“An Ode to Football” by Musa Okwonga
Commemorating its 150th anniversary, The FA reached out to our friend Musa Okwonga to create a poem that captures England’s love for the game, from a grassroots level to the top flight, embracing the emotions experienced by football fans around the country. Joining Musa in the poem are the likes of Arsene Wenger, Theo Walcott, Dizzee Rascal, and Steven Gerrard. Not bad company to keep.
“An Ode to Football”
This is football:
Yes, jumpers for goalposts in your local park
With the lamp-posts as your floodlights,
And no-one watching but the stars:
This is football -
Where the groundstaff cut grass with a barber’s care
Where the terraces forever sing hymns to their favourite players:
This is football -
Hot coffee in the stands on midweek nights
This is players squaring up
But never actually starting fights
This is football
Each battle lasts an hour-and-a-half
It’s that war of rival scarves
You can fight fair, or plunge to grass -
This is football
Imitating that voice that reads Final Score
This is transfer-window shopping,
It’s Deadline Day on Sky Sports
This is football
Last in that half-time queue for the loo then food:
This is Sir Geoff Hurst on Wembley’s turf in destiny’s pursuit
This is football
Humming Match of the Day’s theme tune as it starts:
Keeping your head down from thirty yards, and shivering crossbars:
This is football
This is panic,
Your defenders scrambling back
When they realised the other team sitting deep
Was just a trap
This is football, this is football
Cracked shinpads and all
It’s the innocent protest -
It’s the “I barely touched him, ref!”
This is football
This is not just 4-4-2 or 4-3-3
This is what you do when you go one player down, and then concede
This is football
This is that banter you get at away grounds
Which when you score that last-minute winning goal
Is not so loud
This is football
Cup tie:
You’ve gone to penalties to sever the knot
But your guts are all you’ve got
And sudden death now marks the spot:
This is football
Not prawn sandwiches
You can find it in all languages
It’s your spilled pint in the pub
When your team goes one-nil up:
This is football
This is that fanzine which calls it harsh but fair
This is catching coaches, planes and trains since your club needs you there
This is football
Practised against the wall, and in the hall
It’s those concrete playground moves
That have ruined all your shoes:
This is football
Lugging your team’s laundry home from Sunday league
This is playing online tournaments until sleep intervenes
This is football:
It’s a very big deal,
You can ask Bill Shankly
It’s that click-clack of the turnstile,
It’s that Gazza-needs-a-hanky
This is football
Brought to you by the Football Association
Formed in the Tavern of Freemasons
One-fifty years in the making
This is football:
Of all the sports, this is our nation’s favourite
And we speak to celebrate it
So if you have a drink, please raise it
You can find Musa on Twitter at @Okwonga.