A ribbon of defiance

For the many fans who went to the Carabao cup final at Wembley last Sunday a small yellow ribbon on the jumper of Pep Guardiola, the Manchester City manager would not have raised many eyebrows. The fact that 6000 of them had been given away outside Wembley would probably have been of equally little interest for most. The fact that these ribbons were snapped up by fans, and worn during the match probably had more to do with supporting their manager than with anything else.


You see the Football Association (FA) had brought Pep Guardiola up on a charge for wearing this seemingly innocuous adornment during previous matches & now he had done it again. What on earth could be wrong with wearing such a thing you might ask?


Well for the FA it was not the actual ribbon, but what it represented that was causing the problem. It was a political statement


Pep Guardiola is from a small town in rural Catalonia. It is staunchly independent and Catalan speaking. I think all of us are aware that Catalonia briefly declared independence from Spain last year & a symbol of this independence movement is the yellow ribbon. The problem that the FA have with this is that they try to promote keeping politics out of sport. They deem the ribbon to be a political symbol and have banned it.


Now most of us reading this blog are not Spanish or Catalan & have only a passing interest in the politics of the region. However we might realise that for Pep Guardiola this ribbon has special significance, & have no problem with him wearing it. We might wonder why the FA are being so hard. But things are not always as black & white as we would like them to be. Do we think that politics should be kept out of sport or should we allow people like Pep Guardiola to be political?


A yellow ribbon that has little significance for us in the UK is one thing, but what if Guardiola had sported a cap for or against Brexit? What if he wore a sweatshirt supporting Donald Trump or Jeremy Corbyn? What if the yellow ribbon was a Nazi swastika or the flag of the Islamic state? Would we allow these things to be worn at a sporting venue?


The problem is that you cannot keep politics or philosophy or religion out of sport. The reason is the fans. Some sports fans may have difficulty articulating their philosophy, politics or religion, because they are not used to doing so, but they all hold a position in all three never the less. Your philosophy is just your way of life, how you live it. Your politics also involves your views on the NHS, taxation, the price of a pint or the level of immigration into the UK. And your view of religion may be just that you have never accepted any religion.


If we all have views, points of view or beliefs then how can we keep politics out of sport. My own view is that you can't, but you can keep people from using sport for their political ends which is a laudable aim.


When I consider these matters my mind always drifts towards the subject of freedom of speech. I am a democrat in that I believe that we all have the right to our own views. No-one should try to stifle other opinions. If you have conservative or liberal leanings then you have the right to debate these with others who might oppose you, but you have no right to ban those who disagree with you. One caveat to this is that no-one has the right to threaten actual bodily harm. Hence 'kill all Muslims' or 'kill all gays' should never be part of civilised discourse.


So I have no problem with Pep Guardiola sporting the yellow ribbon that has go him into trouble although I also understand why the FA don't like it. I also think that Christians should be able to wear crosses at work if they want to, and members of other faiths wear what they think is appropriate. I may not agree with them, and I should be able to say this, but stopping them is another matter.


Rather than becoming more tolerant our society is actually becoming less tolerant. Liberal, politically correct views are being forced onto the public including very small children which I find abhorrent. The call of this blog is that our society becomes more inclusive. Allow dissention, allow disagreement, allow debate. Don't try to ban it.