Boo? Hiss

The English have got a new song. You’ll hear it mostly on the terraces, but there was a big outing for it last week at the Hatton/Mayweather fight on Saturday night. The words to it, like all great tunes are easy to remember. Altogether now:

‘Booooooooooo’.

See? Easy, eh? It’s dead good is this song, and English sports fans are word leaders in its execution. At the England/Croatia the fatties on the terraces at The New Wembley really went for it, booing the jaunty Croatian anthem for its entirety, booing their own team when they were losing at half time and really letting go once Steve and the lads trudged off “in disgrace”, relieved in the knowledge that they’d be spending their summer in Dubai rather than Berne.

None of this behaviour will be unfamiliar to anyone who watched England in the ’70s and ’80s, but it’s the sheer scale of the mass derision that is so depressing. Followers of the national team have always drowned out opposing teams’ anthems, but when you’re booing the introduction of one of the country’s best strikers (Peter Crouch last year) you’re actively wanting him to fail. What about Beckham in 1998? England’s best player gets sent off and what happens? The country loses its mind and starts making effigies of its former hero to hang from a lamppost. Still that’s the price you pay for not being a braindead no-mark and having a girlfriend who doesn’t look like she’s made from sausage meat.

Contrast the actions of the assorted England fans from Grimsby and Carlisle last month with the Liverpool supporters at the European Cup final in 2005. Three-nil down at half time and did they boo? No, they sang You’ll Never Walk Alone with an intensity that demonstrated just how much the humiliating first half had hurt. And we all know what happened next…

The problem with booing is that either a) riles the opposition (see Mayweather on Saturday) or b) makes your players so intimidated they’re terrified they’ll make a mistake and incur more of the mob’s wrath. Fans expect success and like spoilt children, when they don’t get it they boo for all their worth because IT’S JUST NOT FAIR. That’s because sport, like life, isn’t. Deal with it.