Tone deaf.
With England set to face Colombia this evening, Irish supporters are bound to have a preferred side and given the history between both nations, it’s easy to see why some supporters will be siding with the South Americans.
This being said, there has been something of a change in attitude towards the current version of the England team. Southgate is a pragmatic and affable manager while the dressing room doesn’t have as many ‘divisive’ characters as it once did.
In fact, we made the case that supporting the Three Lions isn’t the ‘no no’ that it once was. Hell, if Irish football fans are happy to support English clubs, spend their money travelling over to watch them every Saturday and drink from the Premier League Kool-Aid then why not support England? In some ways, it makes sense.
We’ve got a two word answer for these question though: their media.
Granted, the English players and management have adopted an ‘each game as it comes’ approach and they’ve been respectful to the Colombians but some of the headlines in the English press over the last few weeks have been infuriating.
Aside from this, there’s also the ‘It’s Coming Home’ brigade. Ok, Irish people can also lose the run of themselves whenever a tournament is on but this latest bombardment of messages is still incredibly vexing.
You know what we’re talking about.
Newspapers plotting England’s path to the final despite the fact that the last time England won a knockout game at a tournament was against Ecuador in 2006.
Colombia are a very good team that deserve respect. They reached the quarter-finals at the 2014 World Cup. They’re ranked 16th in the world and were as high as third in the rankings just two years ago.
We all know that The Sun has a penchant for these type of headlines but given the fact that Andrés Escobar’s tragic death has been in the media again, this headline is extremely tacky and tone deaf.
If English supporters want to know why some people might be supporting the Colombians, here’s a good reason why.
Today's Sun front page.
Nothing more to add to this… pic.twitter.com/1Gtu0waAHd
— The Sun Apologies (@SunApology) July 3, 2018
1994: Colombia's captain Andres Escobar shot dead by a member of a drugs cartel for scoring an own goal in the World Cup
2018: England's captain with a hilarious cocaine pun
A truly terrible and tone-deaf front page pic.twitter.com/Y4lPe8dmvk
— The Sun Apologies (@SunApology) July 3, 2018
More than anything, this is just a really really weak effort. If you’re going to trade in jingoism and stereotypes, at least try and be funny. pic.twitter.com/eqATvZ2cZe
— Nooruddean (@BeardedGenius) July 2, 2018
Well, we did expect something like this because this skit predicted that this would happen.
