England

My Bundesliga binge shows how far football has come | Kenan Malik

17-May-2020 06:30:52 | Guardian

The old England fans’ chant of ‘Two world wars and one World Cup’ seems to come from a different world

Saturday, 2.30pm, and I’m watching football. Borussia Dortmund versus Schalke, the Ruhr derby, kicks off the resumed Bundesliga in Germany, the first major European league to return from lockdown. These will be Geisterspiele, or “ghost games”, with no spectators. Much is at stake, and not just for German football. If all goes well, the Premier League may well return in England.

What’s intriguing is not just the politics of lockdown but the changing relationship between English and German football. From victory over Germany in the 1966 World Cup final to heart-breaking defeat on penalties in Euro ’96, the rivalry between the two nations came almost to define English football.