Amy Raphael - A Game of Two Halves: Famous Football Fans Meet Their Heroes

A GAME OF
TWO HALVES

Famous Football Fans
Meet Their Heroes

AMY RAPHAEL

First published in the United Kingdom by Allen & Unwin in 2019

Copyright Amy Raphael 2019

The moral right of Amy Raphael to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by her in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act of 1988. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or by any information storage and retrieval system, without prior permission in writing from the publisher.

Refugees Brian Bilston, 2016,
is reproduced with the kind permission of the author

All photographs featured herein are the copyright of the contributors, with the exception of the photographs of Gary Lineker on ( Bob Thomas Sports Photography via Getty Images).

Every effort has been made to trace or contact all copyright holders. The publishers will be pleased to make good any omissions or rectify any mistakes brought to their attention at the earliest opportunity.

Allen & Unwin
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A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

Hardback ISBN 978 1 91163 003 6

E-Book ISBN 978 1 76063 656 2

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Printed in Great Britain by CPI Group (UK) Ltd, Croydon CR0 4YY

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

They have no need of our help

So do not tell me

These haggard faces could belong to you or me

Should life have dealt a different hand

We need to see them for who they really are

Chancers and scroungers

Layabouts and loungers

With bombs up their sleeves

Cut-throats and thieves

They are not

Welcome here

We should make them

Go back to where they came from

They cannot

Share our food

Share our homes

Share our countries

Instead let us

Build a wall to keep them out

It is not okay to say

These are people just like us

A place should only belong to those who are born there

Do not be so stupid to think that

The world can be looked at another way

(now read from bottom to top)

Brian Bilston

Technically, I, myself, am an immigrant

And yet when it comes to pulling on a white shirt in front of 90,000 people, I am just as English as the other ten players on the pitch. Game in, game out, I give my all to this country that has offered me so much.

I moved to London from Jamaica when I was five. My mother had moved slightly earlier to secure qualifications, so that she could offer me and my sister a better life. She achieved that, but it wasnt without hard work and endless sacrifices. The integrity and work ethic she continues to show are part of the reason I have been invited to write this for you today her values and mental strength are infectious. Throughout my life, my mother has been the definition of integrity. She has helped me grow into the man I am today, unafraid to use my voice to represent those who are very rarely heard.

The estate I settled in after moving to London is shadowed by Wembley Stadium the home of English football. My home. The team bus drives through areas which hold so many of my childhood memories and I have to pinch myself. How did I get here?! They talk about the American dream; this is the English dream. This is what makes the country we live in so special we are diverse, we are cultured, but most importantly we are one.

Laziness breeds stereotypes. Every single one of us brings something to the table and everyone deserves to have their voice heard. I urge you all to just stop. And listen. Ask questions. And get to know those around you. Understand their culture and their background because that level of knowledge is powerful. And with such power we can make real positive change.

Imagine this: Leicester is bombed and completely destroyed. We are forced to flee elsewhere because our families are being persecuted. Our parents have been killed. We can only leave by boat. It is a risk for our young children, but it is probably their only chance of survival. The sea is freezing cold. The boats are unsteady and unsafe. More family members die on the journey. The lucky few make it to the shore of another country. We have risked our lives to get there, but we find we are not wanted.

As soon as I started reading refugees stories a few years ago, my conscience kicked in. Most of those who flee their countries dont choose to leave; they are political or economic refugees who desperately miss home. Feeling empathy for fellow human beings who have been dealt a really rotten hand is not a weakness. Fearing the arrival of refugees in your country does not make you patriotic, it makes you mean-spirited.

I dont regret tweeting my support for refugees, but its a shame that Twitter pigeonholes those of us who speak out. We are judged as being on the extreme left or right, whereas I think most of us are somewhere in the middle. I do occasionally offer my political thoughts, but I dont think the refugee situation is political, its humanitarian.

Some of the treatment of young migrants arriving in the UK has been heartless. I, for one, dont want to live in that kind of fractured society. And, unfortunately, some of those attitudes have been spilling out into the stands of football grounds. As Raheem Sterling has discovered, one of the most straightforward ways to answer the abuse coming from a minority of fans is by scoring goals. He deserves every accolade that has come his way this season and none of the abuse.

There are more than 3.5 billion football fans in the world. At its best, football is about a shared language, respect and the celebration of diversity, as the footballers and managers in this book illustrate. Football can bring people together and, in doing so, it can set a really good example. I do believe that football gives back to society by doing that and by lifting peoples lives.

When approached to write the foreword to A Game of Two Halves, I didnt hesitate because we must all find a way to help our fellow human beings. We have to do more to help each other. Reminding people that refugees dont choose to leave their homes is important and if this book can do that in a small way, its a good thing.

Interviewing Fahd Saleh, a former goalkeeper for a team in Homs, Syria, for this book was thought-provoking and inspiring. It was a reminder that some of us are lucky to have been born in a relatively safe place by the lottery of birth. I consider myself fortunate to have played football around the world, to have four healthy sons and to live in a country untouched by war. Lucky, yes. Complacent, never. Call me all the names under the sun. I will never stop being patriotic nor will I stop standing up for refugees. We cannot forget them. They are human too.

I was in Italy when the news came that we were to leave Europe. I lay awake all night, staring at the polls in the blue light of my mobile. Time passed. Four in the morning. Five in the morning. There was no going back. The 52 per cent had had their say. I flung open the window in a futile attempt to make the world seem bigger. I stared at the mist hanging low over the fields, at the sky streaked pink. I felt untethered, as though Britain had cut the umbilical cord connecting it to Europe.