Has it never happened before that a British team has been involved in an international match in the same week as Remembrance Day? Surely it must have. If so, has any teams ever worn a poppy before? I must say I cannot remember it, but I am not a football fan. If it has never happened before, then why have the English FA suddenly decided to do it now after more than 90 years of remembrance?
Perhaps this is part of a poppy trend that, in my view, is in danger of devaluing remembrance. I have some sympathy with Jon Snow's objections to this last year, but not for the language with which he expressed it. Television newsreaders have been wearing poppies since almost the start of October; it seems to be compu;sory. I am content to wear my poppy on Remembrance Day and through to the Sunday. And to pause at 11 o'clock and remember the sacrifices of men like my grandfather (who I never met because he died in WWI trenches) and his son, my own father (who returned from WWII with a terminally damaged kidney which led to his premature death when I was still quite young).
It is no surprise that the Daily Mail is at the front of this tendency to emphasize the poppy in lieu of rembrance itself. I imagine its reporters have been instructed to ferret out a "poppy atrocity" every day for the rest of the week so that its readers can be properly outraged. They have a good start by pointing the finger at FIFA (which is located in SWITZERLAND!) and led by Sep Blatter (who is SWISS!!!) and SWITZERLAND hasn't gone to war with anyone for over a hundred years. Tell you what, why don't we mount a hate campaign against the Swiss. A great idea for remembrance week.
Of course, others have to get in on the act. "Patrick Mercer, a Tory MP and former Army officer, said: ‘The England football team are one of our most precious and proudest assets'." Which clearly shows he knows even less about football than I do.
