I am Italian and I want to talk about the 2020 European Football Championship final, we all know how it went. I am not here to boast glory but to condemn some attitudes and stances of the fans, if they are real fans, of England. Addressed to all those who feel like true fans regardless of their faction.
What annoyed me most was seeing all the players kneel in unison before the game for Black Live Matters and then to learn that at the end of the game the only black English players who missed penalties were heavily humiliated by their fans or supposed fans. This is disconcerting indeed.
Not to mention other more or less striking facts, maybe some more.
For example, the fact that Prince William, his wife and little George did not attend for the award ceremony.
Not a very lordly gesture I might say.
I dare say that elegance in general has gone to hell this time, given the behaviour of the royals on duty, who did not even greet the President of the Italian Republic.
The fact that England's players took off their medals before they even got off the catwalk. For all the physical attacks on defenceless fans who were waiting, or joyfully awaiting the game, the Italian ones. Yet this treatment has never been meted out to them anywhere in Italy, where the police are always massive and preventive. It would have taken little to say that a party like that would have been a real party, at least in the name of sport.
I have many English friends, I've been to England many times, I know that I don't have to assimilate a few rotten apples to all of you dear friends, but this time it seems to me that the limit has been crossed.
There is much to be done, but not in terms of words:
Scripta manent verba volant.
Long live sport, to the best.
I would be curious to know the opinions, if expressed in a civilised manner, of the many fans of the game of football, no matter the faction. Of real sportsmen and women, in general.