Matt Chapman’s Monday Yeeehaaa – ‘Hang your heads in shame’, Euro 2020 brought out the best and the worst of us
SOME OF YOU HANG YOUR HEADS IN SHAME.
Be proud they said. Of the England football team? That’s easy. Of some of the people of England? Well that’s much harder.
Like many, I went to bed last night deflated and frustrated. After an incredible start, a seemingly winnable Euros 2020 Final had been lost on the dreaded penalties. I woke up this morning in similar vein. It’s hard to be happy when you have been defeated. But I was still just as proud of the England football team.
As with anyone in any job, all you can do is ask a person to give their all. The England players had clearly done that. They had lost the final, but they have beaten Germany along the way. It was far from all bad.
That feeling didn’t last long.
As so often in England, a small minority took away all my English pride. The Euros gave us all the chance to enjoy being English. But the country, as so often, would be messed up by a thoughtless but significant minority.
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We witnessed lasered goalkeepers, National Anthems booed, police abused, a stadium attacked, staff insulted, proper fans scared and, sadly predictably, backlash of racism against certain players.
This was not a bit of banter or minor teasing. This was abuse.
It’s just so depressing, and unacceptable. And yet as a country we appear to accept it. Time and time and time again. Remember in lockdown? When the minority decided to party?
The seriously upsetting part about all this is that so many respectable people would have expected a racist backlash if we lost, or trouble in the streets. Isn’t that depressing? That we just expect a certain proportion of people in this country to behave with no respect or decency.
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If you, YES YOU, are one of those minority, then just remember this. You are the sad ones, You are the pathetic ones, you are subhuman. It’s YOU that have the problem.
Perhaps next time you choose to behave in a manner lacking respect and decency instead of causing trouble, or typing insulting remarks on social media, you might say to yourself: ‘do you know what I’ll go and do something good in my community today, I might help the aged or check on someone to see if they’re all right or get involved with some community project.
Long-term you will feel pride also. Just like most of us did this morning.
On the racing front I was delighted my column banged in Starman in the Darley July Cup for Ed Walker and Tom Marquand.
The lightly raced sprinter was awesome.
But despite ‘Super Saturday’, perhaps the biggest wins of the weekend came from Ryan Moore and Aidan O’Brien at Belmont.
Victories for Santa Barbara and Bolshoi Ballet were huge, and the Americans must have been thrilled to get two such big names from the British Classic scene.
It bodes well to the Breeders’ Cup later in the year when hopefully all Europeans can be proud of the challenge.
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