Euro2004

June 28, 2004

There I sat, contented that with only a couple of minutes to go in the opening match for England we were 1-0 up against the defending champions, France in Euro2004.  Three points, great start.

But within a couple of minutes 1-0 became 1-2 and France scored two goals and won the match. England’s supporters were stunned. Devastated.  Numb.  How could this have happened. Content, happy and joyful one moment… bewildered, distraught and dismayed the next.

This lingered with me for sometime.  I kept telling myself its only a game, but that didn’t make much difference. I know its only a game, but its more than that.

Then it happened.

Amid the gloom that followed the defeat to the only enemy, I listened to an interview on Radio5 live with a brave woman who had recently cycled up a mountain in France to raise money for charity. Nothing particularly unusual or spectacular in that except that she was dying of cancer and wanted to  do something positive before she died.  To listen to her story – of courage – of bravery – of indomitable courage and optimism was not only humbling and inspirational but it also helped to put into context 93 minutes on a football pitch where 22 very well paid young men were playing a game.

If you were told you only had months to live, how important would a 2-1 defeat really mean?  Perhaps its good from time to time to be reminded whilst sport is fun and engages our attention, it is only a sport and a business and perhaps we should be more absorbed in things that are literally matters of life and death.

What a difference it would make if we were as passionate about, for example, the developing world’s debt, the HIV and Aids epidemic sweeping through Africa, the environment the effect of global warming and the grinding poverty of so much of the world. Unfortunately, issues such as these only seem to matter in injury time and, as England found to it’s cost, injury time is a dangerous place to be.

Rev Fred Ireland, June '04