The leftward and other blatherings of Span (now with Snaps!)

Tuesday, June 13, 2006

don't mention the war

I'm trying to decide what is more worrying about the English fan behaviour:

1. The chant "Two World Wars and One World Cup"

or

2. The wearing of white plastic versions of German army helmets (think Sergeant Schultz) with COME ON ENGLAND stickers on them.

I thought the English were supposed to hate the French, but it seems there is plenty of bile to go around.

9 comments:

David Farrar said...

Oh the hatred for the French is genuine and reciprocal.

The German stuff is more mocking. They only do it for big sports events as a psychological weapon.

Hans Versluys said...

1966 and all that. Did I hear fans were discouraged to whistle the Dambusters theme lest it offended the German side?
If only the Beldisloe Cup was so viscerally fought over!

Stephanie said...

Oh people go a bit stupid during world cup. For christsakes my Principal congratulated me on Australia's victory over Japan the other day.

Span said...

DPF - I think the Poms are distracted by other nations who are more likely to win the World Cup at the moment, I've seen little evidence of their Franco-bile. I'm sure that at Non-Emergency times they all let it hang out though.

Oliver - that was the good thing about the Greek hospital, when they thought I had bird flu (see earlier post in April) - I think the total was about 80 Euros and actually when we tried to pay there was no one there and we had to leave to catch the ferry so we figure they'll sort it out with the insurance company themselves. Hope you are ok now!

Uro - I'm not sure about the Dambusters thing, but the BBC did allegedly decide not to allow the playing of World Cup songs on their radio stations, but then Chris Moyles (the morning DJ on Radio One, so the country's top DJ) launched his own World Cup song, which gets played several times a morning and is incredibly irritating.

stef - you should probably have just said yep isn't it great, because that's gotta be the closest NZ will ever get to being in the World Cup again - Brazil wasted "us" 4 nil in a friendly warm-up.

Stephanie said...

Actually span, I think it was more a case of him supporting any team that was playing Japan. Koreans hate the Japanese.

Rich said...

I'm a pom, and I like the French, and the Germans, not to mention the Swiss, Spanish and Dutch. I'd probably like the San Marinans if I'd ever met one.

I hate the bleeding chavs though. And the public school prats...

Span said...

what the hell's a chav?

And don't start me on the Spanish. That's a rant for another day.

Rich said...

The type of Brit who hates furriners and goes to the world cup to try and fight Germans - see Chav.

An unfortunate result of an education system geared to produce cannon- and factory- fodder in a post-industrial society with no large scale wars going on.

Span said...

ah yes, I see what you mean. There seem to be quite a few of them, although, as someone funny pointed out on a Radio 4 show I had the pleasure of hearing, the tough British and EU laws have meant that most of them are in England for the cup this time, instead of in foreign places. Most inconvenient for their fellow citizens of the UK, who have to deal with their antics on the Tube they ride on, rather than the tube they watch.