What sort of home did football not come home to, exactly?

The last week or two have seen a familiar cultural trajectory, very similar to the much more prolonged one that we saw with Brexit, characteristic of the cultural politics of social distancing embraced by the new petite bourgeoisie

1. An imaginary community is constructed. Not 'Europe' this time but 'England'. It is a place of community, diversity, love and harmony, 

2. It is embodied, utterly ludicrously, in the professional football team! Professional football is not at all ruthless, exploitative, competitive and dominated by shady billionaires, but a nice game played by nice people. These people appear (!) young, community-minded and liberal in their gestures(!) -- anti-racist kneeling and charitable works. They are smartly dressed. They were from humble origins but are now millionaires, which shows what happens if you follow your dream and work hard, kids (we'll pass over the thousands who were not selected). They are very nice lads who give fans their old kit and are polite to their betters.

3. A struggle ensues to capture and develop this image (at rather short notice) and reinforce it in the liberal media, especially by the usual suspects like the Graun, C4 or Newsnight. Gone are the old condemnations of the flag of St George as exclusionary. In come black people (mostly not actual players) enthusing over professional football and the myths of community it peddles.

4. The team IS 'the nation'. Suddenly, regional differences, even Celtic ones, and all other social ones that seemed so important are magically resolved. We can all unite behind the team. All this stuff was analysed in Cultural Studies 40 years ago -- and here it all is again.

After the crash (England's defeat to an thoroughly well-organised and professional Italian team)...

5. The main terrain is still the cultural one.No-one cares about the tactics or the issues of skill (except specialist sports writers -- but luvvies do not read them)  -- it is all about fighting over 'the narrative'. And of course it rapidly gets polarised and becomes a matter of social distancing. It is nice people versus 'racists'.  Nice people must be right because the only ones who oppose them are unspeakable hooligans and racists.

The actual football doesn't matter. The result doesn't matter. The England manager said as much. It is a matter of developing as 'role models', of being tolerant and welcoming to minorities, of doing charitable works (Rashford's campaign to restore free school meals during the holidays was described on Newsnight as him 'feeding a whole nation'). Luvvies would not love them otherwise. Prince Harry for England coach!

It is just like the way the Remain campaign shifted from the issue of whether the EU actually brought prosperity to whether it offered some superior but ineffable way of life, and how the debate polarised and became a culture war against ignorant racists.

There did seem to have been some pretty crude racist tweets because, of the 5 penalty takers for England, only the white ones actually scored, which clearly invites the naive positivism characteristic of racism. However, the liberals were close to that positivist racism too, claiming that football was nicer and more civilised because there were more black players in the team ( causes and effects were nicely blurred). 

Liberal championing of campaigning footballers also inevitably brings political retorts of this kind from N Elphicke, Tory MP: [Rashford, who missed a penalty, should have] "spent more time "perfecting his game" rather than "playing politics" (reported in the Times). Liberals never learn. Note that this is not racist, of course. This might be harsh. Professional football is harsh. £46m was at stake. Dealing with economic and political alliances is harsh. Sentimental politics get us nowhere.

In fact, the latest issue of Spiked reminds me, there is a need to check just how much racist reaction was actually generated and by whom. They have agendas of their own, of course, but they claim:

industry experts and security professionals... told me that racist abuse of English footballers does exist, but that much of it comes from foreign accounts and bots. It doesn’t come from frustrated and virulently intolerant English people firing off salvos of abuse while pissed up and pissed off....Manager Gareth Southgate must have recently been told the same. He explained to no-doubt disappointed reporters yesterday that a lot of the abuse ‘has come from abroad – people that track those things have been able to explain that’.

The media love reporting tides of horrid reactions from sexists and racists, and, of course, they can't possibly actually show any. The Daily Mail shared a couple with banana and monkey emojis. Lots of people seem to have seen them. I spent about 20 mins searching through Twitter and found lots of hostile comments but no racist ones