Euro 2012 and the art of football – this year’s cultural highlight?

Guest blogger, Alison Pilling (@AnarchicAli), has been an avid England fan since running a “Fans’ Embassy’”during Euro 1996 for visitors to Leeds.

Every two years I become a leper; a member of the under-class. The rest of the time I can get away with being all cultured and knowing and can hold my own (with a bit of blagging) in a conversation about the latest play or exhibition. I did an Arts Council quiz once that said I’m an ‘urban eclectic’. I think that means someone who tries a bit of everything but is too busy flitting about to do any of it properly. If I’m honest, that’s probably a fair description. A bit shallow. But then the Euros or the World Cup come around and I’m hooked. That’s my month’s social life sorted, all the interest I need, and all the excuse I need to meet up with people.

Depends which people though because then my social life splits in two between those who feel the same and those who seem to resent its monopoly on our TV screens, on our streets, and in our pubs. Now that’s ok, nobody loves everything. If our national sport was cricket, I’d be one of the ‘when does it end’ people, but it all seems a bit snobbish and artier than thou. Is there really a nice neat line between ‘culture’ and sport?

I looked up ‘culture’ and it said two things:

the arts and other manifestations of human intellectual achievement regarded collectively;

the ideas, customs, and social behaviour of a particular people or society.

I think most people would agree that football qualifies for the second of these in Britain. Football is part of British society and, like it or not, you can’t really argue. But it’s the first definition I’m wondering about.

Is football a manifestation of human intellectual achievement? Now lots of people would say “No!” While I write this my son is watching Piers Morgan interview Paul Gascoigne. With the most unbiased, warm, open view on life, you’d struggle to cast that as a spar between intellectual heavyweights and I’ll leave you to decide who wins that particular brainy bout.

And a further google defines intellectual as “involving reason or thinking.” So how is art intellectual? Some lads and lasses getting hold of a paintbrush and splodging it about, however beautifully and poignantly, does not necessarily involve logic or reason. In fact, you may well be better off without it. Or dance? What about ballet? Nobody denies that twizzling around on tippy toes is very disciplined, and involves great strength and creativity…but again it doesn’t have to be rational and thoughtful.

In that sense, football, particularly the great, inspired football that you can see played at big tournaments, is no less cultured and beautiful to watch. For those of you who have caught some of the games this year, I can think of Sneijder’s pass to Van Persie against the Germans, Welbeck’s back heel for England’s third goal against Sweden, Ibrahimovich’s last goal, which were moments of pure perfection. And if you’ve ever seen Messi play, it’s so awe-inspiring that despite the fact that he appears to be a five foot gnome, I definitely would…

The only reason I can think that there is a line between “The Arts” and sport is that some sports – especially football – are popular. Football captures the imagination of millions of people around the globe. One of the things I love is that you can walk into a bar in pretty much any place on Earth and talk about children or football and you will very quickly find a friend. It’s a universal language. But it’s also a means of saying who you are. A way of expressing your belonging to your community, region, nation without this necessarily being threatening (although I’d be the first to admit that it can and has been used in very threatening and damaging ways).

So should we ask ourselves, are we cultured because we want to enrich the place we live with a variety of experiences, and in ways that enable us to feel part of our community? Or are we cultured because we want to set ourselves apart from those we consider to be less discerning than we are? Do we believe that cultural beauty can come from anywhere?

My other son is watching Disney’s Ratatouille and I give the last line to the critic Anton Ego – “Not everyone can become a great artist, but a great artist can come from anywhere”…and in any discipline. Football is an art form.

Alison has been blogging her humorous reflections on all the Euro 2012 matches on the Football Supporters’ Federation Euro 2012 website

You can follow her at @AnarchicAli