Stoke City’s James McClean defies the poppy fascists
The FA are blinking hard at Stoke City’s James McClean. The player used his private Instagram account to call Middlesbrough supporters who abused him for not wearing a remembrance poppy “uneducated cavemen and c***s”. At the weekend’s match between the clubs, a few Middlesbrough supporters rushed towards the pitch to tell McClean what they thought of him. The BBC says “objects were thrown at the Ireland international”. McClean hurled some invective before being ushered away.
“They have nothing in their whole imperial arsenal that can break the spirit of one Irishman who doesn’t want to be broken,” McClean wrote on Instagram. That’s a quote by provisional IRA member Bobby Sands (9 March 1954 – 5 May 1981), who died on hunger strike while imprisoned at HM Prison Maze .
Irish nationalists view the red poppy as a symbol of British rule. McClean, raised on the nationalist Creggan estate in Derry, has talked about his decision before, notably when he was playing at Wigan Athletic: “For people from the north of Ireland such as myself, and specifically those in Derry, scene of the 1972 Bloody Sunday massacre, the poppy has come to mean something very different. For me to wear a poppy would be as much a gesture of disrespect for the innocent people who lost their lives in the Troubles – and Bloody Sunday especially.”
Now he continues:
“Your abuse, your throwing things, your booing, do your worst… to the home fans that are actually educated and support me, thank yous… to the section of uneducated cavemen in left-hand corner of the boothen end stand that want to sing their anti irish song each game and call me a fenian this and that… i am a PROUD FENIAN no c@#t will ever change that, so sing away.”
Fair enough, no? McClean doesn’t have to wear a poppy on his shirt. Just as Manchester United’s Nemanja Matic doesn’t have to wear one on his. The Serb poppy removed the poppy from his shirt before Manchester United’s 2-1 win away to Bournemouth. United called it a “personal decision”, which it is.
TV newsreader Jon Snow called the drive for conformity ‘poppy fascism‘ – “…there is a rather unpleasant breed of poppy fascism out there – ‘he damned well must wear a poppy!’. Well I do, in my private life, but I am not going to wear it or any other symbol on air.”
In 2016, But, FIFA, football’s world governing body, said England and Scotland players must not wear poppies at their World Cup qualifier. The poppy is a political symbol, said FIFA, so it was banned.
It’s all a public fuss over what should be a private matter. But like so much about what is a fun leisure activity, football is politicised. Whether it’s standing for a minute’s silence or the national anthem, professing a dislike of racism, and players being dragged before the proles as ‘role models’, football has become a tool for public health issues, moralising and compliance.
Posted: 5th, November 2018 | In: Key Posts, Sports Comment | TrackBack | Permalink
