England’s second successive final at the Men’s Euros ended in heartbreak on Sunday. It brought to an end the eight-year tenure of Gareth Southgate, the manager who, as captain Harry Kane said, “helped our nation connect and believe in our team again.” Yet while the whistle was blown on England’s hopes for 2024, the clock is now ticking toward the next Euros, when football will quite literally come home: with the 2028 tournament co-hosted between the UK and Ireland.
More than 23 million of us came together on Sunday’s game – a demonstration of football’s powerful role as a social unifier. As we begin casting forward to what will be the highest profile home-held tournament since the 2012 Olympic Games, how can Euro 2028 best harness this togetherness to bridge divides and create a more inclusive sense of ‘us’? asks British Future Senior Researcher Jake Puddle.
Fostering inclusive patriotism
Co-hosted across the UK and Ireland, Euro 2028 will have wider geographic reach than past major sporting events, since up to five host nations will compete in national colours. This could become a showcase for inclusive patriotism within each nation and for sport’s power to connect us across regions, ethnicities and generations.
British Future research finds that fans of all ethnic backgrounds in England feel a sense of connection to our diverse teams. Racism still exists, in sport and in wider society and further efforts are needed to kick this out the sport – particularly now on social media platforms. Yet it is a small, shrinking minority that believes in an ethnically exclusive England. With the Lionesses defending their Euros trophy next year, and the Men’s team contesting a World Cup in 2026, the years 2025-2030 will see an array of opportunities to showcase the teams of Bukayo Saka and Leah Williamson as symbols of an Englishness open to all of us. Campaigns and messages from our footballers, and from politicians of all parties, could help amplify and spread this as a focal point for inclusive national pride.
Beyond the Three Lions, the tournament offers unique opportunities for Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland to consider their own unique stories of modern nationhood and civic pride. DCMS could help convene the four nations to ensure that stories are prepared and projected across the tournament, each sharing a golden thread message that invites everyone to get behind their team. Campaigns such as Northern Ireland’s Football for All, for example, promoting new songs, team colours and symbols, have already shown the power of sporting identities to cross sectarian divides, and provide useful blueprints to build on.
Celebrate the Windrush legacy in sport during the tournament year
Euro 2028 aligns neatly with the 80th anniversary of HMT Windrush arriving in Tilbury, a milestone increasingly recognised as the symbolic ‘origins moment’ for post-war multi-ethnic Britain. The anniversary also dovetails with the 50th anniversary Viv Anderson becoming England’s first Black player and 30 years since Hope Powell became England’s first Black Manager. This should be seized as a unique opportunity to recognise the contribution of England’s black communities in football, to celebrate this powerful Windrush legacy in sport and society.
A campaign driven throughout the tournament should celebrate the pioneering Black Lions who changed English football. Efforts to involve Jude Bellingham, Ollie Watkins and other Black England heroes in conversations with the 100+ Black England players over the past 50 years could help educate new generations about the history of progress in challenging racism, and champion the powerful ideal of a shared pride in a multi-ethnic, modern England.
Catalysing social connections through sport
Hosting major tournaments provides unique, extended opportunities to encourage new social connections between people from all walks of life – as around the country we come together to participate as volunteers and spectators. Research shows that social contact, such as through shared participation in sporting occasions, can help develop shared norms of behaviour, trust, respect for difference, empathy and kindness.
The national governments and organising committees should consider the potential to use key moments in the build-up to 2028, including in the 2026 World Cup, to promote the invitation for everybody to be part of the Euro 2028 experience. During the early months of 2028, they could also consider methods to connect the Euros host cities and nations, with a similar ethos to how the Olympic torch relay did this in the build-up to 2012.
Crucially, organisers of the Euros should include social connection as a strategic priority across their plans from community engagement to events legacy. This should consider the opportunities, from viewing zones to volunteer groups, for bringing people together across society to facilitate social mixing. A cultural wraparound could support new artworks and creative activities that involve and uplift communities to celebrate their sporting heroes from all walks of life. Education programmes, involving local clubs and their foundations, could help bring young people together to learn about the stories of footballing success from home-grown stars, be it Jude Bellingham in Birmingham to Viv Anderson at Nottingham Forest.
Getting this right will mean getting started soon
Lisa Nandy marked her first speech as Culture Secretary by announcing an intention to “celebrate and champion the diversity and rich inheritance of our communities and the people in them.” Euro 2028 will perhaps mark the most visible moment of Labour’s first term to project such a message across our nations and on the global stage.
Yet building these new narratives will require a multi-national effort. As insights from Spirit of 2012 show, it is crucial that major event organisers and policymakers set a strategy early, engage communities and convene expertise if they are to create moments with meaningful legacies. Generating momentum will require years of planning.
The nerves may just have settled from Sunday’s nail-biting finale, but in four years’ time we regather – this time on home turf. The stories on the pitch may not yet be written, but Euro 2028 offers a powerful opportunity for sport to help draft a new chapter in the national story of who we are today.
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