Document 1

Gareth Southgate and his England team leave a fine moral legacy
https://www.theguardian.com/football/2021/jul/13/gareth-southgate-and-his-england-team-leave-a-fine-moral-legacy
Written in 2021.

You are right that Gareth Southgate gave an extraordinary defence of his players after they were criticised for taking the knee before Euro 2020 games (Editorial, 9 July).
Indeed, Southgate and his team’s moral and political consciousness is also key to explaining why England were more successful in this tournament than at any time since 1966.

The England manager urged his players to stay calm before the final and avoid the hype. But by taking the knee before every game, these young lions had already, crucially,
put clear water between themselves and the boorish chauvinism of the English media and fans, including the booing of foreign national anthems, that has so often dragged
down their predecessors. England are in a very good place for Qatar 2022.
Joe McCarthy
Dublin

As a 13-year-old I watched the 1966 World Cup final on our black and white TV. That was the last time I watched a game in full.

This England team, however, has made me sit up and take note of something inspirational unfolding before our eyes. I know nothing of the rights or wrongs of on-field tactics,
nor the penalty-taking abilities of individual team members, but I do understand the importance to our whole nation of the example that Gareth Southgate set throughout for his
team.

His personal demeanour and the support and guidance he has given to his young team has been a lesson to us all in responsibility, tolerance and inclusion – qualities that they
have embedded and in turn used to help people needing support.

This, surely, is the significant legacy that Euro 2020 will leave for our nation. So, England faced a team that were better than them on the day – that’s all right, isn’t it?
Sue Hunter
Brockenhurst, Hampshire

Gareth Southgate and the England team took a knee against racism, even when criticised by government ministers. That will be the enduring legacy of the European
Championship, and a good one. They can be proud of what they did.
Keith Flett
Tottenham, London

Enough is most certainly enough. There is a disgusting undercurrent of racial hatred among a minority of English football fans. It was probably ever thus. However, this national
embarrassment, which stands in such contrast to what the England team actually represents, finds its vile expression through the apparent impunity afforded by social media.

Simple condemnation from football authorities and the prime minister (Boris Johnson condemns ‘appalling’ racist abuse of England players, 12 July) is now a tired and wholly
inadequate reaction: decisive action is required.

The perpetrators should be named and shamed, banned from attending all football matches (at international and club level) for a period of time or indefinitely, and the social
media companies forced to suspend or close accounts. The authorities must seize this moment.
Venetia Norton-Taylor
Hitchin, Hertfordshire

Tory MP Natalie Elphicke has suggested Marcus Rashford should have spent more time on his job than his “politics” (Johnson and Patel accused of hypocrisy over racist
abuse of England footballers, 12 July). Perhaps if Mrs Elphicke had done hers properly, he wouldn’t have needed to.
Mark Robertson
East Boldon, Tyne and Wear

Document 2
Southgate has created an England the players love but now comes acid test
https://www.theguardian.com/football/2021/jun/27/gareth-southgate-has-created-an-england-
the-players-love-acid-test-germany-tactics
Written by David Hytner in 2021.

There is something magical about Lord's cricket ground and it is particularly striking when it lies empty, when the

sense of history, beauty and grandness rises out of the stillness.

Gareth Southgate wanted his England footballers to experience it, to drink in the aura and so he took them there

for a walkabout on the immaculate outfield. The twist was that he did so on Tuesday morning, before the final Euro

2020 group tie against the Czech Republic that night.

It was the perfect example of Southgate's desire to stimulate his players in ever-different ways, to keep their minds
open and relaxed, to cut through the tension of a tournament and there would be another one the following evening.

Job done in the 1-0 win , qualification to the last 16 secured as group leaders, this time it was a barbecue at the

squad's St George Park training base with a guest appearance from Ed Sheeran, who performed some of his

songs. He even gave a brief rendition of Three Lions.

Overlooking the scene in reallotted bedrooms were Mason Mount and Ben Chilwell - the players who have had to

isolate after their contact with Scotland's Billy Gilmour, who returned a positive Covid test on Monday. Southgate

wanted them to feel included.

If Southgate has done one big thing right in his near five-year managerial tenure with the senior England team it is

to create an environment in which the players feel calm and comfortable, clique-free and united, ready to perform.

It may sound simple but is nothing of the sort when a group of young blokes must be largely cooped up for a period

of weeks. Remember the 2010 World Cup disaster under Fabio Capello? A key reason why that went badly was his

prison-style regime.

