The Sunday Times May 28, 2006
Whose side are you on?
Trinidad and Tobago's Jason Scotland has triggered an unlikely wave of eponymous patriotism ahead of the World Cup that politicians have leapt on. But how wise is it to kick off the auld rivalry, ask Neil White and Kenny Farquharson
His dreadlocked features are popping up on computer screens across the country. The “viral” e-mail video clip distracting office workers across Scotland shows a Caribbean footballer leaning against a wall in a small Scottish town. A young boy walks past and the footballer asks him: “Hey, wee man, who’s going to win the World Cup?” The boy punches the air and shouts: “Scotland!” Anyone who doesn’t get the joke will not be in the dark for long. Jason Scotland, a striker for St Johnstone and part of the Trinidad and Tobago international team, will be playing in the World Cup finals in two weeks, in the same group as England. It is hard to think of a more delicious coincidence: Scotland is in the World Cup after all — and against the Auld Enemy. Some bookmakers are already offering odds of 6-1 that he will score against England.
“My agent told me if I came to Scotland I’d be a legend,” he said last week. The agent was right. The softly spoken 27-year-old is at the heart of a rumpus that has stirred the nation’s patriotic fervour. “It’s incredible,” he added, bewildered by the commotion his surname has caused.
Nobody is sure how his family ended up with their distinctive name, but there must be a tartan connection somewhere in Trinidad and Tobago’s history, as earlier in his career Scotland used to play alongside a striker called Gary Glasgow. Already, though, Scotland is being transformed into a cultural icon.
The striker has been chosen as the new face of Irn-Bru, which has made the three short viral videos for distribution on the internet as openers for a publicity blitz. While the biggest brands in the world pay millions for primetime commercials, Scotland’s other national drink has found a way of making a noise around its brand at an event its team didn’t even qualify for.
Jason’s moment of glory adds spice to the most pressing political dilemma of the moment. Which team should our leaders support when the contest kicks off in Germany in a fortnight? Gordon Brown, keen to tackle English distrust of his Scottishness as he grooms himself for No 10, has declared his backing for Beckham & Co.
But to the chancellor’s displeasure, Jack McConnell, Labour’s first minister in Scotland, has let it be known the England squad will not have his support. In a dig at Brown, he said: “There are people who say I should support England — but football isn’t about politics, so I won’t be.”
Politicians positioning themselves on one side or the other is nothing compared to the smirking infatuation gripping the country. Scots are now stampeding to line up on the opposing sides — those who have decided to support England and those who are backing Trinidad and Tobago. No pundit, punter or celebrity is safe until they have answered this most critical of questions.
In the England camp, Brown is joined by actor Dougray Scott, television presenter Gail Porter, actor Ewan McGregor and entrepreneur Michelle Mone. Backing Trinidad and Tobago — and whoever else faces the Auld Enemy — is SNP leader Alex Salmond, tennis player Andy Murray, Scotland football manager Walter Smith and actress Kathleen McDermott.
Even a Scottish schoolboy who won a competition to be a ball boy at the World Cup final was quizzed on who he’d be supporting, and six-year-old Connor Gray insisted he would be following Ukraine. “I don’t want England in the final,” he said.
Already symptoms of Jason Scotland fever are beginning to appear across the country. Radio stations are imploring people to back the Carribeans and newspapers are signing up its players for personal diaries. It seems that what every member of the Tartan Army wants this summer is a red Trinidad and Tobago strip with “Scotland” on the back — but they are proving hard to come by.
Sports shops have been inundated with requests. “I’m only a small shop and I could have sold 50,” said the manager at Devron Sports in Aberdeen. “It’s out of pure hatred for the English team, I know. I don’t think the English realise how much the Scots dislike them.”
The big stores are putting in their orders. A spokesman for Adidas UK, the strip’s manufacturer, said yesterday: “The Trinidad and Tobago shirt is due to go in-store in June and demand is huge, so we are expecting to sell thousands.”
On eBay, the strips are selling for up to £45 — 50% more than the expected retail price — and a number of entrepreneurs have produced T-shirts aimed at Scotland fans, some using the Caribbean team’s slogan: “Small Country, Big Passion”.
So how did Jason Scotland, the Dreadlock Jock, come to carry the hopes of two nations into the fray in Germany? Why has a politician’s choice of football team become a matter of national importance? And who will you be supporting when Trinidad and Tobago — affectionately known as TT — line up against England on June 15?
