Don’t read anything more into Wembley’s moment of wonder

While Tuesday night at Wembley made for a wonderful show of solidarity with our French cousins, I'm reluctant to see it as anything more than a one-off.

Wembley lit in the colours of the French flag (Getty Images)

Ever since the events in Paris last Friday evening, we have been searching. For answers. For clues. And, above all, for meaning. Sometimes, however, things don’t necessarily have meaning, just an effect. Like an earthquake or a tsunami. And given that the people who perpetrated the blood-letting in Paris have such a perverted view of reality and humanity, it is tempting to think that this was a disaster without sense, reason or meaning.

Politicians even talk of senseless acts, or mindless murder. But, of course, there was a purpose – however indefensible it may be – to these terrible deeds, and it’s up to us how we respond to the intellectual, political and strategic challenge this set of circumstances presents.

So we must try to separate things which have meaning and things which don’t. And so I found myself asking: was there any lasting significance to what occurred at Wembley Stadium on Tuesday night? France met England in a football game which, in sporting terms, was devoid of any meaning: it was a friendly between two nations who already have a place in next summer’s European Championship.

Yet set against the backdrop of events in Paris, it was a match loaded with importance, seen as a symbolic meeting of two nations who have always been friendly enemies. It was a chance for England football supporters – maybe even those same ones who ran amok in the streets of Marseille in 1998, fighting with French police for three days – to show their kinship with the people of France. This they did with great dignity and wholeheartedness – observing the minute’s silence impeccably, singing the “Marseillaise” as best they could, and giving a moving ovation to French substitute Lassana Diarra, who lost a cousin on Friday night. It seems that sport, which has a great propensity to divide (towns, nations, people), also has an incredible power to unite.

Football supporters are a curiously sentimental bunch, always prepared to put fierce tribal loyalties to one side when there’s a minute’s silence (invoked with increasing regularity these days). Yes, they will voice irrational hatreds and behave with barely comprehensible venom towards their rivals, but they’re also enthusiastic to show they have a heart, and they can do dignified as well as anyone.

Tuesday night at Wembley was one big fraternité opportunity, and it was entirely fitting that football – the game that matters most to both France and England – should be employed as the expression of national solidarity. The game itself was pointless, just like it was always going to be. But occasionally, real life intrudes into the glorious irrelevance of what happens on a football pitch and it is at times like this that we see just how powerful, emotionally connective, and – yes – relevant sport can be.

But this was just a one-off. It won’t in itself turn us into more thoughtful, compassionate people. It won’t encourage us to put national interests aside for the greater good. And it certainly won’t stop England supporters screaming abuse at French players should the two nations meet in proper competition next year. For the moment, however, we must celebrate this outbreak of humanity. I just wouldn’t read too much into it.