Thread by @Panda_Chronicle

I try to stay out of sports politics, not least because I see sport as entertainment only, even if it matters a great deal to many others.

But am I the only one to have some concerns about the current football tournament?

Stay with me ... there's a non-trivial point to this.

It's the second in a row, after the World Cup, to have a lopsided draw, and the second in which England are one of the principal beneficiaries.

It's supposed to be a perambulatory tournament, I believe because it's an anniversary edition. Yet one country hosts both ...

... semis and the final. Despite being a Covid hotspot.

The same one that benefits from the lopsided draw.

That country's team plays all but one of its matches at home, the one being against the weakest team to qualify out of the group stage.

Then we have the shenanigans ...

... last night with two balls on the pitch, a player diving and the penalty being weirdly upheld by the video review.

Now, so far so truculent football fan. But ...

We know that major sports bodies are prone to corruption. See FIFA and IAAF. We know that the UK Govt ...

... sought to legislate to break the law, and has been found to have acted unlawfully an unusually large number of times in a short period, including a very serious matter, prorogation, and we know it's prone to using inducements, such as the money given to Nissan.

It's not ...

... , for someone who sees sport as a mild diversion, about hating your country or wanting it to fail.

It's about concern that a Government which undoubtedly stands to gain from this particular sporting success, by seeing its support energised (and yes, those fans who are ...

... supporters of Brexit are definitely linking the two), may be involved in something characteristically untoward.

As followers will know, I'm not overly concerned about, eg, voter ID, or repealing FTPA. But I am concerned about manipulation of cultural sentiment, the creation

... of false collective consciousness. We saw the self-same thing in the single-dose vaccine strategy, and getting Brexit "done" in too short a time.

Create an impression of improbable world-beatingness which grounds your denial of criticism.

I'd love to know what links ...

... there have been behind the scenes between the UK Government and UEFA.

@BorisJohnson @UEFA