interest of their clubs at heart.
When David Miliband joins a Premier League football club as a non-executive chairman in a bid to help the club’s foundation to drive down crime in the local area and build soccer schools in remote parts of Africa where poverty is rife and life chances are minimal, football fans will support that. However, when David Cameron dons an Aston Villa strip for a jog around St James’ Park in an attempt to be ‘just like us’, football fans see right through that.
There is a balance for politicians to strike. Either way, Labour must lead on this fast-growing norm in our political culture.
Therefore, Labour has a role to play in tackling such levels of negligence. I am confident that in Clive Efford Labour has a shadow sports minister that is utterly seized by the potential of the relationship between football and politics. Labour must once again demonstrate that the relationship between politics and football – the game that has been, is, and will always be, the game of the working person – is a relationship we intend to nurture and not neglect.
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Steve Rotheram is MP for Liverpool Walton
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Enjoyable piece. I think that a lot more could be done supporting footballers themselves. It’s only a couple of decades since even top flight footballers were, all things considered, paid a pittance for physically endangering themselves in pretty horrendous conditions. We’ve come a long way since then (which obviously gets lost in all the talk of six-figure weekly salaries, still available only to a tiny percentage of footballers), but even now most footballers can’t look forward to a great deal after they’ve hung up their boots. At best, it’s run a pub; at worst, its terminal unemployment, spiralling debt, and clinical depression.
Footballers are workers and as Labour people we shouldn’t be afraid to fight their corner, especially when they bring so much joy to so many.
Here in Brighton and Hove, football and politics are very much connected. Last week Lord Prescott toured the new Amex Community Stadium that Lord Bassam and other local Labour politicians campaigned for over many years, often against strong opposition from the Greens. There are supporters of BHAFC in all parties, but I’m proud of the role Labour locally and nationally played in ensuring my team survived and now has a magnificent stadium as its home (a footnote to the story is that former Lib Dem MP David Bellotti had a role in the sale of Albion’s former Goldstone ground).
Albion In The Community is one of the biggest such organisations http://www.seagulls.co.uk/page/CommunityHome and does fantastic work, whilst the new stadium has contributed a huge amount to the local economy, jobs and training.
Where a local team is under threat from lack of finance/closure, as the Albion were some time ago, then a co-operative solution is definitely worth pursuing and Supporters Direct should be applauded for leading the way on that.
I enjoyed reading this article because it covers a wide range of issues. I fear there is still homphobia within football culture despite the change in attitudes in the last twenty years. We have recently had a Rugby player of international significance who has come out but we have yet to see a U.K football start come out as gay. There is still a lot of negative behaviour within football clubs in regard to LGBT issues. I am convinced that there will be a premier league player who is gay but is living in fear of coming out due to fear of a negative reaction from the club and fans. It is just food for thought.