A Depressing Denouement

I find it very depressing that the only thing everybody is talking about when it comes to yesterday's Euro 2020 final is, as always, racism.

Millions of people all over the world watched and enjoyed the match. It was tough, tense and exciting. Somebody has to win, somebody has to lose. It's always painful to be on the losing side, particularly at the end of a very closely fought contest. Deciding tournament finals by penalty kicks seems particularly egregious. I am not sure why the football authorities decided on this remedy. Why can't competitors go on playing until there is a clear winner? It's what happens in other sports--baseball and tennis immediately spring to mind.

Be that as it may, that's what the football authorities decreed. Yesterday's final, like many other finals, was decided by the dreaded penalty kicks. What happened is what always happens: The team with nerves of steel prevails. England, as is often its wont, failed at the crucial penalty stage--and Italy won out. Still, Italy failed on penalty kicks in the 1994 World Cup Final, with its star player Roberto Baggio missing the crucial final kick. It happened also to Chelsea captain John Terry in the 2008 UEFA Champions League final. So, everybody has had his share of disappointments. That's the way it goes in sport. You accept it, and start planning for the next tournament.

But that's not the way England has taken it. National hysteria has today taken hold of the country, but a hysteria of a peculiar sort. What's happening in England now is repugnant. Politicians and media and Internet worthies are demanding that the nation undergo self-laceration over its racism. Why? Well, we are told that black England players--particularly the three who missed their kicks--have been subjected to racist abuse since last night.

That may well be true. I haven't looked on social media, and don't particularly want to. I try to avoid reading stupid abusive comments. However, stupid abusive comments are part-and-parcel of the Internet. People hide, and have always hidden, behind anonymity. It enables them to be as insulting, as nasty and as threatening as they like without facing any consequences. There is no reason to pay any attention to people too cowardly to use their own names when hurling insults at others.

The proper response to the racist abuse would have been to dismiss it as too pathetic and worthless to merit serious attention. Instead, through the intervention of Boris Johnson, Prince William and the rest of Britain's buffoonish Tory government, stupid comments made by stupid people (many probably children or teenagers), something idiotic has been elevated into a national and even international crisis. Instead of celebrating a great sporting contest and a fine England footballing performance (the best in more than 50 years), the country and the world is talking, once again, about racism.

Twitter, according to this story has taken down 1000 racist tweets. 1000! Let's see. Tens of millions of people around the world watched the match. 1000 tweets is a statistically insignificant number. Yet the story, as far as the media and the politicians are concerned, is these 1000 tweets. Our media-political class is truly pathetic.