FOOTBALL AS MYTH

Many say football is a metaphor for life. (Bill Shankly famously said that football wasn't a matter of life and death: it was much more important that that.) Homer's Iliad combines clear, compelling narrative "the bronze spearpoint fixed in his forehead and drove inward through the bone" with potent metaphor (Hate as war's little sister who grows and grows and grows) and similes from nature (the blood as streams in thunderous spate, the men as wolves). The overall effect is of a detached - though unforgettably vivid - report. Compare this Homeric mixture with any football commentary (if you wish, with Tracks 17, 20 and 21 of Bristol City Ruined My Life... But Made My day) to identify how Homer's poetic war correspondence could be compared to a modern newsperson reporting the day's events live from a war zone, or from an international football tournament.

Ares (god of war) drove these on, and the Achaians grey-eyed Athene,
And Terror drove them, and Fear, and Hate whose wrath is relentless
she the sister and companion of murdering Ares,
she who is only a little thing at first, but thereafter
grows until she strides on the earth with her head striking heaven.
She then hurled down bitterness equally between both sides
as she walked through the onslaught making men's pain heavier.

Now as these advancing came to one place and encountered,
they dashed their shields together and their spears, and the strength
of armoured men in bronze, and the shields massive in the middle
clashed against each other, and the sound grew huge of the fighting.
There the screaming and the shouts of triumph rose up together
of men killing and men killed, and the ground ran blood.
As when rivers in winter spate running down from the mountains
throw together at the meeting of streams the weight of their water
out of the great springs behind in the hollow stream-bed,
and far away in the mountains the shepherd hears the thunder;
such, from the coming together of men, was the shock and the shouting.

Antilochus was first to kill a chief man of the Trojans,
valiant among the champions, Thalysias's son, Echepolos.
Throwing first, he struck the horn of the horse-haired helmet,
And the bronze spearpoint fixed in his forehead and drove inward
through the bone; and a mist of darkness clouded both eyes

The events described by Homer are at least 30 centuries old and predate Homer himself by centuries. (Homer lived in the eight or ninth century BC). But they happened. A myth can mean two things - a lie, or an event that is on a superhuman scale. What is mysterious about football is that real events become myths, mainly in the second sense of the world. Certain footballers, certain goals, certain games, seasons and teams attain the status of myth. It needn't take long. Pele is a living myth, a legend in his own lifetime. Owen's goal against the Argentinians, for all sorts of football and political reasons, is already mythical, dazzlingly larger than life. Maradonna's - and Gazza's - career is a mixture of the mythical and the ridiculous. Every team has a special legend: for Sunderland it is Len Shackleton, the Clown prince of football; for Bristol City it is "Gentleman" John Atyeo whose conduct on field was as exemplary as his loyalty and his 350 goals. What is it about a certain goal, scored in a certain place, on a real day and which you yourself witnessed, which grows through commentary, retrospective discussion, football books, video playbacks, controversy, personal involvement and situation at the time and a sense of football as always straining at the bounds of possibility in the way that the ancient heroes used to, that makes a Myth of a turf-and-leather event? Every goal has this ability to become a legend: it is such a time-and-place ripping event, roared on by so many thousands and causing such colossal (and temporary) bliss. Games are frequently referred to as "epic" and we assume this is only a metaphor but I wonder. I will see Barnard's 1997 goal against Bury towards the end of a top of the table clash (Clash of the Titans!) which finally broke the deadlock and gave Bristol City a chance of the play offs, as if under floodlights in my mind's eye until I die, and possibly beyond. It was right in front of me, it exploded into the net: it was all the City goals I have ever seen scored and all the goals to come. And - on some level - the celebrating fans around me felt it with me exactly like that. A professional pundit on Radio 5 recently talked about a defender as "colossal" and "awesome". He had a "massive" game. He was "absolutely colossal". The BBC commentator at his side, perhaps with the benefit of a classical education, referred to the same player later as "a Colossus", the giant from whom the adjective is taken. I rest my case.

Further ideas on tracks for which there was not room in the Secondary English Article

Track 9 '7 Reasons Why I Never Played For England'. List poems - which go into detail - are an easy way of the avoiding the "I can't write poetry" problem. Tell them ithey're writing a list, adding perhaps that each new item in the list has a new line and starts with a capital. When they've done it, tell them it's a poem! 7 Reasons Why I'll Never Play For England sounds a bit negative but the lists often out to be hilarious. (1. Too much homework. ...2. Too many Mars Bars... 3. My English teacher...4. Girls 5. Smoking.... etc) Afterwards, you can tell them they can overcome all of these things and still play for England if they want to enough. Look at Gazza.

Track 6 1966 And All That. Because of St. Sven, I have finally been liberated from the angst of this poem but more importantly, our pupils now have their own glorious moment to commemorate. After hearing this track - they all know the They Think It's All Over... It is Now gag - ask them to narrate the events of England's 5-1 win in Germany on September 1 2001. This replaces the 1966 account in football history. Ask them to bring it to life: what were they doing, who were they watching it with, what did they do after each goal, what was the weather., what was in the charts etc. etc. It's almost a Where Were You When Kennedy Was Shot piece. Useful link with historical narrative and autobiographical writing.

Home and Away. (Tracks 13 and 14) I would keep this to a one-word stimulus. Both are the basis of the entire game of football, belonging, invading etc etc. But they have other profound resonances. Growing up, feeling trapped, leaving home, feeling scared, finding yourself.

Track 18 May The First Be With You. Football as simple escape. For all its socio-cultural basis, it is still a "weekend" activity. Still perhaps a late-night rather than seven o'clock slot "entertainment" whatever Des says. This could be a way of writing about the world we are escaping from.