VIEWPOINT FROM LONDON

FOOTBALL CRAZY

by Brian Gallagher

The Croatian Herald, Australia No. 1021 - 02.07.04

 

Croatia was all over the UK press recently. All due to the England v Croatia clash. Most of the coveage was good, some of it bad. Your humble correspondent even gave his opinions on who would win on television.

As most know the England V Croatia match on 21 June determined who would go through to the next stage of the tournament; England won but was promptly knocked out by Portugal.

Like many countries, England is obsessed by football. And so, Croat opinions were much in demand by the media. They turned to the Croatian Students and Young Professionals Network, the UK's leading Croatian organisation of which I am Vice-President, no less. Marko Krznaric, the President of CSYPN handled much of the press, handing out quotes like a professional. He did it very well - a real credit to Croatia.

The day before the match we arranged a lunch in Spago's restaurant, Croatian flag on the wall, in South Kensington. Sky Sports News TV filmed our debate on the forthcoming match. The Times and The Independent also stopped by to obtain views.

CSYPN had booked a room at the Cadogan Arm's in London's Chelsea. Much of the press erroneously thought that it was a Croatian pub! One TV morning programme wanted to film Croats in the pub at, er, 5.30AM on the day. Quite apart from anything else, pubs in England are not known to open at such hours.

More realistically, a crew from London Tonight - an important London news programme - interviewed a group of us live shortly before the match. I informed all of London that Croatia would win.

Much of the press were intrigued by the 'Upstairs Downstairs' aspect of things. The Croats were in the room upstairs, the England fans downstairs. The press were there during the match. The Croats were cheering, singing and roaring throughout the game, even when England were ahead- contrary to one report which said the Croats went quiet. Amusingly, the press picked up on the booing when Victoria 'Posh' Beckham appeared on screen. Little could be heard from downstairs, despite the fact England won. The whole of Chelsea could hear the Croats.

Most of the press reporting of the fans at the pub was fair, with BBC Online easily producing the best report. Press reporting in general was not too bad - that is for an opposing team. Some allegations about 'racist' Croatia fans - echoing similar complaints previously about Slovaks - did appear in the media. Some English fans made clear to me this was a bit much - as if racism has not been present in English football in the past or indeed now. Other reports, such as in the News of the World, concentrated on differences in the Croatian team.

However, this kind of thing is to be expected against any team playing England. Just wait until the next England v Germany game...

Whatever the merits of press coverage, at least it concentrated on football - you can't expect the English media not to support their team. However, the Independent was an exception. It ran a page, containing a reasonable article based on the aforementioned lunch but also "Ten things you always wanted to know about Croatia". Amongst these thing, we were informed about Croatian concentration camps - but not about wartime Serbian crimes in Croatia.

We were also informed that "former yugoslavians" do not like Croat player's chequerboard shirts because they remind them of Ustasha uniforms. We were not informed why they had no problem with the chequerboard when it denoted Croatia during the communist Yugoslav era. Strange people, these "former yugoslavians".

This was nasty and hideously inappropriate material, from a supposedly 'liberal' newspaper. This is the sort of newspaper to look down its nose at anti-German comments by other papers.

It was interesting to see that most sports/general reporters were not interested in such drivel, in contrast those that cover Croatia politically. There were some erroneously reports that an England fan was murdered by a Croat - but these were quickly corrected.

One interesting thing about Euro 2004 is the nationalism, lets it call it that, of the English and its media - now transferred to the Tennis. The cross of St. George is everywhere. This is mostly a positive phenomenon. Only a few years ago it was rarely seen. The lesson for Croats is not to take any nonsense from anyone about their 'nationalism' - just point to the English. Those few Croats who claim that flying the flag etc is not the done thing in today's world are merely displaying their own ignorance and unworldliness.

All in all, the media coverage of Croatia was good. The main reason is not that that it was all positive - it wasn't of course. No, it was because Croatia was all over the press as an accepted country in its own right. It would be unthinkable twenty years ago to consider such a thing. There are no doubt those who were grinding their teeth at Croatian symbols so prominently displayed in the press. They belong to yesterday - and they know it.

Its become a bit of cliché to say Croatia's sports men and women are Croatia's best ambassador's. But, as the Croatian football team - and their tennis players - have recently showed, it's as true as ever.

 

© Brian Gallagher

My 'Viewpoint from London' column appears in the Australian 'Croatian Herald' and thereafter at www.croatiafocus.com