 When fans booed England players taking the knee last weekend, a new front was opened in Britain's interminable culture wars. But while culture wars often involve tabloids and Tory ministers taking aim at anonymous students, this time the right had picked a stronger opponent and they might come to regret it. England manager Gareth Southgate on Tuesday released a really brilliant statement defending the right of his players to protest, the right of his players to take symbolic actions such as taking the knee at the beginning of matches. Our players are role models and beyond the confines of the pitch we must recognise the impact they can have on society. We must give them the confidence to stand up for their teammates and the things that matter to them as people. I have never believed that we should just stick to football. I know my voice carries weight not because of who I am but because of the position that I hold. At home I'm below the kids and the dogs in the pecking order but publicly I am the England men's football team manager. I have a responsibility to the wider community to use my voice and so do the players. 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. And that statement, I mean we've talked about Garas Afgate earlier this week as well. His defence of his players is really spot on. It's exactly right. And this claim that they have the right to speak out about their political opinions and social issues I think is really, really important because there will be lots of people saying, I'll just get on with the football. Why should they have a loud voice in politics and social issues? They should just get on with the football and let other people do politics. Now the problem with that argument is that footballers, they're very, very wealthy. They're going to be in probably the richest 1%, well they're definitely going to be in the richest, probably 0.1% of people in this country at the moment. But what's important about football is they are one of the few industries which is dominated by people from working class backgrounds and where there is really strong representation from people from ethnic minorities. And so that is why I think they have been coming out with much more progressive positions than people in other industries. You should only believe someone when they say footballers shouldn't have a voice. If they also say Tim Martin, owner of Weatherspoon, shouldn't have a voice. Or if they say Piers Morgan, he's just a private school educated TV star, why should he have political opinions? If people only think that people in these industries which are dominated by posh white men should have opinions, then you should be somewhat suspicious of the ends they are trying to pursue. And that's why Garas Afgate's defence of footballers speaking out on the issues they care about I think is super, super important. Now another big part of this piece and what I think was probably equally important was Garas Afgate talking about patriotism. This is key because he is the manager of the England team. So he has actually a big role in shaping what patriotism means. So he says, for me personally my sense of identity and values is closely tied to my family and particularly my granddad. He was a fierce patriot and a proud military man who served during World War II. The idea of representing Queen and country has always been important to me. We do pageantry so well in Britain and growing up things like the Queen's silver jubilee and royal weddings had an impact on me. Because of my granddad I've always had an affinity for the military and service in the name of your country. Though the consequence of my failure in representing England will never be as high as his. My granddad's values are installed in me from a young age and I couldn't help but think of him when I lined up to sing the national anthem before my first international camps. Now here he's basically saying look my vision of England what pride means to me is one that is quite traditional. It's one that is in line with many of the older generations of this country. It's one which is quite likely to be endorsed by the Daily Mail for example. He's saying look this is my patriotism it's not particularly subversive. But what he does say which is incredibly important is that this doesn't have to be everyone's vision of patriotism and this vision of the country should never be rammed down anyone's fruits right. So on that he says for many of that younger generation your notion of Englishness is quite different from my own. I understand that too. I understand that on this island we have a desire to protect our values and traditions as we should but that shouldn't come at the expense of introspection and progress. So he's saying look all you people that say you know taking the knee at the beginning of a football match that's anti-English you're disrespecting our traditions that's ridiculous. I share a lot of the traditions you're talking about in the voice of Gareth Southgate. I share lots of the ideas of the nation that you have but I also understand we have to be incredibly accepting of other notions of what the nation should stand for. Very very persuasive argument and finally from the essay I want to show you and what I think is probably most notable what really stands out is how Southgate is willing to take a stand and face down bigoted fans who harass his players. So he says there why would you tag someone in on a conversation that is abusive? Why would you choose to insult somebody for something as ridiculous as the color of their skin? Why? Unfortunately for those people that engage in that kind of behavior I have some bad news you're on the losing side it's