AIBU to wonder if anti-English feeling is mostly about sport

[Batsratscatsgnats]

If you support anyone but England in football or other sports do you dislike English people generally or is it just in sports?

And England could never be accused of being cocky.

I don’t hate England as I'm English but yhe obsession with winning in 66 is utterly bizarre. Even France don’t go on about winning like that and they've won loads of times recently.
I'm embarrassed every time it's mentioned.

However..,, I did think that what some of the Mexicans did was bad sportsmanship - making noise, letting off fireworks and honking horns all night by the hotel. This is a new one!

I do have to agree with this! I literally have NO IDEA why it's mentioned. 60 years ago people!!!
Maybe its from Skinner and Badiels Footballs coming home song?

The general sentiment on MN, The Telegraph and other news outlets is that the country has gone to the dogs. If that's the case, what are others jealous of?

I found it hard when, being English, I went to a Scottish uni. My grandfather was Scottish and my parents really wanted me to go. Had a rotten time every time I opened my mouth..social events, that is, not tutorials!
Have two very dear Scottish friends from those days but felt very lonely and foreign. Long time ago though so I’m sure it’s different now,,,,

How ill informed. I think you need to read up on your history. Some cooperation does not excuse or minimise colonial behaviour.

Definately just sports, (Scottish here) the men in my family are anyone but England 🙄
I was so happy when I woke this morning at the result.
Well done England, bring it home, we need some good news in the WHOLE of UK at the moment.
X

Yep mine are primary and it was taught in infants, then reiterated several other times. May be area specific. Most of my secondary History up to A Level was the Merthyr Rising and Welsh revolts too!

No hate for England or the English here but I definitely feel weary of national news assuming we are all one country, and that in Scotland we would be keen to hear of England's football success (no, not any more or less than any other country that is not Scotland), telling us that Andy Burnham is wanting to move power to "the North" (to us it is the South) , that there is a heatwave (actually it is wet and grey here right now) and so on. It's another country, albeit our next door neighbour. Could you imagine Denmark being treated as an outpost of Germany just because the country is physically attached and they are both part of a broader political union?

If you say so. Ask the Jamaicans with Scottish last names.

Believe it or not lots of people outside England have historically negative attitudes towards English because of British Empire colonialism or British Empire geopolitical behaviour towards other countries even if they weren’t their colonies. Or the fact that Britain politicians or public figures continue to lecture other countries on their politics or affairs now with said sense of superiority even though realistically Britain’s influence has massively declined. General sense of superiority that many Brits continue to display doesn’t help…

It doesn’t feel significant to you maybe or you feel that’s been long ago but some generational attitudes do get passed on and World Cup is a perfect opportunity for them to reappear in a harmless way. Just like Eurovision.

Not sure I’ve ever heard such a remark from an England supporter! Rather more likely to be on the lines of ‘Let’s hope we don’t screw it up this time…’.

I still remember similar cockiness some years ago from a non Aussie. During Wimbledon (World Cup at the same time) a German player was asked by a TV journalist what he thought of their chances in the match later that day.

‘Of course we will win! We are German!’
Croatia thrashed them, 5-1, or 5-0, I forget which.
Yes, I did 🤣.

I am English but have lived for long periods in Scotland.

They will dress it up anyway they can, it's the media, it's the constant reference to 1966 ( I find Scots bring that up far more than the English, we are embarrassed by the length of time since we won anything), it's the arrogance
( like scots fans tearing down England flags isn't arrogance).

It's none of those, it's bigotry disguised as " banter", because banter is what bigots hide behind.

Yes more coverage in the media, but England's population is 20 times that of Wales and 10 times that of Scotland.

I am old enough to remember supporting Scotland when England didn't qualify, coverage was huge, most English people did.

Replace the " anyone but England" with another nations name and you will be called a bigot. Because you would be one.

Weird how English accept their part in the empire but the Scots try to pretend they didn't do anything.

My son ( English) lived in Fife for 3 years. Lovely people - never had any issues being English, except when the football was on - he took it as banter tbh. My club's captain is Scottish so was hoping they would do well for him.

I don’t get this obsession comment that’s been made a couple of times?

Obsession from who? I don’t think I’ve ever spoken to a single person (in actual real life) who ever mentions 66 when the World Cup is on?!

If anything, people are embarrassed by the fact it’s been 60 years and would rather not mention it I think!!

It's your obsession with that year that is bizarre , can you not see that?

I think a lot of the problem is that there are no English only media outlets in the way we have BBC Scotland or BBC Wales. So it goes on UK wide and the other nations feel bombarded.

But I think they forget that they have country specific programming.

England has regional news obviously but it's focus is on the specifics of that area and it would be daft to have to send 15 different reporters to things (they'll obviously cover in but from the context of Manchester or Bristol).

@LadyChilli that's my point. Where should it go out in terms of an outlet that covers all of England but not Scotland, Wales or NI?

The Scottish sold themselves to England for £398000 to clean up the mess they made with their failed colonies.

Scotland have a great set of fans, who deserve better than what’s served up on the pitch. Their team was good enough to get out of that group but they didn’t turn up. Admittedly, Brazil and Morocco are a tough ask, but having watched both games I didn’t see much pluck, or fight, or any attempt to really go for it, and they have the players to make life difficult for better teams.

I can't speak for the Welsh involvement but the Scottish involvement was considerably more than "some co-operation"

Weird, embarrassing and desperately ill informed.

Of course the Scots have a massive chip on their shoulder when it comes to the English, for so very many reasons, and your point is?

Yes they did, and fuck me we'll never hear the end of it.