In a country of definite articles, football ignominy beckons

November 23, 2007 RJH

Chalk it up to arrogance if you want, but Britain is a nation with the institutionalised definite article. In America, you have the United States Postal Service, because, after all, it’s not the postal service, just its American manifestation. Yet in Britain we do not have the UK Postal Service, we have The Post Office (as if all others are pale imitations). And there is no English Football Association, it’s simply The Football Association.

Next year’s European football championships (second only to the world cup) will have no representation from The Football Association. The mother association, ye olde FA, cannot muster a team good enough to top Macedonia, Israel, Russia, or Croatia. England did not qualify and join illustrious footballing nations such as Andorra in their failure. Neither did Wales, Scotland, or Northern Ireland. To think that the British Isles will not participate in a European football tournament is simply unthinkable, given the level of the game in this country. I suppose it’s happy news for the good people of Vienna, however. No English yobs throwing bottles across the Rathausplatz next summer.