Football is rarely just football. When the men’s European Championship kicks off in Munich on Friday, with host Germany facing Scotland, it does so against a backdrop of political turmoil. Ukraine is at war, the tournament’s only debutant Georgia is torn between the EU and Russia and, before the final in Berlin, the French far-right may enter government for the first time since 1944.
These issues will intrude on to the field. “Sport is always, at least indirectly, politics,” says tournament director and former German captain Philipp Lahm.
Two of the countries facing political upheaval are the bookmakers’ favourites, England and France. Since being appointed England manager in 2016, Gareth Southgate has become the voice of a new kind of Englishness: he stands for a multicultural nation, which can honour both his war-veteran grandfather and England’s young black footballers.