Southgate has used all his knowhow from his previous role as the England Under-21 manager and, indeed, as a

57-cap international to create a set-up that the players want to be a part of rather than find excuses to avoid.

Southgate has created an England the players love but now comes acid test

Visitors to St George's Park over the past few weeks have been able to feel the positivity and confidence of the

squad and it was significant when Marcus Rashford said on Thursday that he had played through pain for much of

the season and may need a shoulder operation after the Euros - the emphasis being on the timing. The

Manchester United forward could have missed these finals, the excuse was there for him. He did not want to take it

and his club were similarly happy to support him and Southgate.

Southgate has managed to recreate the atmosphere of a club by keeping things interesting, sometimes by thinking

out of the box; trying to develop the players as people and treating them as grownups. Transfer talk during

competition, for example, is not banned. Southgate trusts that the priority will remain England.

Half of the battle with international management is to construct the platform for expression and, if it worked for

Southgate on the run to the semi-finals of the 2018 World Cup , he now faces an acid test.

Germany are a part of Southgate's history because he will always be associated with missing the crucial penalty

shootout kick against them in the Euro 96 semi-final defeat at Wembley. Now they return for a last-16 meeting on

Tuesday that needs little hype but will get it all the same.

Southgate felt that he let everybody down with his miss from the spot and, deep down, he has to have thought that

the rematch all these years later could bring a note of personal redemption. It is a script with silver-screen quality.

That said, Southgate is not a person who allows his mind to drift back. His view is that life is for the living and it

goes on.

From the outside, it is easy to see the Germany game as a potentially legacy-defining moment for Southgate, one

of those points that he and the national team have built towards since he first joined the Football Association in
2011 as the head of elite development. Back then there was introspection after the World Cup campaign under

Capello, which had ended in the 4-1 defeat against Germany in the last 16, and Southgate's work over an 18-

month period was heavy on addressing the disconnect between club and country.

What is comes down to for Southgate is to transpose all the meticulous planning and culture shaping for a brighter

future into something tangible for today; to get his methods to yield a vital victory.

The criticism of Southgate at this tournament has been that his team have played with a lack of adventure and,

more broadly, he has shown himself to be a manager who lines up with six defensive players and four offensive-

minded ones; sometimes, even, seven and three. He can turn the dial towards attack by asking the full-backs to

press higher or one of the deeper midfielders to advance and there is flexibility within his approach but, against the

better opposition, it tends to be structured rather than thrilling, with the substitutions mainly like-for-like.

It has been said that Southgate's team lack identity but this is not true. The identity is clear; it is just that some fans

do not like it - mainly because they can see the abundance of creative talent in the squad. They want five attack-

minded players in the team and it is the principal tension of the Southgate era, which has coalesced at these finals

around the inclusion or otherwise of Jack Grealish.

The question is, if it has to be a choice, whether supporters would rather be entertained or win and it is obvious -

and understandable - where Southgate sits. With regard to the Germany game, could resilience, order and well-

practised moves be the answer? It has worked for Germany in the past. On the other hand, to grind towards a result

and fall short invites a mighty backlash, especially when the attacking potential is factored in.

It is an aspect of the jeopardy in Southgate's professional life but he will not run from it, having long vowed to

address challenges on his terms, being true to himself - in this case, perhaps, his instincts as a no-frills defender. In

the book that he released last November, entitled Anything is Possible: Be Brave, Be Kind & Follow Your Dreams ,

he details his journey from "skinny, introverted teenager" to someone unafraid to go for things in life, even the so-

called "Impossible Job" of England manager.

Southgate has created an England the players love but now comes acid test

Southgate has made it more possible by being honest and empathetic, invariably pitch perfect with his man-

management or speaking on wider issues of the day. Throughout his career, he has won respect in difficult

situations, beginning in an old-school and extremely tough Crystal Palace dressing room.

Now he just needs to win against Germany.

Document 3

Gareth Southgate: football management as a team sport

https://theconversation.com/gareth-southgate-football-management-as-a-team-sport-164198

Written by Andre Spicer in 2021.

Over the course of England’s journey to the Euro 2020 final, one of the most fascinating plays has been happening just off the pitch. Whenever the TV camera cuts to the
team’s manager Gareth Southgate, he is occasionally seen standing alone on the edge of the field, urging his team on.
But most of the time he is deep in conversation with his assistant Steve Holland. It is regular proof of how Southgate approaches key decisions and planning.

