An inspiring sense of unity: a multi-racial and quintessentially English football team | Euro 2024

Ifa week is a long time in politics, then it can be an era-defining moment in football. Just eight days ago the national mood was not exactly, as the players like to say, buzzing. There was a sense of relief that 14 years of Tory rule were over, but neither the election nor the European Championship had sparked much joy.

The penalty shootout win over the Swiss banished any collective fear of the shootout, but it was the last-minute winner against the Netherlands on Wednesday that gave us a much-needed endorphin rush.

Suddenly, after all the criticism, England was awash with belief, pride and a galvanising sense of unity. Only football can do that, especially in a country that is only half-existent as a geographical entity, but not really a political one.

Football has not only given England a boost, it has also played a major role in redefining the English character. As David Olusoga, professor of public history at the University of Manchester, noted last week, England manager Gareth Southgate has attempted to create a new, workable version of English identity.

Olusoga spoke of a hyper-diverse England team. Strictly speaking, it is Anglo-Irish-African-Caribbean, with no Asian representation. It is also homogeneously heterosexual, as far as we know, unlike the England women's team, which, although much whiter, has a diversity of sexualities. But the point about the England men's team is that it is multiracial And typically English.

To see the entire team singing our dirge of an anthem with such impassioned passion is a group of individuals from different ethnic but broadly similar class backgrounds embracing a collective national identity. That is no mean feat, especially as football has often been a focal point for racism and division. For Sunder Katwala, director of think tank British Future, the feel-good factor of Euro 1996, which was held in England, was a breakthrough moment for ethnic minorities.

Until now, as a dedicated football fan, he had found the atmosphere surrounding England international matches threatening and angry, and unwelcoming to anyone who was not white. But that tournament, he says, had a huge fundamental impact on my confidence in identifying as English and other people thinking I was English.

At the time, the squad consisted of just three black players, while 11 of the current 26 players are non-white. However, Katwala says he experienced a sense of inclusivity that is separate from representation.

It didn't mean to me that there had to be a half-Indian, half-Irish person on the left wing, he says. There is a difference between acceptance and real solidarity, however.

As recently as 2011, then England captain John Terry was accused of racially abusing Anton Ferdinand, the younger brother of former England captain Rio Ferdinand. Terry was selected for the Euro 2012 squad, but Rio Ferdinand was not, leading to speculation that he was sent off to avoid dissent.

That scenario is extremely hard to imagine today. This is an English team who collectively took a knee and explicitly condemned racism. Rather than sublimating their racial identity, players felt able to speak out without their national loyalty being called into question.

As Katwala puts it: It is clear that the black and white players are on the same side.

And that side is not just the side of history, about a more tolerant and understanding society, as Southgate put it in his Dear England letter to the nation three years ago, it is also the side of Englishness, a long-troubled and contested concept.

We don’t talk about Englishness, says Katwala. You get a British passport, you’re a British citizen, but can you be English? Can you be black or Asian and English?

The English team, he says, answers that question, and it is the only institution equipped to do so. There is no English parliament. The Church of England is slowly fading from national relevance. In a sense, the fact that they are English has been left as an ill-defined negative for those Britons who are not Scottish, Welsh or Irish.

The idea that Britishness is inclusive but Englishness is not was always an unlikely principle, but in football we have seen this problem being addressed, says Katwala.

It’s no coincidence that the people raising the issue are in their 20s, because for this younger generation, multiple identities that share a common Englishness are the norm. Older generations may disagree on nationalism or the meaning of the St George’s Cross, but the young are busy shaping the reality of how we live. Of course, when Bukayo Saka scores an equaliser against Switzerland, or Ollie Watkins scores his winner against the Dutch, issues of race and identity tend to fade away in the euphoria. But does that mean that black players have to be the very best to feel included?

Well, she Are the very best, that's why they're there. Football is nothing if not a meritocracy. Yet we know from the Euro 20 final, when Saka, Marcus Rashford and Jadon Sancho missed penalties in the shootout against Italy, that racists were waiting online to vent their anger.

The overwhelming response to those players was a kind of love and affection, says Katwala. The culture wasn’t turned against them, but against a minority in a space that’s not regulated.

It will be a special moment for the English, of all races and ethnicities, if the team somehow manages to beat Spain today. But it is not really about football coming home. Much more important is that football has helped to make us home.