Skip to main content
Advertise with the Morning Star
The risks of playing football politics
Politicians have made capital out of football since Harold Wilson in 1966 but — Boris Johnson lost on Sunday, writes KEITH FLETT
England fans wearing masks of Matt Hancock, Boris Johnson, Chris Whitty and Rishi Sunak at the fan zone in Trafford Park, Manchester ahead of the UEFA Euro 2020 Final between Italy and England, last Sunday

IT WAS hardly possible to miss the politics around the European football championship. Indeed the traditional cries of “keep politics out of sport” were very muted.

“Patriotic” Tory MP Lee Anderson refused to back the England team because they were taking the knee against racism. Boris Johnson and Priti Patel were relaxed about racists booing the team until they found out they were doing well — then they started cheering them.

Sport and politics have a long history and no more so with the challenges socialists have made back to the 19th century to try to keep the interests of capital out of it. There was even a Workers Wimbledon from 1932-1951, which may seem a little odd to some who currently frequent the championships.

The 95th Anniversary Appeal
Support the Morning Star
You have reached the free limit.
Subscribe to continue reading.
Similar stories
WINNING OVER THE WORKING CLASS? Margaret Thatcher (left) personally sells off a London council house in her bid to undermine the welfare state and woo Labour voters via the 1980 Housing Act and so-called ‘right to buy’ for tenants
Features / 26 May 2025
26 May 2025

Research shows Farage mainly gets rebel voters from the Tory base and Labour loses voters to the Greens and Lib Dems — but this doesn’t mean the danger from the right isn’t real, explains historian KEITH FLETT

TURNING POINT: The anti-cuts plan put forward by Tony Benn (
Features / 31 March 2025
31 March 2025
Facing economic turmoil, Jim Callaghan’s government rejected Tony Benn’s alternative economic strategy in favour of cuts that paved the way for Thatcherism — and the cuts-loving Labour of the present era, writes KEITH FLETT
EVEN FURTHER RIGHT: Margaret Thatcher
meets the press outsid
Features / 16 February 2025
16 February 2025
KEITH FLETT looks back 50 years to when the Iron Lady was elected Tory leader…
YESTERDAY’S HOPE: Crowds outside the 2017 leaders debate
Features / 6 January 2025
6 January 2025
Every few years, it seems like the ‘right time’ to build a new left party — but what are the right conditions, asks socialist historian KEITH FLETT, looking back at the last two centuries and the insights of Ralph Miliband and EP Thompson