THE cluster of 23 islands in the southern Caribbean, just a few miles off the coast of Venezuela, ticks all the boxes when it comes to the clichés of tropical paradise. Palm trees, white sands and azure seas are there in abundance. In handsome towns such as Port-of-Spain there are still the colonial reminders of the British rule that ended with independence in 1958.
TT is home to Soca music — an upbeat blend of soul and calypso that has given the national football team its nickname, the Soca Warriors. Known as much for their partying as for their football, they are set to be everyone’s favourite underdog in Germany. TT’s 1.3m people are revelling in the distinction of being the smallest country in terms of population yet to qualify for the finals.
Ashton Ford, an attaché at the Trinidad and Tobago embassy in London, is delighted at the warmth with which Scots have embraced the Caribbean team.
“We have been inundated with requests from Scottish people for flags and caps and wristbands — anything to identify with our country,” he said. “People back home are fascinated by this. We know exactly why Scots are supporting us, but we don’t want to talk that up too much because we don’t want to get between two big countries. We are only a small country, after all.”
Nevertheless, TT’s past history as a British colony ruled from London will add some spice to the England fixture. “We will have something to prove, that we are independent now and can stand on our own two feet,” said Ford. “We are going all out to win.”
But is this adoption of TT a bit of fun or the return of a deep-seated rancour? An electrical shop owner in Perth has been selling televisions with the offer of a full refund if England win the World Cup, but one local who originated from south of the border described it as “damn near racist”.
McConnell’s decision to refuse to back England came as something of a surprise. Ever since the last European Championship tournament, when there was a run on the England strip in Scottish sports shops, fewer and fewer Scots have deemed it necessary to be opposed to the English football team. In McConnell’s case, however, the decision was the product of a cold electoral calculation. But many Labour MSPs and MPs believe the first minister has scored a silly own goal.
On Monday, still smarting from an article in The Economist that had branded Scotland anti-English, the first minister told members of the Northern Ireland assembly how he had been urging Scots to put their old rivalries behind them. When two days later he announced he would be supporting England’s opponents in the World Cup, colleagues were left scratching their heads.
McConnell’s motivation appeared to be private polling that showed Scots do not believe he stands up for Scotland like Alex Salmond, the SNP leader. “Wrap yourself in the saltire,” was the reaction from some analysts, which he duly did.
Other colleagues queued up to distance themselves from McConnell publicly, from Jack Straw to Douglas Alexander, the Scottish secretary. “I will be supporting England. I don’t think you prove your Scottishness by being anti-English,” Alexander said.
Die-hard Scotland fans are, however, seeing McConnell in a new and heroic light. John Kaylor, head of the Perthshire branch of the Tartan Army, said the first minister had got it right.
“We’re not just supporting Trinidad and Tobago, we’re supporting anyone who plays the English,” he said.
“England are our great rivals and the whole point of football is based on rivalry. Ask any football supporters and 99% of them will say they want their rivals to lose.”
Others within the game disagree, though. Former Scotland international and media pundit Pat Nevin, said: “I have no time for the anti-English side of supporting Trinidad and Tobago, I think it belittles us as a nation. As far as supporting Trinidad and Tobago because they have some Scottish-based players, I would rather see good teams progress to the latter stages.”
When TT line up against Beckham & Co on June 15, the chances of “Scotland 1 England 0” headlines appearing are slim. Trinidad are rank outsiders and Scotland may not start the game.
He faces competition from former Manchester United striker Dwight Yorke and Collin Samuel, the Dundee United player.
Scotland is only part of the reason for the surrogate support TT will enjoy. There are six players in the squad who play their club football in this country. Samuel, Kelvin Jack, the Dundee goalkeeper, Marvin Andrews, a defender with Rangers, and the Falkirk pair of Russell Latapy and Densill Theobald complete the most unlikely expat contingent in Scottish football.
“I didn’t cry and didn’t really know what to do with myself the moment we knew we had made it,” said Scotland at the end of the play-off victory over Bahrain that booked TT’s passage to Germany. “What made it for me was looking across and seeing Russell and Dwight in tears.”
In the Caribbean, the Caledonian embrace of Scotland and his colleagues is front-page news. Last Friday, page one of the TT daily newspaper Newsday carried the banner headline: “Scotland backs Warriors”. The team’s website gleefully reported the words of the Tartan Army Unofficial World Cup Song:
The World Cup finals are on their way,
With all the teams off to Germany,
Brace yourself ’cos on every screen
There’ll be nothing but the England team.
But wait! Hey! There’s hope at hand.
We can still support Scotland, Scotland — Jason Scotland!
Move over William Wallace, your nation has a new warrior king.