Sport-Longing and Belonging

Though a lot of people don’t care, many people are very excited at the prospect of sport returning. Football especially. It’s long been known that we get a sense of belonging by identifying with clubs and recently many ‘fan’s forums’ have busied themselves with retrospective ‘favourite memories” themes. Recent articles in papers have picked up on the fact that they all seem to involve people not sport. Partying after a win, getting lost on the way to the ground. In nearly all the ‘favourite memory’ stories the actual result / events on the pitch seem largely incidental! Even more positively, in rugby, there has long been emphasis on the world wide ‘rugby family’ generally so it’s : ”whoever you support and wherever you’re from If you like rugby I’m very probably going to like you”. It contributes to the fact that crowds don’t need to be segregated and intermingling at matches is natural (indeed expected) and often joyous. Recently, the shared Covid experience has reminded us that, the world over, we’re all in this together. A conscious aim of RBME is to promote these positive mind-sets.