A universal language

With UEFA Euro 2016 coming to an end, TTPL’s Dan talks about the role football plays in uniting people.

It’s been a tough few weeks being English and a football fan. With Brexit talk and football violence dominating the news, it’s been easy to feel negative. Although I feel the EU exit is a disappointing result and violent scenes in France were horrible, I can say that what I’ve experienced on a first-hand basis has only filled me with positivity.

It’s a real pleasure frequently meeting new people from across Europe – it’s the biggest perk to my job and I feel lucky to have the opportunity. It’s inspiring meeting such motivated people, coming to another country to further improve language skills and enhance career prospects. With the level of English being so good, it’s easy to communicate, but I do speak one other language – football!

Football is a universal language and so often the icebreaker. Recent violence has again unfortunately damaged the reputation of the sport, but it shouldn’t hide the fact it unites and brings more people together than any other activity I can think of.

It was tough walking in to our student social the day after England exited UEFA Euro 2016 to minnows Iceland. I could see the faces of certain people just waiting to ask what I made of the game. Losing to a country with a population about the size of Torbay and Exeter wasn’t the happiest moment in my time as an England fan!

This week, our Exeter student social moved to Allstars Sport Bar so we could all support Daniel, Ricardo and Luis, our Portuguese contingent, as their team faced Britain’s last nation – Wales. With an even split of fans from both nations it was a fantastic atmosphere and our Portuguese boys songs and celebrations were fantastic. I may have joined in – sorry Wales!

With Portugal winning 2 - 0, there were some serious celebrations and no doubt our Portuguese and French students will be creating another big atmosphere for the final on Sunday. Although the real excitement will come when we have our alternate European Championship at our next weekly meeting!