At the start of 2022, I posted “My Nationalist No-No Confessions“, which proved to be one of the more popular posts of the year.
The point was to prove that personal views don’t invalidate the views of other people or necessarily undermine support for a cause.
I did this by putting forward some views and opinions that I hold that may go against the grain of mainstream nationalist thought. The first time around that included my indifference towards a republic, a belief that the Welsh are too easy to wind up and that radical ideas aren’t always good ideas.
So I thought, “Why not come back to it and ostracise myself further?”
2022 was a pivotal moment for Welsh football – no doubt about it.
It’s a shame that it was this men’s World Cup we qualified for, but it is what it is: Wales at the top tables in our own right in a way that’s never been the same with rugby union – probably because it had to be fought for in a bigger pond full of hungrier fish.
It’s hard to tell whether the national movement has co-opted the FAW as a vehicle or the other way around. It’s a mutually beneficial relationship to a degree – and the national football teams are a potent symbol of national identity and independence – but it’s also playing with fire.
The Wales men’s team got to the World Cup – an achievement in itself – but did they perform there? They were no embarrassment but expectations weren’t lived up to, were they? “Yma o Hyd” loses its gloss when you’re on the first plane back. The hype got too much and, based on world rankings, Wales were always in the hardest group.
This wasn’t 2016. We can huff the roach of that glorious French summer for a quick high, but the reality on the pitch isn’t looking so rosy.
The men’s team is about to go into what in footballing terms is dubbed a “transition period” – which basically means they’re going to be a bit shit while younger players replace those heading to the end of their international careers. It’s also an unhappy coincidence that this post comes just a day after Gareth Bale announced his retirement from football – an unquestioned legend of the game at Real Madrid and international level who can stake a strong claim to be Wales’ greatest ever footballer and one of the best to ever come out of Europe.
The Euro 2024 qualifying group is looking a lot tougher now than I thought it was at the time of the draw. Maybe the women’s team will have a better shot at qualifying for Euro 2025. How long until we start seeing blue patches in the stands at the Cardiff City Stadium?
The men’s rugby team have already reached that point of “transition”. It wasn’t long ago they were held up as the shining beacon of Welsh sport, allowing us to “punch above our weight” by reaching World Cup semi-finals and winning Grand Slams and reflecting Welsh national identity back onto the world stage.
Sporting success is cyclical. Unless you want political movements to be cyclical alongside it then it’s best to maintain a healthy distance and not (psychologically) allow yourselves to be driven by the success (or not) of one or the other.
The only result any independence supporter should be thinking about is the number of pro-independence politicians we elect. We’re not doing very well there.