Those plans, and England’s progress in the competition, have led to Southgate’s style of management and leadership being widely celebrated. Some point out his supportive
approach to players, his focus on creating a positive atmosphere, and his willingness to listen.

He has also been praised for drawing on knowledge and experience from outside the world of football. Others highlight his own experiences as a player, and indeed, research
does suggest that on the whole, it is ex-players who tend to make the better football managers.

Another interesting aspect is that Southgate treats management itself as a team sport. Instead of being the sole authority figure, he is part of a larger team of decision makers,
all of whom have an influence on the squad of players.

Southgate is far from alone in this approach. Most major sports teams now involve a large team of managers and assistants and a similar kind of expansion has become
apparent in the business world too.

Sometimes this increasingly large cadre of managers serves primarily to shield a leader from the harsh winds of reality and external criticism. But good leaders use their
management teams as a way to expand the availability of skills and perspectives. Indeed, Southgate has used his as a way of bringing in a wide range of expertise in areas
including tactics, physical performance and nutrition.

Southgate also practises what is known as “shared” or “distributed” leadership. This is when the responsibility of managing and directing a team is not heaped on the shoulders
of a single individual. Instead, it is shared around, distributed between the wider management team and also among the players.

Research has found that patterns of shared leadership are quite common in sports teams. And outside of sport, it also seems that teams which share leadership and decision
making tend to perform better.

Team goals

In some large firms, rather than leadership being vested in a single managing partner, it is often distributed among a group of highly influential people. Recent research has
found that collective leadership is vital in driving large scale and change in these organisations. Southgate’s approach to leadership reflects wider changes within football and
society. A recent study of English football culture points to a shift away from what the authors term “Beckhamisation”, after the former England captain and Manchester United
star player David Beckham – a popular and instantly recognisable symbol of that period of football history (though, it is not suggested the culture was his creation).

During the 1990s, the study claims, this “Beckhamisation” saw high octane management practices imported from the corporate world into football. Individual talent was highly
valued, generously rewarded and strictly managed – but this celebration and focus eventually bred a culture of toxic individualism.

In recent years, this has been replaced by “Southgatism”, a leadership style which that study describes as “modest, self-deprecating, down to earth, diverse and progressive”.

Southgate’s style of leadership (and perhaps future success) is likely to remain the subject of much discussion. Like many iconic leaders, he will be widely imitated, so expect to
see plenty of middle managers showing up to work wearing waist coats and thin ties. But hopefully, they will also seek to copy his serious approach to shared leadership and
collective responsibility.

Document 4
LEADERSHIP LESSONS FROM GARETH SOUTHGATE’S TEAM TRANSFORMATION

https://www.thehrdirector.com/features/leadership/leadership-lessons-gareth-southgate/

Written by Jeremy Snape in 2018.

The England football team’s World Cup success and has amazed and inspired the country, turning the experience of watching the team from dread to delight. Contributor
Jeremy Snape – Sporting Edge

“During my career everyone was talking about the tactical and technical elements of the game but more often it was the mental game seemed that was the difference between
success and failure.”

The mental game is the biggest area of competitive advantage for teams, whether in sport of business. In this case we have seen Gareth Southgate’s authentic leadership
style, which combines skill, thoughtfulness and understated strength, transform a relatively novice England squad into a winning team.”

Snape has helped numerous business and sports teams with psychological preparedness, including England Rugby, various Premier League Football Teams, the South African
cricket team. He also sits on the leadership board of football’s League Managers Association.

He highlights seven lessons from Gareth Southgate’s leadership style that the nation’s managers and business leaders can learn from:

1.Balance compassion and ruthlessness. Gareth has grown into his leadership role with calm confidence and composure. He is an authentic leader who has spent the past few
years studying various leaders in different settings (including a day with Eddie Jones at England Rugby). He is a student of leadership and has developed his own style. Early
critics may have mistaken Gareth’s quietness as lacking strength, but he’s made the tough decisions, such as dropping Wayne Rooney, and shown that you can balance both
compassion and ruthlessness.

2. Learn from failures as well as successes. Gareth’s personal experience of missing the penalty in Euro 96 has shaped his own philosophy and also helped him to prepare his
team better. This vulnerability and willingness to discuss setbacks and pressure is a new concept to football and has liberated the players and staff to enjoy the challenge of
competition rather than the fear of failure and the “what if it all goes wrong” catastrophizing.

