The football mania is over. What did we learn, ladies? Anything useful? Here’s my quick review of talking balls 2016.
First, the beautiful game, meaning fans and make-up. It was so nice to see men comfortable in blue and green eye shadow, wasn’t it? How long did that take to put on? Will they be more understanding about the length of time it takes us gals to get ready? Thank you, Euros.
Next, foul stuff and global football culture. A referee sent off a Swedish footballer for breaking wind during a match. Yes, actually sent him off. Not only does that mean the "trump factor" is affecting the game but what if the terraces take this up this tactic, to express mass scorn towards a team? A Mexican wave will actually be people trying to disperse the smell. If the excitement of the recent tournament made you consider actually attending a match in future, don’t.
This trumping development, incidentally, is especially alarming to people in China. The misconduct in question was during a fixture in Sweden, not the Euros, but it still got widespread media coverage, as it occurred at a time of peak football interest. Don’t forget that trends in Sweden have global impact - it’s not far from Scandi noir to Scandi odeur. China recently announced hundreds of football academies. What if there are copycat instances by Chinese student footballers? We’ve just got rid of spitting as an acceptable male action in China; now this? Will the pollution problems worsen?
Back to the Euros. The emergence of pretty colours was a nice girlie touch. One of Portugal’s strips was an elegant shade of green called "eau de nil". It was almost the score of one match in which the strip was worn. Merely admiring it made me sound like I knew a bit about football. Result.
Anyway, no woman should accept criticism of lack of knowledge as being "unsporting" was widespread. (That’s the same as non-sporting, right?) The Wales team was filmed celebrating Iceland’s victory over England, remember? And orders for Iceland shirts rocketed, with the highest demand from Scotland. I guess the country was trying to dress for European success; was there an order for a size medium from Edinburgh, from an N Sturgeon, also asking if there were shoes to match?
Lastly, it was interesting how misspeaking emerged as a Euro class issue. When referendum commentators like Jeremy Vine used the word leavey – to describe the inclination of a geographical area – it was perceived as linguistically playful. When commentators Rio Ferdinand or Ian Wright said "I fink", and "he plays brilliant", they were judged as not knowing how to speak.
Never let it be said footballers are stupid. You have to be able to count to do the Iceland Viking thunderclap. One two three CLAP four five six CLAP.
The clap (careful), it’s said, originated in Motherwell. My Dad is a Motherwell supporter and doesn’t remember it. He does recall a few opinions of the team after which "excuse my Icelandic" could have been said.
But if true, it’s an example of a successful Scottish export to a Euro nation. N Sturgeon, take note.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel