Every four years, England is a great place to visit. Photo / Getty Images
Every four years, England is a great place to visit. Photo / Getty Images
OPINION
Being in England for the Uefa Euro is easily the best time to visit, regardless of whether you’re a fan of football, writes long-suffering England fan Anna Sarjeant
Getting wrapped up in Euro euphoria is an intoxicating experience, even for non-football fans, and while the same level of excitement exists throughout Europe, only in England will you get bear-hugged by a stranger when the ball hits the net. The right net.
I know, hooliganism always makes front-page news and shirtless larger louts give football a bad name, but it’s such a tiny part of the real experience.
Unless you’re seeking out the dirtiest, roughest pub on the city outskirts, you’re more likely to experience football fever’s pleasant side.
Every four years — in reality, two, because we go full throttle for the football World Cup too — England rides a wave of eternal albeit misplaced optimism, right until we lose, which is as painful as it is inevitable. Until the time we get knocked out, there’s a sense of camaraderie that makes England a really fun place to be.
When there’s an England match on, the streets are empty but the pubs are full. If you ever want to experience a UK boozer at its best, go when they’re bustling with non-stop chants, sing-song, the waft of bacon butties, and nervous excitement — even when the chips are down.
You'll never get a better UK pub experience than in the summer. Photo / Getty Images
It’s summer and the entire country’s psyche changes
When the Euros are in play, it’s also the height of summer. While in England this might mean “highs” of 17C, the nights stay light until 10 o’clock (if you go north enough), and people make the most of this extended leisure time. Read as: spend more time in the beer garden.
School is almost over for the year and kids are on their six-week summer holiday from July. They’re amped.
Green spaces like parks and gardens are awash with people coming together for picnics, cricket matches and, if it’s above 10C, all-day sunbathing.
There’s a carefree attitude that makes the entire country glow.
Green spaces like parks and gardens are awash with people coming together. Photo / Getty Images
Everyone’s welcome on the (semi-enjoyable) emotional rollercoaster
Every England fan will happily reel off at least five childhood memories of Beckham goals, nail-biting penalties and impossible comebacks.
Then there’s the drama. The heartache.
And there’s always drama and there’s always heartache.
England’s manager is on a journey of redemption, one that’s been 28 years in the making. Once the country’s most ridiculed player, during the Euro 96 semifinals, a then-25-year-old Gareth Southgate missed a do-or-die penalty, sending England out of the tournament.
An entire nation put the blame on the shoulders of one man: the butt of jokes — and dismay — for decades.
Then 25 years later, in 2021, Southgate took us to our first Euro final in forever, and we lost.
But every few years there’s a flicker of new hope, and it’s the perfect time to get caught up in a strange national pleasure that mixes incredible joy with inevitable torment.
And you will get caught up in it.
The pleasure of joy and unbearable torment. Photo / Getty Images
It’s hard not to like England’s unfounded confidence
“It’s coming home.”
First sung by comedy duo Frank Skinner and David Baddiel in 1996, the Three Lions England fan chant has been warbled every tournament since, including every Football World Cup minus the ones we didn’t qualify for.
It didn’t come home then (Southgate’s fault — see above), and it hasn’t come home since.
But I guarantee, if you spend a few weeks in England over a Euro summer, you, too, will be hopelessly singing it. Along with new friends you just made over a pint and an impromptu hug when England (maybe) score a goal.
There’s also Vindaloo by Fat Les. Don’t go into any English pub without being able to recite: “Me and me mum and me dad and me gran and a bucket of vindaloo”...
