The Two Faces of Football
This morning the news of the threats against Neil Lennon broke.
This evening, I’ve just watched a marvellous display of football as Tottenham and Arsenal fought out a three all draw.
Now, when I was young and growing up in North London, the rivalry between the two North London teams was fierce and probably on the same level as it was between Rangers and Celtic in Scotland at the time.
The rivalry is still there in North London, but it is still at a fierce but fair level. I would doubt there have been any more than a handful of arrests tonight. How many will we see in Glasgow on Sunday?
What has gone so wrong in Glasgow?
The Anonymous Widower 
Could it be more a case of what has gone right in London? I dont know but suspect that young people in London have more opportunities than young people in Glasgow.
Comment by liz | April 20, 2011 |
I think it might be fairer to compare Glasgow with Liverpool, where I went to University in 1965. I go back regularly and find that city totally changed. In the 1960s, Catholics and Protestants were at each others throats and there was a lot of bigotry. For many years, it’s all dropped to a much lower level. You could ask, where are Glasgow’s equivalent of Warlock and Sheppard. Incidentally, in the winter in Liverpool, I was wearing my Ipswich hat and got nothing but friendly banter. I wouldn’t wear that hat in Glasgow.
Comment by AnonW | April 21, 2011 |
We had Rangers down to Ipswich for a so-called friendly (?) a couple of years ago. It was not an experience the club, the town or the supporters want to repeat.
Comment by AnonW | April 21, 2011 |
|I grew up just outside LIverpool, it was I guess early to mid seventies that I was around Liverpool much, the RC/protestant thing had pretty much died down by then. Certainly there was no violence. But I remember as a child my parents and some aunts and uncles having a very serious and deep discussion about whether they would prefer their daughters (didnt have sons) to marry a “a black man or a red neck” – red neck was local slang for Roman Catholic. I remember at the time feeling cross because they should want their daughters to marry someone they loved and the stuff they were talking about wasnt relevant.
Comment by liz | April 21, 2011 |
My parents were both fairly anti-Catholic. After all my mother’s family were of Huguenote descent and my father’s family traced back to German Jews. He particularly didn’t like the Pope’s non-support of Jews in WW2.
Comment by AnonW | April 21, 2011 |
My father’s family were Huguenot, both their ancestral lines are dissenting Protestant, although they ended up C of E. The irony of the conversation as whether it was better to have your daughter marry “a black man or a red neck” is the one of the uncles in question came from an Irish RC family who had come over to build the railways, and the uncle was actually baptised RC, BUT his wife had no idea!
Comment by liz | April 21, 2011 |