Socio-political Football.

Who would have thought Gary Liniker would make the most significant socio-political documentary EVER? “Why can’t England win The World Cup?” BBC, 3^rd October. Football is not just a game, it’s where a nation dreams, not as in winning X Factor, but those messy phantasmagorical nigh time creations of one’s unconscious let loose, where a multitude of buried concerns are reassembled into a flow of honest nonsense like a Nostradamus prediction. This summer’s World Cup was one such nightmare. Like a client in therapy England is being forced to look past its comfortable conscious constructions to peruse the malaise of its underbelly. We have the best league, good players, the most expensive manager and a legion of fans; how could we lose? But we did, badly. Where David Cameron’s brief appearance showed the paucity of politicians awareness of this area of national incongruity Jose Mourinho, in the simplest of language, gave an exposition of our dream that Jung would have been proud of. In the decline phase of any human endeavour expectations remain long after current resources fail to meet them. We plunder our reserves like a farmer choosing to eat his seed corn. Our desire to plant and play the game is replaced by a frantic need to win as if we’re at the gambling table with our farm as the stake. Clubs expect to buy success from foreign players, players expect a superstar life style, and fans expect success, but expectation is the currency of failure. It removes one from present action into the fiction of a rosy future. England’s present is extreme levels of club indebtedness, overworked players, minimal coaching of young English talent leading to only 23% of English players in the Premiership compared with Spain’s 70 %. That’s not just football, that’s England itself. As Jose said, the players are English just like plumbers and postmen. England can win if you lose all your expectations and deal with the problems of your current reality. AND he looks gorgeous too. No wonder he gives Mothermouse damp knickers.