.
I was an avid football fan when the earlier generation Balogun Thunder was a still a living legend and Nigeria, Ghana and Guinea dominated West African Soccer. With my Better Half and thousands more fans I saw Asante Kotoko beat Engelbert of Zaire 2-1 at the Africa Club cup final in Kumasi in 1970….
On that historic occasion when Sierra Leone beat Nigeria 2-1 in Freetown - ah national braggadocio - it was headline news in the main Sierra Leone newspaper : "Okuru dog kill lepet " (leopard) . So, I wonder how the Newspapers in Iceland are reporting last night's match in which Iceland dis-appointed England by two goals to one ( 2-1).
Even in the English speaking world the various kinds of put-downs is shocking - and you must understand that I'm saying this as an Anglophile – albeit to an equal extent Scandinavianized by acculturation, having spent nearly all of my adult life in Sweden - since 1971 – quite naturally, Swedish being my second language - and therefore a certain identification with Iceland, a brother Nordic Viking nation, its Human Rights and its football aspirations. (By the way in case you didn't know you had better wise-up : There's the diaspora term " Afro-Viking" - racial purity - the new nomenclature of those who have an African and a Nordic parent as ancestry...
Howz this for a put down : "Where England a country with 54 000 000 inhabitants gets its ass whipped by Iceland, a country with a population of a mere 320 000 "
It reminds me of a certain Arab- Israel War of which it was said that "Never have so many had their butts kicked by so few."
Of course, if performance is to be judged in terms of proportionality then it's not only Ireland who would like to beat China…
And there are other kinds of matches that we look forward to, such as USA- Russia, Russia -Ukraine, Israel – Palestinians (although, sadly, Israel cannot play in any Arab Countries - or Iran, the official reason being given that " the safety of the lives and limbs of the Israeli players cannot be guaranteed whilst they are in the soccer arena or outside of it". More than likely after the first ten minutes of play about five red cards would have already been awarded for violence and the Israeli side would have by then been reduced to seven men. Talk about hate speech , this is how mathematics was being taught in some schools in Gaza : Subtraction : You have seven Israelis and you wipe out five of them, how many remain? As bad as South Africa's PAC ( Pan African Congress) who had has policy, " one bullet , one settler"
This opens up another box : Politics and sports.
Here are are my humble reflection on the Iceland – England match and some adjacent matters
But this takes the biscuit - of course coming from an Englishman (British to the bootstraps)
even if because of the accidents of history he may be the first to deny
"Tis a glorious charter, deny it who can,
That's breathed in the words, "I'm an Englishman."
His current distress:;remorse at the loss of Empire:
And then just as those who want a recount or the Naija Kennedys who pray for a new referendum that would beat Brexit , so too there was some potential here : Petition: Iceland v England: If we lose the game has to be replayed.
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