Whether or not football's coming home, there's a limit to sport's transformative power

Photo by dylan nolte on Unsplash

Ahead of the England-Italy play-off in the Uefa European championship, it’s striking to note the deep faith displayed by politicians — at different ends of the ideological spectrum — in the transformative power of sport.

If England were to win its first major football tournament in 55 years it will naturally be seen as a sign of post-Brexit national resurgence. The Conservative government led by the Brexit-championing Boris Johnson will make much of the moment.

That said, there will also be attempts to draw England manager Gareth Southgate and his young team into a different kind of messaging — for a Britain that isn’t as Little Englander as Brexit suggested.

For the past few years, Mr Southgate has done a pretty good job of wearing his non-Brexit heart on his sleeve. He once spoke about the “racial undertones” that he discerned in the Brexit campaign and how Brexit was dividing young people who identified with Europe and “want to travel the world” from an…