3. Focus on the process not the outcome. Sport is emotional and unpredictable and that’s why we love it. But as performers, we can’t control the outcome and instead we need
to focus on our preparation, mindset, communication and collaboration. It’s all about executing the strategy and skill, whether in business or sport. These things are in our
control. This preparedness has helped build the courage that is central to their Winning Mindset.

4. Help your team enjoy it! Thanks to Gareth’s approach and thorough preparation his players are now approaching games with the excitement of showing off their skills to the
world. Previously teams were so fearful about the media diatribe if they failed, it became a self-fulfilling prophecy, as we saw with game against Iceland two years ago.

The champion performers have a calm control about themselves and this was seen in last week’s penalty shoot-out. They owned the process’ and Pickford said afterwards ‘I
prepared well, and I stayed in the moment.’ No matter how stressful the situation, we have more chance of success if our mind is on the job in front of us rather than worrying
about what people may say after the game.

5. No stars! Football has traditionally celebrated individual icons and moments of genius but it’s the selfless play, passing and work ethic which wins tournaments. Gareth has
instilled a more team-based mindset which values the interdependence of players rather than their individual brilliance. For example – Kane may score a wonder goal, but he
got the ball from the hard work of a defender tracking back and making a vital tackle. Without this hard work in the shadows, the highlight wouldn’t have been created so great
managers and coaches celebrate both players equally.
6. People not just performers: the England football team has players from a range of diverse background and they are being embraced as people as much as they are as
performers. When people can come to work and be respected for who they really are rather than putting on a ‘perfect’ act, they relax, relate and perform in a different way.

Gareth respects his players’ diversity and has galvanised them around a common purpose, in this case rewriting the team’s poor history, something that no individual star could
achieve on their own. Danny Rose told his story of a battle with depression which shows how vulnerability and authenticity are valued in the group.

7. Build empowerment and engagement – Gareth Southgate has instilled a new style of coaching and leadership by spending more one-to-one time with his players. Football’s
culture tends to be more directive but Southgate has created more empowerment and engagement in his players by discussing each of their roles and performances in depth,
through one-to-one partnerships.

This time has been invaluable in getting to know the players and for the players to understand the mindset, strategy and team play needed for success. This approach is a
continuation of his time coaching many of them through the younger England age group sides and this repeated cycle of ‘Prepare – Do – Review’ gives a great structure for
improved self-awareness and continual learning.

Jeremy Snape added: “England has already gone further than almost anyone reasonably expected and it has been a delight to watch them playing. We can see that even in
the big pressure moments like the penalty shootout, England back themselves to win. Business owners and directors can learn a lot from Gareth’s leadership approach in
dealing with the constant challenged of helping their own teams be high-flyers.”

Document 5

It’s not about him’: How Gareth Southgate won England’s culture war
https://www.englandfootball.com/articles/2021/Nov/30/gareth-southgate-five-year-anniversary-20211130

Written by Sean Ingle in 2022

When England’s footballers arrived back at their World Cup base camp in Doha after beating Senegal , they were

greeted by dozens of dancing hotel workers , who waved St George flags, threw confetti and looked genuinely

pleased to be seeing them at 3am. The feeling was clearly mutual. Soon Jack Grealish, Luke Shaw and Kyle

Walker were pogoing blissfully alongside them. And, as their heads bopped up and down, it was hard to escape the

sense of this being a very different England setup.

Earlier, in a seemingly throwaway remark, John Stones gave a further insight into the team’s culture. “We spoke in

our meeting about not letting any standards drop,” the defender said. “Whether it might be putting out socks the

right way for the kit men – we get on at each other for things like that because we have created those standards.”

Fun, accountability, responsibility. This is not a formula England have typically leaned on at World Cups – and

certainly not when the gruff Italian Fabio Capello and the equally gruff Englishman Roy Hodgson were in charge.

But since taking over in 2016, Gareth Southgate has not only established a very different culture – he has done

so by radically sidestepping out of football’s comfort zone, too. Performance coaches from New Zealand, England

rugby experts, and the best of Team GB’s Olympic talent have all informed his thinking.

It speaks volumes that Southgate was the first football manager to go on UK Sport’s three-year elite coaching

programme, where he exchanged ideas and philosophies with top coaches from multiple Olympic sports. Notably,

when he graduated in 2019, he called the course “not only a privilege but a great opportunity” and stressed that the
challenges facing top coaches were the same, whatever the sport.

