The crunch, as it is now called the match of the VI Nations rugby tournament between France and England, will, as always, be the summit of an event which draws a large part of its salt of this explanation between frogs and roast beef. Clumsily, unless she is conscious and tactical.
“Suffice to say things without hypocrisy, we have a little trouble with the English. We respect them, at least I respect them, but we cannot say that it is with them that we have the most hooked atoms. We appreciate our Italian cousins, with whom we share the same quality of life, we appreciate the Celts and their conviviality … And then among all these nations, we still have a huge point in common: we don’t like the English! We left Dublin last weekend under the encouragement of all the Irish who said: out of pity, beat the English. The Scots are the same thing. ”
Preferential treatment
For their own pleasure, everyone could make their own list in the opposite direction and it is likely that in the various proposals would certainly include the idea that the English (we will never say the British on this side of the Channel) are decidedly people apart, always reserving the right to a particular treatment which is generally granted to them because of their island status.
Sport is the absolute proof. At the next rugby world cup in New Zealand, the kingdom of his gracious majesty will be represented by three teams: England, Scotland and Wales, also in the VI Nations tournament. For its part, Fifa, the international football federation, accepts from the associations that compose it England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, entities which each have the possibility of being able to qualify for a World Cup. In 1982, for example, during the Mundial organized in Spain, England, Northern Ireland and Scotland had thus won their ticket for the final phase.
Can we imagine giving Catalonia a chance tomorrow – some dream of it there – in the context of the qualifiers for a football World Cup? The Aquitaine region, fertile ground of the oval balloon in France, would it have the right to secede to cultivate its difference and show its finest attire during a tournament that could become that of the VII nations? Obviously not.
Inventors of football and rugby
At a World Cup, in principle, a single country and a single label should prevail, as at the 먹튀검증 Olympic Games and in almost all disciplines: Great Britain. But here is an old story that goes back to the creation of sports that owe everything, or almost, to the so-called British. They invented football, rugby, tennis, golf … glory to them and they still enjoy, in most cases, the privileges that go with these births. Indeed, it is admitted that English and Scottish played the first football match having opposed two countries in 1872. A year earlier, in 1871, the same Scots and the same English had also disputed the first international match of rugby. Since then, Fifa and IRB, the International Rugby Board, the international rugby federation,
This is not without making some jealous. Gilbraltar, a British territory of some 30,000, recently asked to join Fifa and UEFA, the European football organization, but the request was turned down for fear of offending the Spaniards who claim Gibraltar and fear of see their 17 autonomous regions in turn request special treatment on the football map. But Fifa is not an oddity since it recognizes, for example, the Faroe Islands which are nevertheless part of the kingdom of Denmark. New Caledonia is itself a departure from a certain logic in that it was inducted, in 2004, at the Paris congress, as the 205 th member of Fifa, after becoming, in 1999, overseas country and territory.
One flag at the Olympics
For the British nations, concerned about their autonomy, the question of their sporting sovereignty is very sensitive and can even become a sort of casus belli like the controversy concerning the football team which will represent Great Britain in the coming London Games. The International Olympic Committee (IOC) does not compromise, in fact. All athletes must compete behind the flag of Great Britain. But now the Welsh (FAW), Scottish (SFA) and Northern Irish (IFA) federations refuse the idea of this British team which could give bad ideas to Fifa.
In vain. Lord Moynihan, head of the British Olympic Committee, who hopes for this British team, cannot make himself heard with the Scots, Welsh and Northern Irish, so it is possible that only English make up this team British (same thing for the women’s team). The business is complicated with in particular the Welsh Gareth Bale, player of Tottenham, who wants, him, to take part at all costs in these Olympic Games under the British banner. Suddenly, legal actions could be taken between the player and the Welsh federation which would like to prevent him from realizing his dream
It is likely that the people of Scotland, Wales or Northern Ireland are not very keen on the idea of this unified football team in a country where we even come to polls for have if tennis player Andy Murray is British or Scottish. This same Murray, originally from Dunblane, who had awkwardly announced that he would support any team except that of England during the 2006 Football World Cup and who said a lot on this occasion about this funny country that is Great Britain…
