Yet at no point in any of this has Boris Johnson offered a single apology, much less a sincere one in which specific failures are faced up to and responsibility “ totally rests with me”. Is yet another avoidable foul-up in the offing, even as the government enlivened the football hangover by confirming it was fully opening up for its “freedom day”, with its own ministers briefing that they were “flying blind”. They have led to far longer lockdowns than would otherwise have been necessary, to the far longer removal of people’s basic freedoms, and to the all attendant mental and financial misery that comes with that, to say nothing of the pressures placed on the NHS, now dealing with mindblowing backlogs in treatment and surgeries. These mistakes – these “misses”, if you will – have led to thousands upon thousands of avoidable deaths. It is, on every level, absurd that it should feel socially necessary for footballers barely out of their teens to pen missives to the nation apologising for missing a penalty, but not for a government to even acknowledge vast and lethal mistakes, much less say sorry for them.įor much of the past 16 months the government has seemed so hell bent on learning nothing that the same terrible errors are repeated twice and more, by exactly the same people. Where is any of this in our politics, I wonder? There is something completely antithetical to modern political culture in it all. After his own letter to fans, Marcus Rashford posted some of those he has received from children since Sunday’s defeat, and they themselves make for extraordinarily humbling and emotional reading. And maybe that saying sorry even when it really isn’t necessary can be a decent and humble gesture.Ĭhildren hear these messages so often from people who want the best for them that many of them already know they are the right things to say. That facing up to things is hard, but right and helpful for the future.
That having been brave in the first place is ultimately more important than having failed in the moment, even if it doesn’t feel that way at the time. These are the lessons you might want to teach your children. Gareth Southgate knows that journey of old he was beginning it again in the immediate aftermath of the final, fronting up to the nation to insist that failure “totally rests with me”.
Rather, it is how you respond to it: first by owning up to it, then by learning from it, and folding it back into your story so you come back stronger. It is, of course, a fundamental tenet of sporting greatness that reckoning with failure makes you stronger, that the mistake or the falling-short is not the defining moment.
Since Sunday night, despite many being deluged by racist abuse, we have seen England stars break cover to apologise for their mistakes, for letting fans down, for not being quite enough in the moment. It’s not like we kick it down the road to a public inquiry that reports in two tournaments’ time. For the players, faultless competence is that duty, and – if it is not delivered – public apologies and contrition are in order from those who failed. My apologies to the other home nations for making the “we” of this particular article the English – but All This is very much an English problem, and there’s no point kidding ourselves about that.Įngland Expects That Every Footballer Will Do His Duty. Which is a funny old switcheroo, when you think about it. T hese days English people expect more from our football team than our government.