The good impressions went both ways. “He was a bit of a sponge, always wanting to learn from people and getting

fresh perspectives,” says a source in the Olympic sporting ecosystem. “That is rare among football people. There is

often a sense in football that: ‘We know best, we know everything, and we have worked out how to create a

winning culture.’”

‘It’s not about him’: How Gareth Southgate won England’s culture war

Southgate bucked that trend early by employing Dave Reddin, a core member of Sir Clive Woodward’s team that

won the 2003 Rugby World Cup and the head of performance for Team GB at the 2012 Olympic Games.

Another key member of Southgate’s setup has been the New Zealander performance coach Owen Eastwood, who

has also worked with South Africa’s cricketers, his homeland’s rugby team and Team GB. Eastwood emphasises

the concept of Whakapapa – the Maori way of explaining your place in any tribe or family. Applied to sport, it places

the emphasis on creating pride in the shirt and leaving a legacy for others to follow.

Since 2019, whenever an England player earns their first cap they get a “legacy number” stitched into the crest –

which gives them a numerical place in the history of the shirt. Robert Barker, England’s goalkeeper in football’s first

international in 1872, is No 1; the team’s first black footballer, Viv Anderson, is No 936. The achievements of those

who blazed a trail, such as Anderson, are emphasised to Southgate’s diverse squad.

Eastwood also stresses that trust and openness matter. “People thrive when there’s consistency and composure

around the environment,” he says. “One of the things about Gareth’s leadership is he genuinely sees it as a

players’ game. He is there to facilitate them achieving what their potential might be. It’s not about him. He’s not

the hero of it – the players are the heroes of it.”

It is a philosophy similar to that of Danny Kerry, who guided the GB women’s hockey team to gold at the Rio 2016

Olympics and has also spoken to Southgate. One of the team’s stars, Georgie Twigg, says that there are clear

parallels with what the hockey team did and what she sees with England’s players in Doha.

“We worked very closely with psychologists on what we, as a team, wanted our culture to look like: how we wanted

to behave and hold each other to account,” she says. “We had to because we were a group of 30 girls training day

in, day out, with massively different personalities and ages.”

Can something as small as turning your socks the right way make a difference? Twigg thinks so. “Some of us would

never have been best friends outside the sporting world,” she adds. “But creating a culture where you are all

working towards one collective goal, and you do these small behaviours that generate respect between each other,

is really powerful. And it can lead to huge knock-on effects on the field.”

Southgate did not come to these ideas cold. As early as 2014 he was behind the launch of “the England DNA”, a

plan to establish a way of playing and create a history and heritage for the national team from junior to senior levels.

His time as manager of England Under-21s also helped put his ideas of developing young players into practice.

Nearly a decade on he presides over an England setup that his players genuinely appear to enjoy. It is certainly a
far cry from the “golden generation” of the early noughties, during which players from rival clubs such as David

Beckham, Wayne Rooney, Steven Gerrard and John Terry often treated their England colleagues with suspicion,

and underperformed as a result.

Of course winning matches has helped Southgate. But much of this change is down to leadership. It is noticeable

that he doesn’t ask his players to do anything he wouldn’t do himself, and that he has never shied away from taking

responsibility – whether over taking the knee , going to Qatar, or anything else.

You can smell the team spirit at England’s Al Wakrah training base. Now, as Saturday’s quarter-final against

France looms, a nation hopes they can once again entertain us

Document 6

They may not have won Euro 2020 but Gareth Southgate and his England colleagues pulled off one of their most important victories long ago

https://www.cityam.com/they-may-not-have-won-euro-2020-but-gareth-southgate-and-his-england-colleagues-pulled-off-one-of-their-most-important-victories-long-ago/

Written by Matthew Fletcher-Jones in 2021

England may not have ended 55 years of hurt but reaching the Euro 2020 final was a further step in the right direction.

There are many things you can attribute Gareth Southgate’s achievements as England manager to, from a willingness to change formation and a winning team, to putting his
faith in youth or even playing a right-back on the left.

Yet the real roots of his positive World Cup and European Championship campaigns took hold a little over three years ago when Southgate scored his most significant victory.
He won over the English football media.

The relationship between the national team and its media has not exactly been smooth over the years. Who can forget Graham Taylor’s depiction as a turnip, Steve McClaren
being dubbed the “Wally with the Brolly” and the WAGS of Baden Baden commanding the front pages?

