After the Croatia loss, there was a riot in Birmingham and trashing of an IKEA store after beating Sweden.
Apart from all that, everyone else was well behaved and in fantastic spirit. I was told by fellow Evertonian friends in England, that they never seen the team bring a country together so well since 1996.
Let me correct you here: I have not claimed that in the main they are followed by right wing thugs who enabled by the rest of you; I claim they are followed by racist thugs and political opportunists and that the rest of you who support England act as enablers to that.Sorry Dave but we need to go back to your original, and continuous claim (and I'm talking about long before this thread) that England are supported in the main by violent, right wing thugs and the rest of us are either apologists or naive enablers.
I merely posted the tweet of the Muslim women as a counterpoint to your posts with images of fans dressed as crusaders and Boris bloody Johnson.
Not, as you arrogantly presume, because I've been seduced by the 'feelgood nonsense'. I'm well aware there aren't countless thousands of BAME England fans with an invite to Nigel Farage's post match celebration party.
My only real claim is that my reason for watching England is everything to do with habit and nothing at all to do with jingoism. And I'm sure it is for most.
Don't be silly mate. We all know it was Prince Philip who sorted out the "Diana problem"Just had a bit of a catch up in this thread.
According to Dave, the Queen's a nazi who murdered Princess Diana,
Let me correct you here: I have not claimed that in the main they are followed by right wing thugs who enabled by the rest of you; I claim they are followed by racist thugs and political opportunists and that the rest of you who support England act as enablers to that.
The photo you linked of muslim women England supporters is much much less representative of England fans than the committed activists and knuckle draggers.
THAT's what I claimed, but you seem to have recently joined the ranks of taking what I actually said and repackaging it to me as a caricature.
A bit of self-examination is required here by you.
Also a huge number of German fans stayed behind inside wembley after last week's game for all the sweet caroline stuff, so they can't have been having too bad a time of it.This actually reminds me of when I went to a league game in Croatia, got talking to a couple of lads and it was about 2 months after we played there in a qualifier. I sheepishly said I was English, half expecting some 'anger' directed towards me. He smiled and started to talk about how great the English fans were, mingling, having fun, singing, etc. with the Croatians.
There can be idiots trying to ruin the party, I remember there being some right pricks in Liege with Everton but on the whole I think people see the negative and associate it with everybody, it is the easy thing to do rather than debate about the potential problems that the minority causes.
I suppose the first paragraph is the problem, even fairly logical thinking people like me, who understands that it is the minority gets wound up in the negative press and history.
Here's the difference: you have no need to support England, but you do have to eat and you did get into football by supporting your own club team (and supporting them is more of a necessity than supporting a national team).So, if all us non-racist thugs stopped supporting England they would stop being racist thugs and/or stop supporting England, as we are allowing this to happen by cheering a goal scored by an England player, sometimes with no-one else to hear it (in my case, all the Germans in the neighbourhood heard it last Tuesday)
Are you enabling the racist pricks that I have heard at Everton, just simply by suppoorting Everton. Hey, are you enabling the racist pricks that work for and/or also shop at Tesco (insert preferred shop of choice) by buying stuff from them.
I don't know if you are not not, it is hard to tell, but it is a very noble gesture by you to stand for equality by not supporting a multi-cultural team full of people who are also for equality and inclusiveness, and why because a few idiots support them.
Here's the difference: you have no need to support England, but you do have to eat and you did get into football by supporting your own club team (and supporting them is more of a necessity than supporting a national team).
You identify and support who you want mate, I couldn't care less. This debate though is over something different: the claim that 3 muslim women watching England proves that group can be integrated into a national football support setting.
How is being entirely consistent with my own previously stated views being "a contrarian"?
A true message of hope.This is why the extremists hate them. They want us all divided, by colour/gender etc. But the England team are bringing people of all cultural backgrounds together at this moment in time, and they absolutely hate it.
Love is stronger than hate.
Here's the difference: you have no need to support England, but you do have to eat and you did get into football by supporting your own club team (and supporting them is more of a necessity than supporting a national team).
You identify and support who you want mate, I couldn't care less. This debate though is over something different: the claim that 3 muslim women watching England proves that group can be integrated into a national football support setting.
Not a whole lot of difference between the bit in black and the bit in purple.Let me correct you here: I have not claimed that in the main they are followed by right wing thugs who enabled by the rest of you; I claim they are followed by racist thugs and political opportunists and that the rest of you who support England act as enablers to that.
The photo you linked of muslim women England supporters is much much less representative of England fans than the committed activists and knuckle draggers.
THAT's what I claimed, but you seem to have recently joined the ranks of taking what I actually said and repackaging it to me as a caricature.
A bit of self-examination is required here by you.
Not a whole lot of difference between the bit in black and the bit in purple.
The bit in green would be marvelous advice for you but I doubt you're capable.
As for the bit in the middle. I never claimed that the photo of muslim women was majorly representative of England fans. You did claim in an earlier post that the images you posted of a pair of knuckle draggers and a political opportunist were posted 'without words or context'. Thus insinuating they were purely random. Thus, taking the piss.
I've been through the England team hating phase Dave. partly for similar ideological reasons to you. Partly because the football was predictably prehistoric.
I've since realised that political opportunists and knuckle draggers abound and have no nationality. And England aren't to shoddy at the old togger imho.
Demagogues in Spain, Italy and anywhere else will always bask in the reflected glory and take advantage of national sports teams/stars.
So we either give up on international sports all together and let the knuckle draggers keep the national team as the last bastion of white England. Or we try to make the pubs and stadiums a more inviting place for the muslim women and other minorities in our society