clear to me that we are heading for a much more tolerant and understanding society and I know our lads will be a big part of that. It might not feel like it at times but it's true. The awareness around inequality and the discussions on race have gone to a different level in the last 12 months alone. I am confident that young kids of today will grow up baffled by old attitudes and ways of thinking. We are I think really really lucky to have someone as thoughtful of this who is manager of England because I think it must mean a lot to those players that they have a football manager who is expressing this very very thoughtful defense of them taking a knee at the start of matches and who actually seems quite committed actually to England being a force for the generation of a new progressive identity in Britain. England I suppose as he's manager of England. The comparison is in the US the treatment of players like Colin Kaepernick for doing a similar gesture before their games how they have been treated by owners of the NFL. I really commend him for showing up for his players and not being cowed by reactionary dogma. That was a risk. It's not necessarily what his base might want to hear. He's showing courage where many of our politicians and journalists are really failing in this discussion. I think someone really needs to write something on why football is becoming at this particular moment. I know it historically has been at many times but at this particular moment it's becoming this key space of oppositional political sense making from the super league to Marcus Rashford to the dynamics that are playing out here. I think it's very interesting. I'm definitely not the one to write it that someone should. But I want to bring it back to that conversation again that language of how the language of snowflakes is just such projection. They call snowflakes for wanting to talk about racism or wanting to change the root causes of racism yet they're losing their minds because football is taking a knee. It's hardly a radical example of anti-racist direct action. It's literally just the gesture of stop racism in the most vague and unthreatening terms. But also there is this whole dynamic and I think it's why that compromise that has historically over the past decade or two has assuaged a lot of anti-racist mobilization. It's that compromise of representation as a replacement for radical change. I think it's breaking apart. It's losing cache with the younger generations. That's because of this dynamic that many of us have now seen that when you accept representation as a replacement for structural change what you're actually giving into is this idea of shut up and play. You're in the inner circle whether it's a football team, whether it's in an organization, in an institution, in a political party. You're in just shut up and play. We don't want to hear what you have to say especially when it challenges us or it involves transforming or changing things in any way. It's the same in these elite universities. These elite universities will happily use students of color to pat themselves on the back for diversity but then they'll punish those same students for actually bringing anti-racist perspectives into the university. It's the sense of you can be here but don't even think about trying to change anything. If you try we're going to say that you're being inappropriately political even though this whole damn thing is political and especially booing players for taking a knee is itself a political act. It's a deeply political act. I think that Gareth Southgate saying whatever my own values are this idea of saying particularly to players of color shut up and play is wrong. We have to make space for voices especially marginalized voices and it's very welcome solidarity from Gareth Southgate. I think that's the power in it. The booing that we're seeing it carries this sense of like we don't really want you here but if you're going to be here then you have to be here on our terms and you have to be grateful for it and sometimes I think that you know and first of all I think that's kind of representative of how a lot of people of color in Britain feel and the country is generally saying to them but you know sometimes I think that people actually need a big dose of what they think they want you know one of all those players of color went on strike you know withdraw their labor have have your all white team who you know don't who whatever who don't bring up these challenging things for you and let's see how that goes you know I often say that like without recognition without recognition of the empire the very English cup of tea is just a cup of milk and hot water and you know he wants to drink that. You could imagine a different manager would have allowed a division to be generated within the England football team between players of color and white players and then you have a situation where you know at the extreme like you're saying you do have players of color who are saying like we're not going to be part of this and what what Gareth Southgate has done very effectively is is say look we are all one team we are acting as one people yes the taking the knee probably means something more to the players of color but every everyone in the whole squad has agreed we will be taking the knee at the start of matches if you've got a problem take it up with all of us as a whole and I think you know that's what's so what's so powerful about what he's done there and it does make me you know even more positive I'm not a massive football fan but I do watch the the international ones and it does I think it it bodes well for Euro 2020 which is taking place in 2021