Even when things were good on the pitch, relations with the media had effectively broken down off it before the tournaments had even started at both Italia ’90 and Euro 96.

One of the arguments for Sam Allardyce’s hire was his supposed good relations with the press. That didn’t end well either.

How Southgate and England learned from the NFL

So, to Southgate, seen at the time to many as a short-term solution, but a man who together with the Football Association has arguably won England’s biggest victory. The
media are onside.

You will know of his excellent Players’ Tribune piece and his unequivocal support of his players taking the knee, but the game-changing moment took place ahead of Russia
2018 with a simple media day.

The FA took a page out of the NFL’s playbook and invited the media to the team’s St George’s Park base, where all 23 squad members sat behind individual desks. Southgate
is said to have been impressed by it when attending a Super Bowl.
Each spent 45 minutes openly talking with writers, broadcasters and podcasters. PRs, agents, and advisors were conspicuous by their absence.

It was probably the most important 45 minutes of Southgate’s regime as players and media discovered a new-found mutual respect.

The squad of modem multi-millionaires had been seen as cosseted while the players treated the media as a necessary evil. Numerous ex-internationals had spoken of how their
performances had been affected by fear of criticism.

This simple media event changed everything. It was probably best summed up at the time by the Mail’s Oliver Holt on approaching Ashley Young, “I’ve never really liked Young,
mainly because I’ve never taken the trouble to get to know him…Young could barely have been more different to what I was expecting.”

Positioning the players as human beings first was a masterstroke of communications by Southgate and the FA.

Southgate proving the perfect politician

Three years on and the relationship remains strong. The FA should be praised for their continuing attempts to court better coverage, as should the media for embracing the new
approach and giving Southgate’s young side the chance to play with a little less pressure than in the past.

Southgate himself must also take credit. He sticks to his messages unerringly.

Only half an hour before kick-off last night he was pitch-side speaking of players and fans “from all communities”. Everyone is embraced. And the media has been more than
happy to be part of it.

The impact on the pitch is clear to see. The playing style isn’t always pretty, but it works and there have been fewer demands for players to be dropped, systems to be changed
and to display the “passion” that has wrongly been seen as the key to success in English football for so long.

The England manager has been the perfect politician, bringing a nation together, ably supported by Raheem Sterling, Marcus Rashford and the FA’s comms team.

Perhaps the squad and the media have even become too close? I’m sure Southgate won’t have been pleased that the England team leaked ahead of every Euro 2020 game.
Then again, if they keep on going forward, who cares?

Document 7
‘Southgate’s team represents real England’: Three Lions unite country

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/jul/09/southgates-team-represents-real-england-three-lions-unites-country

Written by Nazia Parveen in 2021.

The young people dressed in traditional robes huddle around the small screen at a Muslim boarding school in Blackburn. For a moment they gasp, before the room erupts into
cheers as the England captain, Harry Kane, scores what proves to be the winning goal.

The video, which went viral after England’s Euro 2020 semi-final victory over Denmark, is one of many clips and photos of people from minority backgrounds celebrating the
team’s success – a symbol of the strides that have been made in making English football more inclusive.
Hasan Patel, from Birmingham, who shared the boarding school clip, said it showed that football had once again brought the nation together.

“I received it via WhatsApp and shared it on Twitter mainly to show people that this is what supporting the national team does to a nation,” he said. “Gareth Southgate’s England
represents the real England and these lads for me showed it. With all the attacks on Black Lives Matter, taking the knee, and the attacks on [Raheem] Sterling, [Marcus]
Rashford and even Southgate, football has united the nation.”

British Muslim students from an Islamic seminary watching the #ENG game when @HKane scored. This is the #eng we are part from which some people lead us to believe isn’t
possible, it is and the racists can do one. @Sathnam @mrjamesob you’ll appreciate it. pic.twitter.com/cKr4SJ0E5Y

— Hasan Patel (@Hasanpatel) July 7, 2021

Before the tournament Southgate, the England manager, urged people to speak out against white privilege. “Our players are role models,” he wrote. “It’s their duty to continue to
interact with the public on matters such as equality, inclusivity and racial injustice, while using the power of their voices to help put debates on the table, raise awareness and
educate. It’s clear to me we are heading for a much more tolerant and understanding society, and I know our lads will be a big part of that.”

This week the thinktank British Future launched an #EnglandTogether campaign, supported by individuals and organisations from all faiths including the Muslim Council of
Britain, City Sikhs and the English Labour Network, calling on fans to show their support for the team and for an “inclusive England”.

