Nigel Farage makes a lot of videos, and among the ones promoting neo-Nazi events and endorsing dubious cryptocurrencies, it would have been easy to miss his 2021 rant against England players taking the knee.
In a clip titled “Southgate turns England fans against him”, Farage claimed footballers were advocating “a new communist order”, the “defunding of the police” and the destruction of “Western capitalism” by performing the anti-racism gesture.
Yes, that’s the trouble with modern football – riddled with “Marxists”. But much has changed since then, not least this supposed Crystal Palace supporter adopting a new team in Ipswich Town and suggesting politics and football should mix after all. He was pictured this week at Portman Road, holding aloft a blue “Farage 10” shirt. In one photo, every shirt in the dressing room had his name plastered across the back.
This is perhaps the kind of die-hard devotion to be expected from a former Conservative-turned-Anti-Federalist-League-turned-Ukip-turned-Brexit-Party-turned-Reformer, but there are bigger questions.
Farage visits Ipswich’s Portman Road (Photo: X)It is understood staffers booked him onto a stadium tour and the club maintain there was no official invitation. What is unclear is how he managed to change all the shirts in the dressing room, make a short film, or pose in front of a sponsorship board without their knowledge. Indeed without a single member of staff noticing. He thanked them for a “lovely welcome”. The kindest interpretation is that Ipswich have been hopelessly naïve.
Accompany the photos, Farage joked on X: “I’ve never been too bad on the right wing.”
The attempts at humour mask something more sinister.
Reform UK operates as a private company limited by guarantee. Farage and its spokesperson for home affairs Zia Yusuf are directors. So far they have sold over 5,000 “football shirts” with their branding on, despite printing the Union Jack in the wrong colours and using a “Made in Britain” logo without permission.
Farage’s forays into the sport are not “pandering” to genuine football fans but a cynical attempt at naked populism. He accused Gareth Southgate of being “out of touch” with England fans – which England fans? Who are they and what are their views?
Like many people who know very little about football, it appears his own interpretation lies in meaningless, classist stereotypes of the 1980s. The kind of logic whereby to be an England fan is to smear Combat 18 tattoos over your skull and chant in favour of the National Front.
Retro-style football stickers are being daubed across stadiums and on lampposts around the country. “On the charge with Farage”. “Stop the boats”. None of this is an accident, rather a flagrant bid to infiltrate the national game in the hope of winning votes.
The problem for Farage is that it is not necessarily rooted in reality. Football fans are one of the most diverse demographics in the UK. Polling shows that for the most part, they support the wearing of rainbow armbands and kneeling against discrimination.
Farage in the dressing room (Photo: X – Nigel Farage)Portman Road is a curious choice of venue too. Across the road in Felixstowe, Reform had to abandon a walkabout due to protests from local people. Twelve of Ipswich’s current squad identify under one more than one nationality. Almost a third of their players were born outside of the UK.
The numbers may have escaped Farage, who says he actually prefers cricket, presumably in the same way he prefers the GB News studios to his own constituency.
It is strange then, to see his stance on kicking politics out of football change direction quicker than Johan Cruyff, but he clearly believes it will be a vote-winner; real man-of-the-people stuff, in the same vein as attending Dulwich College and amassing £1m a year outside of his parliamentary salary.
The latter he has achieved by catapulting himself into endless media appearances and enjoying wholly disproportionate levels of attention for the leader of a party with eight MPs. Outside that climate, the Ipswich stunt might otherwise be ignored for the shameless opportunism it is.
“Keep politics out of football.” Unless of course they’re my politics, and they can be coopted in time for the local elections.
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