Fields of play – joining the dots between pitches and politics

English World Cup hopes rest on Gareth Southgate’s young team’s shoulders. But Left politics needs to address the lack of facilities for youngsters and the grassroots game.

By Mark Perryman

Published: July 10, 2018, 2:07 pm

Fakenham_Magna_football_pitch_-_geograph.org_.uk_-_1360745.jpg

Image: Football pitch in the village of Fakenham Magna. Rights: Bob Jones, CC 2.0.

It seems like almost yesterday that ‘Football’s Coming Home’ became England’s National Anthem, an England shirt our national dress, not being able to move for St George’s Cross Flags. 2018 is fast becoming the new ’96 and English hope springs eternal that this time there might be a happier ending.

Football’s coming home – and one of those fronting it is comedian and writer David Baddiel, born in New York, his Dad Welsh, his mum a Jewish refugee from Nazi Germany. Baddiel neatly sums up the patchwork of identities most modern (and some ancient) icons of Englishness are constructed out of.

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