“Whether you’re wearing a turban, a kippa, a hijab or a baseball cap, it’s time for us to come together as one nation united by the Three Lions,” it said.

The Empireland author, Sathnam Sanghera, said much of the racist abuse he had received in his lifetime had come while watching England play, and agreed with Patel that the
team’s stand against racism would having a lasting impact on future generations.

“What Gareth Southgate has done with this team, backing their efforts to combat racist abuse, backing the taking of the knee, is profound for a generation of children of
immigrants,” he said. “To have the team itself take this on is powerful. And to have them take it on when our government is just interested in culture wars and fuelling division is
even more meaningful.

“It goes to show that whatever happens in politics, what happens in society is separate. Whatever politicians say, we are becoming more progressive and tolerant as a nation,
and it’s fantastic.”

A report by British Future, “Beyond a 90-minute nation”, said two-thirds of white and ethnic minority citizens agreed that the England football team is a symbol of England that
“belongs to people of every race and ethnic background”. Just one in 13 people disagreed.

Three-quarters (77%) of white people in England agreed that “being English is open to people of different ethnic backgrounds who identify as English”, while 14% felt that “only
people who are white count as truly English”. Among minority ethnic citizens those figures were 68% and 19%.

Racism has not gone away – far from it. A recent Guardian investigation found England’s footballers had been subjected to sustained racist abuse online during their matches at
Euro 2020. It identified 2,114 abusive tweets directed towards or naming players or Southgate. These included 44 explicitly racist tweets, with messages using the N-word and
monkey emojis directed at black players, and 58 that attacked players for their anti-racist actions, including taking the knee.
Sunder Katwala, who runs British Future, agreed that racism had not disappeared from football and society in general, pinpointing social media as a particularly egregious
platform. But Katwala, an avid Everton supporter, maintained that many people of colour would feel “invited” to Sunday’s match owing to the team’s progressive attitudes in
tackling racism.

“In football matches in the mid-1980s and early 1990s there was a level of overt racism in and around stadiums that I know my children will never experience,” he said. He
recalled Liverpool signing John Barnes, when his fellow Everton fans sang “Everton are white”, and teams such as Arsenal and Aston Villa who had many black players facing
racist abuse throughout their games.

Katwala said the national team’s supporters’ reputation had been far worse than that of clubs’. “I would not have felt safe travelling to watch England, especially in an away
game in the 1980s era. I would worry about standing out as one of very few black or Asian fans, or being asked what England had got to do with you,” he said.

However, the summer of Euro 1996 saw a culture shift, giving rise to an inclusive version of national pride. “The fan culture was so different – hosting the tournament in a
positive spirit of welcome. That felt very different – to ethnic minority supporters, to people attending games with their children,” Katwala said.

He added: “The 2018 World Cup and Euro 2020 have continued to reinforce that ethnic minority support for England is no longer something eye-catching. It is simply a normal
reflection of who we are in England today, so being part of these occasions that bring us together and sharing the hope that football is coming home is something we can be
part of on equal terms.”

Document 8
Gareth Southgate: We can make this the greatest ever era for English football

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-cup/2022/11/12/gareth-southgate-can-make-greatest-ever-era-english-football/

Written by Mike McGrath in 2022.

Gareth Southgate insists England can shock the world and has encouraged his players to tap into their childhood

dreams.

A number of players posted photos of themselves as young fans with faces painted and wearing the Three Lions kit

when Southgate named his World Cup squad on Thursday.

Southgate says he will shield his 26 players from the jeers he personally faced from supporters earlier this year,

and despite failing to win their last six matches believes they can reach the latter stages of a major tournament

which starts a week from Sunday.

“With the players we want to talk to them about the excitement of going to a World Cup,” said Southgate. “I think

we understand the need to comment on the off-field things that surround this tournament, but we want the players

to feel that enthusiasm that they’ve had since kids, that struck me when I was speaking to them, for better or worse,

about going to a World Cup and what it means.

“We want to fuel that. We just want them to transition from a hectic club schedule to thinking about England. We

want to talk to them about the fact that this, whatever happens over the next four weeks, has been the second best

period for English football. We can make it the best.

“So that is the only thing in my mind, it’s the challenge mindset, it’s nothing else. How can we take the supporters

on another journey, like the one they loved four years ago and loved last summer? Because that’s why we do it and

that’s what makes playing for England special.”

