“THREE LIONS ON the shirt, Jules Rimet still gleaming…”
Regardless of your feeling towards the England football team, the ‘Football’s Coming Home’ song (officially called Three Lions) is a catchy one, indeed.
The song has roared back to the top of the English charts as the country has been swept up in a collective football fever, as their national team has reached the semi-final of the World Cup for the first time in 28 years.
Across the Irish Sea, there’s been a tangible difference in how the public here has responded to the England football team this time around, when compared with past tournaments, with the cheers as loud for the Three Lions in many pubs as their opponents so far.
Even the frenzy over the fashion sense of sudden style icon Gareth Southgate has hit Ireland, as sales of waistcoats like the one the England manager wears at every game have seen an upturn similar to that seen in England.
M&S outlets in England have literally run out of the smart waistcoats, and a spokesperson for M&S Ireland told TheJournal.ie that stores here “are seeing a similar uplift in sales on waistcoats”.
‘Something different this time around’
The British press has certainly backed the new youthful, “likeable” England national team, that largely doesn’t have the weight of previous failures on its backs.
And, as the public has rallied behind the team, it appears that the Irish public aren’t quite so negative about the England team as they may have been before.
Colette Lenihan, general manager at the Woolshed Baa and Grill in Dublin, told TheJournal.ie that there’s definitely been a change in how Irish people have been towards England in this tournament.
“It’s taken a lot to break the connection, but there’s something different this time around,” she said.
You’d have people who’d wear Spurs jersey and support Harry Kane during the year, and then boo Harry Kane when he’s wearing an England jersey. It’s not been like that so much for this World Cup.
Lenihan said that the pub had seen a lot more support for the England team than it has done during previous tournaments.
This was echoed by Gordon Smith, general manager of Dublin city centre pub Sinnotts.
He told TheJournal.ie that “of course” there’s been a lot more following England this time around.
“Whatever happened… it’s all in the past,” he said. “We’re getting a lot of people coming in for the England games.
It’s been about 50-50 in terms of support for them. If England score they’re all up and cheering. If Harry Kane dives, they all start booing.
Good for business
Both pubs have got good crowds in for the World Cup matches, but there has been that extra bit of interest around England games, as people could be supporting them or fervently wanting them to crumble and lose on penalties.
Smith said: “There’s been a lot of support around the England games. Put it this way, England are playing at the weekend either way, but ideally there’d be more interest if they got to the final.”
England play Croatia this evening for a chance to compete in Sunday’s final. If they lose they’ll play on Saturday in the third/fourth place play-off.
“Tonight will be huge,” Lenihan added. “We’ve been getting a good Croatian crowd to the games. But if England got to the final, that would pull in a lot more people to watch it, so we’ll see.”
Despite a general feeling of goodwill towards the England team, the general managers of both bars do get groups coming in with the specific aim of booing them.
Lenihan said: “We had a guy making a booking for the [England] match. He had an Irish accent. I asked him who he was supporting and he said Croatia.
He told me ‘I just don’t want to see the other team win’. He couldn’t say England, I think he was even cringing a bit himself.
As Southgate’s boys take to the field tonight, there’ll be more than a few Irish people watching at home, and in pubs, around the country wanting football to come home, too.
Against a tired Croatia team that have gone to extra time twice in the past two rounds, they could do worse than putting ‘em under pressure.
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