Of course, football’s coming home because we have a Labour prime minister. And without revealing any sort of political leanings, we all hope that’s true.
It’s been fun, hasn’t it, since Gareth Southgate and his so-called, Moyes-light tactics have sent England into our first major finals on foreign soil. At least the humour has brought a smile to our faces after 58 years of hurt. The memories of Bobby Moore, Geoff Hurst, Martin Peters and 1966 came flooding back.Ollie Watkins, the West Country boy David Moyes admits he should have tried harder to sign, made it all happen. I think I’ll leave that little point there.
So it’s Sunday in Berlin, our new PM Sir Keir Starmer probably in attendance, although he has rightly stopped short of any silly announcements over a possible bank holiday if England win. That would jinx everything, he reckons.
He’s right. England face the breathtakingly brilliant Spanish side who are standing in our way of becoming European champions. We can all hope and pray that we don’t get derailed by the stunning 16 year-old Lamine Yamal, the Barcelona kid who became the youngest-ever scorer in the tournament’s history.
For some of a certain age that amazing semi-final strike brought back memories and comparisons with Pele, a 17 year-old genius in the making winning the World Cup for Brazil in Sweden, only in black and white on my dad’s home made TV in 1958.
I admit I was amused by suggestions that our recently departed manager would have probably consigned the lad to the Academy, not even the Under 21s, to learn his trade. That's a little unfair on the man who gave Wayne Rooney his debut as a 16 year-old back in 2002, his England debut coming a year later. But you can believe myths, if you like.
And on the subject of potential myths... yes, it’s true, England only win trophies when we have a Labour government. Harold Wilson was prime minister in 1966, but as that’s the only time previously that England has won anything before, it’s not the greatest boast, is it?
For what it’s worth, Wilson won a landslide election in March 1966 and England were world champions four months later. So if England do the trick on Sunday, Starmer will have worked his magic in a fortnight. But considering he’s has had no influence on his beloved Arsenal over recent years, don’t hold your breath for divine Labour intervention.
The funniest ‘fact’ came from the BBC when they announced that England had never won a penalty shootout under Labour. Well, they have now, after the Switzerland victory.
And so the omens continue. West Ham won a European trophy in 1965, and a year later England won the World Cup. Now we have West Ham winning a European cup last year, so could it happen again for England this time?
On a slightly more serious note, again not revealing any partisanship, it’s refreshing to have a PM who ‘gets’ football, understands what it means to the nation and lives and breathes its every emotion like the rest of us.
That’s a darned sight better than some recent incumbents of number ten. Margaret Thatcher hated football and everything around it. Do you remember the ill-fated bid to make us all have ID cards to attend matches?
Those that have followed were no better. David Cameron got the claret and blue of our good selves and Aston Villa mixed up, Tony Blair claimed to be a Newcastle fan because his constituency was in the north east. I never bought that one.
Boris Johnson wouldn’t have known one end of a football pitch from the other and Liz Truss wasn’t around long enough to discover any sort of allegiance. Rishi Sunak and Southampton, well maybe.
Various sports ministers were no better. Horse racing, betting, rugby union, tennis and cricket were more likely their bag.
Back in the day when I had to earn a living and occasionally needed to ask questions of press officers if not the man in question, I was told that one sports minister famously sat in the royal box at Wembley and asked if the rules were the same as polo.
The new culture/sports minister is Lisa Nandy, a Wigan MP who has worked with her local club to overcome their regular financial issues and is a rugby league fan. So maybe we are getting somewhere.
Anyway, if you look at West Ham’s honours list. It’s hard to see whether it’s Labour or the Tories who favour us most. The first thing we won was the Second Division title in 1958, and Harold Macmillan was the Tory PM.
Next up it’s 1964, the year Harold Wilson won a tiny majority to oust Alec Douglas-Home. That was in the October of that year, West Ham having won the Cup for the first time back in May against Preston. Does that count as a Labour year? Probably not.
But 1965 was definitely Labour when we won the European Cup Winners' Cup, and a year later when West Ham won the World Cup.
Wilson was still PM when we won the Cup again in 1975, and Jim Callaghan was in charge when John Lyall’s side lost the European final to Anderlecht in Brussels.
From then on it’s all Tory. Thatcher was PM in 1980 and 1981 when we won the Cup and the Second Division title and were League Cup runners-up, likewise when we finished third in 1986. Blair was in Downing Street in 2006 for the FA Cup final defeat in Cardiff.
It was Cameron when we won the play-off final and Sunak last year for the Europa Conference League final success.
You can all now tell I have far too much time on my hands and this only proves that politicians have no influence on anything sporting, they can’t walk on water they’ll be disappointed to know.
So it’s Berlin now on Sunday; you can only hope that Jarrod Bowen gets on the pitch, scores the winner and becomes immortal alongside Moore, Hurst and Peters. Here’s hoping.
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