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Society is proclaiming victories in cultural battles where the hardest are actually still to come


Supporting a football club, as many fans will tell you, is about far more than the football itself. Indeed, it is far more than the memories it can create, both on and off the pitch. Because in truth, once you start watching your favourite team, you are transfixed in the ebbs and flows of a beautiful game. For those 90 minutes, nothing else matters.  

When the beauty of that is threatened by corporate greed - an ever-powerful part of the modern world - it feels not like an attack on the sport, but an attack on the distraction it gives us. The European Super League has dominated headlines for the past two days, and in that time it has been proposed, and fallen apart. For some context, the ESL wanted to replaced the current Champions League (which teams have to qualify for through their national leagues) and create a "closed shop" whereby 15 teams would play each other every year without the need for qualification.  

Some will argue that greed enveloped the football world long ago, and that this phenomenon does little more than extend the ludicrous TV deals and sponsorships that have seen footballers wages jump to frankly idiotic levels. And they would be right. Despite the romantic fandom, the top levels have seen football corrupted in every way possible. Sepp Blatter and the world's governing body FIFA gave the World Cup 2022 to a human rights-violating Qatar, and UEFA have acted as nothing but puppets to FIFA for years. The ESL threatened their control as much as it did fans' passion for the game. 

In the end, the ESL has collapsed through a combination of fan, player, and manager uproar, and threat of punishment from domestic leagues, UEFA and FIFA. It has been painted by many as a victory for the fans, an illustration of how important fans are in football, and how its crux revolves around them.

But unfortunately, that isn't true, and serves as a metaphor for Derek Chauvin's guilty verdict in his trial this week. In both cases, people are prematurely declaring victory, without addressing the need for proper change.

Those who know me will know of my devotion to Middlesbrough FC who, despite having no relation to, I have spent countless hours and money on supporting. We are by no means unsuccessful, for we sit 10th in the Championship, but we have no chance of top-level glory and never will - barring the intervention of super-rich owners like Manchester City's or Chelsea's.  

In the last few days, I have sat here and seen countless football (largely in the Premier League) fans declaring how happy they are that the competitive nature of football has been saved, preaching about how important it was to stop football being a closed shop and pretending that they care about the interests of grassroots football. It has left me feeling more disillusioned than ever.

How can these things be important to you if you are happy for the Premier League to hoard the majority of English football's wealth? The divide in TV money has become so stark that relegation and promotion to the Premier League is bordering on a procession, with the same teams returning year after year. Angry about an ESL "closed shop"? Look at your own league first.

As with any issue in football, these top Premier League clubs, and much of their fanbases, haven't given the faintest iota until it is affecting them. Where is this kind of mobilisation for asset-stripping owners further down the pyramid? For the grassroots game? For.. the ever-heightening occurrences of racism within the game? 

Football has not been "saved". The ESL has only been kicked further down the road, for its conversation will return in the future. In the pandemic, lower-league clubs have struggled to survive whilst wages at the top balloon ever higher. If there are no punishments for the clubs involved in the ESL, it will only reinforce the notion that the Big 6 clubs are better than the rest. In which case, football needs saving more than ever.

Credit: Business Insider India

In the same week as this, it is only right to reflect on the conviction of Derek Chauvin for the murder of George Floyd last May, that sparked a conversation about racial injustice. This is a moment of celebration for his family and many people of colour, especially in America, but they are only celebrating because they have been given basic human rights. The system has shown countless times that it deems them undeserving of those.

But, much like with the football, it is not justice. Justice would be George Floyd being alive today. And it by no means ends the chapter on the problem of racism, both explicit and implicit, around the world today. 

I fear that many white people will see it as that. That the performative activism shown last year has meant that work is done. They need to continue proactively educating themselves, rather than wait for the next injustice to happen, as do all "oppressors"; men on feminism, heterosexuals on LGBT+ rights, the typical-bodied on disability rights - there are plenty more. Learning what you do not know is powerful, and ultimately shows growth.

Personally, I feel exhausted. Not just from fighting for racial equality, but to how blind white people are to the problem. I don't know if they read this, but I am becoming increasingly embittered by the passivity of friends around me. It feels as if nothing has changed, that they have settled back into the bubble of white privilege. 

I hardly have a conversation with a white person about racism or racial injustice. The only ones I hear from are people of colour. Because probably, unlike me, they see this as "political", a trope I have heard trotted out about plenty of issues. Nothing's political, your privilege just means you don't have to or want to care. 

Perhaps they are educating themselves quietly, I can't know either way. It is not their duty to tell me, but if any are reading, I want to be having these conversations - not in a condescending way, but in an informative way. Because truthfully, there are times when trying to project my small voice gets infuriating and lonely. And right now, I'm needing a little fuel to keep me going. 

One day things will change, but there is a fair way to go. Whether other people keep fighting and educating? That's not up to me, but I can only hope that by expressing my anguish here, someone will go out of their way to actively help do their bit in making this change possible.


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