Spencifer_Murphy wrote:Everyone hates us in sport for two reasons:
1. We probably invented the sport
2. The British Empire
Actually, in South America we like the british because you invented football and you brought it here with the railroads (and the free trade!).
We love the "class" of the british empire, so helpful in Latin America for our independence and that, for a while, also helped to counteract our "northern friends". We have a lot of national heroes here that were irish, scottish and english. Britain was the only nation that helped the Great Colombia (well, Germany also sent a corps of 300 volunteers). We still have a really old army batallion founded in memory of a british, a lover of freedom. Let me tell you something about one of your old "imperialists" who fought at our side in 1820:
James Rook (or Rooke), wounded in an arm in the middle of a charge, yelled: "Long live our motherland!"
A colombian surgeon asked him later: "Which one? Ireland or England?"
(colombians can be a little sarcastic under any circumstances... sorry, I guess it is something that comes with our indian and black blood of which we are so proud)
Rook replied: "The one that will bury me"
Rook died days later, in Colombia. In a few days, volunteers formed the
Jaime Rook battalion in his honour. You have to love a guy like that.
We have a lot of people with last names like Linch, Coy, Crosley, MacAllister, MacDowel, MacCormick, Ferguson, Lee (one of my best friends is a Lee), O’Brien, Jones, Wilson, Daniels, Denis, and Castell, to name some. We do not forget coronels Brion, McGregor, Elson, England and Wilson. Richard Trevitchick, reputed as inventor of locomotives, fought in Colombia. My wife is a Nicholls and my children, in the Latin American style, are named Pabón Nicholls.
The decissive battle in Boyacá, was won mainly by the efforts of the British Legion, the only foreign corps whose name we recite when, in the army, learn the name of the battalions that fought for our independence. You can see I love the british empire, specially when you compare it with older and newer ones...
Personally, I believe hooligans are a problem, but not that big if you never play against England because your national team is not good enough (sigh... the entire Ecuador technical team is colombian, and they defeated our team on qualifications).
What I think is that (maybe, maybe) you take a
game very seriously... perhaps you could enjoy it a little if you weren't so (apparently) anxious about it. It is a game
for children, not a representation of the nation. You have the Queen for that. Well, I am not fan of nations, anyway...
I send you a wish of good luck for England from Colombia, except against Brazil, of course.
