‘Harry walks, Fabio runs’: A case study on the current relationship between English national identity, soccer and the English press

Abstract

On February 8 th 2012 Fabio Capello resigned from his position as manager of the England men's national association football (soccer) team. The date this decision became public coincided with the acquittal in court of Harry Redknapp following the Tottenham Hotspur FC manager being accused of tax evasion. As Redknapp was considered the media favourite to succeed Capello as England manager, press coverage of these two events proved an interesting case through which to explore the current relationship between English national identity, soccer and the English national press. As such, this paper is concerned with how the events of that day were reported by nine different English national newspapers across 82 pages of coverage. Thematic analysis revealed that journalists often adopted a 'Little Englander' mentality with regards to their attitudes towards Capello due to his Italian nationality. Contrary to this, the press frequently depicted Redknapp as a typically 'English' working-class hero linking him with nostalgic references to a bygone 'golden era' of English soccer. These findings illustrate the main ways in which the English press continue to present English national identity via their soccer related coverage as insular and rooted in the past.

Spending the Primary Physical Education and Sport Premium: a West Midlands case study

“…Details of the spending of each primary school on their Physical Education and Sport Premium funding were 'cut and pasted' into an MS Word document and was prepared for analysis. Inductive open coding was used by analysing each line of text and allocating content to particular themes (Biscomb and Griggs 2013;Griggs and Gibbons 2014). A total number of 23 different themes emerged from coding the entirety of the data.…”

Riding in the shadows: The reaction of the British print media to Chris Froome’s victory in the 2013 Tour de France

“…Though it should be acknowledged that viewing print media on one day has limitations, as coverage on sports issues can last many days, this approach is typical of many such similar studies (see Griggs and Gibbons, 2012) Open coding was used by analysing each line of text and allocating content to particular themes (see Biscomb and Griggs, 2012;Griggs and Gibbons, 2012). A total number of seven themes emerged from the initial analysis of the data.…”

“…Take it on the chin, reveal no weakness, be polite, move on. This was an incredible victory from an incredible gentleman (Slot, 2013a: 53). Froome was also lauded for his commitment and hard work in the same way as other British sporting heroes such as Sir Bradley Wiggins (Griggs et al, 2014), football manager Harry Redknapp (Griggs and Gibbons, 2012) and distance runner Paula Radcliffe (Walton, 2010):…”

“Allez Wiggo”: A Case Study on the Reactions of the British Print Media to Bradley Wiggins’s Victory in the Tour de France

“…(Chadband, 2012) Others compared his achievements with those of other British athletes in other sports throughout history. As such the familiar sense of sporting nostalgia upon which depictions of British/English nationalism in the national press have often been based (Griggs & Gibbons, 2012) were also apparent in the coverage of Bradley Wiggins:…”

“…The BLRC was responsible for the re-introduction of massed start road racing following the continental format of attracting sponsorship and publicity and this approach culminated in the first Tour of Britain being held in 1951 under the sponsorship of the Daily Express newspaper (Woodland, 2005). Inductive open coding was used by analysing each line of text and allocating content to particular themes (Biscomb & Griggs, 2012;Griggs & Gibbons, 2012). A total number of eleven different themes emerged from coding the entirety of the data.…”