The Sweeper: The Politics of Poppy Populism
Big Story
So, Remembrance Sunday has come and gone, and so have the weekend fixtures in the Premier League. Did you notice your club donning silkscreen poppies on the centre of their shirts? And did the gesture move you like a Last Post and Reveille to remember the horror of war? If it did, you have the Sportsmail’s Charles Sale to thank. The columnist pushed a campaign to have clubs embroider poppies on their kits for this weekends matches, and publicly chastised those who refused.
Going after tabloids for pushing empty populist gestures onto an LCD readership is a bit like complaining about water being wet, but that didn’t stop the more rational voices in England from taking the bait, including WSC and the Guardian’s Marina Hyde. Both argue that bullying clubs like Liverpool and Manchester United to wear poppies against their will denies the freedom of conscience the wars of the past century were fought for.
What’s perhaps more insidious about the Mail’s predictable campaign is that the poppy, the flower which grew over the buried dead in France in World War I (and, in bitter irony, the current drug scourge of occupied Afghanistan) and worn as a symbol of personal remembrance, has in recent years been co-opted as a political symbol abused by those with a particular militaristic axe to grind. Demanding poppies be grafted on the chests of millionaire footballers, nestled in just over top conglomerate shirt sponsors, does nothing to help us remember the terrible cost of armed conflict. It does, however, tell us quite a lot about how to go about shaming everyone by exploiting the memory of fallen soldiers.
Worldwide News
- The Chicago Fire are through to the next MLS playoff round, as are Houston and Real Salt Lake (Chivas v. LA is coming up tonight). Meanwhile, Jason Davis looks at the disappointing attendances for playoff fixtures and wonders if things need to change. Expect push back from the usual quarters on this one.
- Real Madrid just—just—took the Madrid derby against Atletico 3-2 on the weekend. Meanwhile, Manuel Pellegrini is upbeat, despite getting hit in the face with a stone.
- Paul Hayward calls time on Arsene Wenger’s futbol del arte approach with Arsenal: “Arsenal force us to confront a philosophical tangle. Do a club need to win things to bring meaning to their endeavours or is the pursuit of creativity sufficient to justify the effort? This is where Wenger’s problem starts, because he cannot cultivate artistic football without promising something at the end of it.”
- There was some hot FA Cup action this weekend too, and twohundredpercent.net gives a good breakdown of what the press managed to pick up on.
- Jennifer Doyle at From a Left Wing takes on ESPN’s coverage of that terribly refereed New Mexico v. BYU college soccer game.
- Lothar Matthaeus complains that as one of Germany’s greatest living footballers, he should be getting more attention from German football administrators, but isn’t and wonders why, and in doing so, sort of answers his own question. I personally will never forgive anyone who participated in the Italia 90 final.
Richard Whittall really missed you last week, and also writes at A More Splendid Life.
About the Author
Richard Whittall is a professional countertenor, a writer, and an administrator at the University of Toronto, Victoria College. He writes the blog A More Splendid Life, the chronicle of one fan's escape to the beautiful game.
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Only a few (2-3 matches) have been disappointing attendance wise in the MLS for the playoffs. Houston had more than 27K today and the Home Depot Center is once again sold out for Galaxy-Chivas.
Why on earth were the Fox Soccer Channel studio presenters wearing poppies? I guess because Canada is part of the commonwealth.
Thanks to the soldiers buried under those poppies, Mr. Whittall is able to write his column in English instead of German.
Ok, I’ll chime in. I’m a big soccer fan. I probably spend almost as much time writing, reading, or watching soccer as I do at work. I didn’t go to the MLS playoffs for the following reasons:
1) It is freaking cold in Ohio in November. I’ll admit, if I lived in Columbus I would have definitely gone, but I’ve had some very bad experiences with sporting events in the past (took trips to Cleveland twice, once it was -20 with wind chill, the other there were 4 inches of snow and it snowed more while we were there).
2) You can’t get the good tickets or good ticket packages unless you buy them as packages or buy them before dates are released. The wonderful MLS schedules their playoffs at the last minute. I’m sorry, but I work for a living so I can’t just buy tickets for a game that will be played “sometime during the week of XXX.” If I’m going, I’m sitting in the Nordecke, and I need to know things in advance, like WHAT DAY OF THE WEEK IT WILL BE ON. Also, I don’t want to buy a ticket package for the Eastern Conference Final because I don’t want to watch craptastic RSL play the Fire (a team I hate). I’ve fallen into the “ticket package” trap before when buying Gold Cup, CCL, and international friendly game matches, and most of the time I don’t even end up using the Crew tickets I get conned into buying.
3) MLS playoffs are designed in a dumb way, in my opinion. They need to either make it single elimination, a group format (then knockout), or a 3 game series. I absolutely hate the two game aggregate score thing.
4) You can’t even keep up with this league on TV if you wanted to. It was Sunday afternoon and I had just finished watching United v Chelsea. I knew that there were MLS playoffs on later, but to my surprise, the Dynamo/Sounders game wasn’t even televised. It is kind of funny that I can watch every single EPL match on cable(some are delayed), but I get maybe a handful of MLS games a month. Someone should tell them that if they want fans (outside of their local markets), they need to get a real TV contract. I think my cable provider offers the MLS season package, but it is way overpriced and it is not available in HD. I think if they had a quality TV package, they’d be doing a lot better.
HI,
Isn’t there a pesticide made from flowers that is non toxic to humans?