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It’s hard to conceptualize it as we enter 2021 under the sway of the Covid variant, but what lies ahead this year may well be the golden summer of football.
The European Championship, which ends in London on July 11, will open the doors to these islands for a carnival of rediscovered freedoms and comradeship, built around the finest game in sport.
And, besides, the idea of England winning the thing, just a few months after the nation left the depths of a deeply difficult winter, is not so fancy.
Their three group matches, the semi-finals and the final will all take place at Wembley. The team will be led by a manager who listens, adapts, delegates and knows the value of a little self-effacement.
Gareth Southgate’s team are much more than that flawless strike force of Harry Kane, Marcus Rashford and Raheem Sterling. Two players who got it wrong in the past, Jack Grealish and Phil Foden, could be the ones to bring gold dust to a Euro final, perhaps against Joachim Low’s Germany or Luis’ Spain Enrique, in 191 days.
From the deeply uncertain place of today – with the variant starting to grasp football in such unpredictable ways that suspension from the Premier League is not unthinkable – think for a moment what such a final could mean .
Street parties. The live stream in Hyde Park. Appropriate acts of remembrance for the 66 boys we lost in 2020. Covid meant Jack Charlton and Nobby Stiles didn’t get the kickoff they so broadly deserved.
Carnival will not only belong to England. Scotland’s qualification, with a group match against England on Friday, June 18, gave them their first tournament appearance since 1998.
Wales must venture to Rome and Baku for their group matches, although from Cardiff to Caernarfon the mood of national excitement will be none the less.
Some of the stars of the tournament will seem much less removed from our daily lives than before. Rashford, Jordan Henderson and Trent Alexander-Arnold have demonstrated that players’ contribution to society doesn’t have to stop when they leave the field. The colossal salaries of the modern game have created cynicism among those who play it at the elite level.
Deep in the pandemic, actors like Rashford have restored some confidence.
Perhaps their self-confidence and articulation skills, which for too long have swept away football’s anti-intellectualism, could persuade other players to follow their lead this year.
The push to extinguish intolerance and racial prejudice, also led by gamers, will continue this year with the properly funded Kick It Out organization finally.
The highlight of a documentary on the subject, which will screen this month, is a former white player and coach’s contribution to a discussion of the bigotry facing a black colleague.
Under the peaks of the game, it’s not just wine and roses. One of the darkest moments of football’s existential crisis in 2020 was Project Big Picture, the proposal to effectively hand over control of the game to the top six clubs in exchange for money to support the pyramid.
The October coup failed, but we now know the intentions of the elite. The sanctity of competitive equilibrium means nothing to them and their ATMs. Who knows how this plan could be revived?
And while there are owners who have been huge assets to our national football life – from Nassef Sawiris and Wes Edens who galvanize Aston Villa to the wise management of Crystal Palace by Steve Parish – we know from the rubble of 2020 how the financial needs of clubs make them prey. to predators who do not respect their principles and their history.
There has not been a more miserable example last year than Wigan Athletic, bought by the odious Au Yeung, who threw the club into administration in a week, “ like garbage thrown by a car at high speed ” – to quote an excellent analysis.
The EFL, which had agreed to the takeover in the first place, then spat them out in Ligue 1 with a 10 point deduction.
The club’s demise has exposed the trap that league clubs fall into – spending millions to win a share of the Premier League’s £ 8.64 billion three-year televised deal.
Wigan has revealed the desperate need for proper Financial Fair Play rules, forcing clubs to spend only what they earn.
A salary cap will likely bring reason to leagues one and two in 2021 – another positive impact of the 2020 crisis. Some believe this could be the year that Ligue 2 and the National League merge into two regionalized divisions, in the name of financial sustainability.
Last year called for strong leadership. Football got Greg Clarke and Gordon Taylor, leading the FA and PFA. There is not much to say.
But 2021 will bring new leaders for both organizations. If common sense prevails, Heather Rabbatts will be appointed president of the FA, a body that hardly thinks about anything but vital issues – the long-awaited report on football abuse and the link between dementia and football – are urgent matters.
And while the role of PFA general manager may not be what Gary Neville aspires to, his leading contribution to proposals for overhauling football governance suggests that he might be persuaded to bring his common sense and intelligence. to a leadership position.
Beyond the conference rooms, we are looking above all for something wonderfully simple: new football talent from these coasts.
Regardless of political views on Brexit, the new visa regime will mean fewer imports from mainstream actors and more room for the emergence of neglected English talent.
It’s luckier for teens like Ramello Mitchell of Southampton, Louie Barry of Villa and Lewis Bate of Chelsea. And hopefully a different course for players like Ryan Sessegnon, who only had seven full games after moving to Spurs before being loaned to Hoffenheim, desperate for regular football. He is fine.
The new visa regime will not reduce the Premier League’s scope for recruiting the best players in the world, although the past year has witnessed sublime consequences for managers who trust the young talent of these coasts.
There is no better example of this than Liverpool, where Curtis Jones, Rhys Williams and Nat Phillips are all thriving.
The influx of international talent into the Women’s Super League should not deter young British talent either. Look for Maya Le Tissier, 18, in Brighton and Hannah Hampton in Birmingham City this year.
In short, a sport upset and bruised in 2020 can expect a sunnier, more insightful, more spectacular 2021, illuminated by the Saint-Jean football festival.
The Euros represent the best chance for England to win a second major trophy since Baddiel and Skinner provided the soundtrack and Paul Gascoigne and Co hosted the dentist chair celebrations in 1996.
And if our hopes come to nothing, then we will celebrate anyway. We used to take football for granted. The game as we once knew it will be back.
Source: m.allfootballapp.com
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