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Gareth Southgate: We can make this the greatest ever era for English football

England players meet on Monday before flying to Qatar the following day. Southgate plans a light session on

Wednesday to avoid the risk of injury after a long-haul flight, with full training on Thursday ahead of their

tournament opener against Iran on November 21 at Khalifa International Stadium.

Southgate, 52, faced questions over his future for the first time in his tenure over the summer when his team failed

to win a Uefa Nations League game and were eventually relegated from Europe’s elite.

He was booed by fans but says his own situation, with two years left on his contract , is not important compared to

getting his players in the right frame of mind and physically ready for the mid-season tournament.

“I don’t think what it was [jeering] for me is important at this stage,” he said. “My only focus is how do I help this

team to have a brilliant tournament? And I think we’ve got a great chance.

“We’ve perhaps, as we did before Russia, qualified and managed expectations at the same time. So I know what

this group of players have been capable of. They’ve been to the deep reaches of tournaments. They know what that

feels like. They know they can do that again. There’s no reason why they can’t.

“That’s my sole focus. What people say or think about me is irrelevant. My job is to free the players of any of that.

I’m excited for the tournament and they should be as well.”

Southgate has also defended Raheem Sterling , whose form for Chelsea recently has seen questions of whether

he should start for England.

“Raheem’s got the opportunity in terms of number of caps for example to break all sorts of records because he

started so early,” said Southgate. “It’s been fascinating to see that progression to – he won’t thank me for that –

being an elder statesman in the team. The maturity and the way he now looks after the younger ones when they

came in, I think he thinks about that period where he had to adapt.”

Document 9

The Guardian view on the England team: making the whole country proud

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/jul/09/the-guardian-view-on-the-england-team-making-the-whole-country-proud

Written by

In the joyous, uproarious aftermath of England's Euro 2020 semi-final victory on Wednesday, two young women

interviewed by the BBC in central London captured the moment with some elan. "Can we stop talking about 1966

now?" shouted one above the din. "Yeah, it's 2021 now baby!" added her friend.

England's exhilarating journey in the tournament has, as the team's manager Gareth Southgate hoped it would,

"made history". Sunday's climactic meeting with Italy at Wembley will be the nation's first ever Euro final. It could

deliver the first major trophy in England men's football since that fabled World Cup win over West Germany 55

years ago. A country that got used to the bittersweet pleasures of football nostalgia is experiencing the giddy
excitement of a new story being written. Its inspiring plotlines reach far beyond the green turf of the national

stadium.

In his extraordinary pre-tournament open letter , Dear England, Southgate defended his players against criticism of

their decision to take the knee before Euro 2020 games. The players rightly felt it their duty, he wrote, "to continue

to interact with the public on matters such as equality, inclusivity and racial injustice". In its claims about sport,

politics and the public square, this was a radical thing to write. But the remarkable members of Southgate's squad

have consistently justified their manager's faith in them, acting with grace, verve and courage.

Raheem Sterling, probably England's player of the tournament, has used his profile to successfully raise awareness

of racial discrimination and inequality. Marcus Rashford, famously, has done the same in relation to child food

poverty. The captain, Harry Kane, wore a rainbow armband during England's victory against Germany to celebrate

Pride month. This is a group of gifted young men who have an unusual sense of their power to promote a social

message of inclusivity. Their manager, in an age of bombast and division, exudes the forgotten virtues of humility

and good-natured tolerance. As the footballer turned pundit Gary Neville has pointed out, other powerful figures

could learn much from Southgate's approach to public life.

Great sporting occasions are passing festivals, lighting up summers or dark winter evenings. The idea of their wider

social significance should not be overdone. The vibrant 2012 London Olympics were hailed as evidence of a

country at ease with itself, but a bitter descent into the present age of culture wars soon followed. Nevertheless, this

Page 2 of 2

The Guardian view on the England team: making the whole country proud

England team deserves to be congratulated not just for its football but for exemplifying and showcasing the best of

a modern, diverse England. They have been easy to like and easy to be proud of. In their exploits, a grateful, Covid-

weary nation has found exuberant release and a sense of togetherness.

Now, in purely sporting terms, comes the hardest part. During an enthralling tournament, Italy have arguably been

the most impressive team. They boast a formidable, unbeaten record stretching back 33 games. But whether

England win or lose on Sunday, this footballing summer will be fondly remembered for a long time to come. In 2021,

the national team has finally emerged from history's shadow into the sunlight