Cary Gee - Out and about

IF IRELAND had qualified for football’s 2008 Euro finals, the result in last week’s referendum to ratify the Lisbon Treaty might have been different. Or perhaps not. Both the Dutch, who are going great guns in Switzerland and Austria, (Hup! hup! Holland!) and the French who are not, gave the same negative answer when asked the about the proposed European constitutions. None the less, I can think of nothing that so engenders a continental patriotism while allowing fans to fly their own flag as much as the European festival of football. Certainly nothing that is said or done in Brussels could ever hope to have the same resonance, especially among the young.

Old enmities founded in last century’s wars are slowly being eroded as the European population ages, and new alliances are being formed on and off the pitch which reflect the new Europe.

When I first attended a Dutch-German football match in Rotterdam in the 1990s, I was taken aback by the Dutch terrace chant of “Geef me mijn fietsrug” which translates as ‘Give me my bicycle back’. This was a reference to how German troops confiscated Dutch bicycles during the Second World War. Not only were the bicycles melted down before being turned into armaments, an early example of Germany’s obsession with re-cyling, but the occupiers managed at a stroke to immobilise the entire Dutch population.

However, by the time of the last Euro championships, when Holland met Germany in Porto, their fans sat together in the stadium without provocation or incident – unthinkable just a few years earlier and a credit to both UEFA and the European Union. This does not mean that for fans of Holland (and other countries in the competition) beating Germany does not remain a major source of satisfaction, if not their ultimate ambition, but old hatreds have been replaced by a softer carnival patriotism that allows you to cover your face in war paint without starting a war. We may don the kind of national costume we would not dream of wearing on any other occasion, but we are still Europeans.

Both the European Championships and the Champions League date from the earliest days of European integration and both are premised on the existence of Europe as a union separate from the rest of the world, but united by common “European values”.

With the exception of co-hosts Switzerland, which has repeatedly voted against joining the EU, all nations in this summer’s finals are either already member states or hoping to join at the earliest opportunity. Nothing will speed up the accession process for would be member state Turkey or win over doubters in that country like a good run in Europe. The Turks have already reached the quarter-finals where they will play Croatia, another accession country. The manager of Croatia, Slavin Bilic, remains probably the only Croat with a profile known even to Europeans with no interest in the politics of Europe. He is certainly regarded in England as one of the reasons why the English find themselves, once again, mere onlookers as the main European action takes place without them.

Equally, there can be no better pin-ups for Europe, than players or managers such as Fernando Torres, Christiano Ronaldo, Thierry Henri or the prolific Dutch (three teams have Dutch managers) who seem to play better football than the English and even speak better English than the English.

When 120,000 Dutch fans descended on the Swiss town of Berne last week to watch their idols put four goals past the French, there was no sense of panic from their hosts. In fact, this was a lesson in how to express pride in your country without denigrating your neighbours.

Historically, European culture has not led to a geo-political unit. Instead European integration has co-existed with national loyalties and national patriotism. In fact just 10 per cent of Europeans identify with being European first and foremost, this despite a desire by signatories of the Rome treaty to artificially create a sense of European patriotism and despite dire warnings from Eurosceptics that our sovereignty is going to hell in a handcart.

The one flag you will not see waving in the stands during a football game is the European one: gold stars on a blue background. Neither will you hear a massed rendition of the European anthem Ode to Joy. What you will see are fans from different nationalities revelling in coming together to celebrate their combined interests and ambitions while remaining staunchly in love with wherever it is they come from. There is no reason to believe that a future tournament held after ratification of the constitutional treaty would be any different. And it is difficult to understand exactly what it is that the Irish, who have benefited from their membership of the EU to an unusual degree, and before them the Dutch and the French are so afraid of.

Having rejected a reference to Christianity and God in the proposed constitution its authors instead drew inspiration “from the cultural, religious and humanist inheritance of Europe, from which have developed the universal values of the inviolable and inalienable rights of the human person; freedom, democracy, equality and the rule of law”. Add football and count me in.