AS if Saturday’s front page of The National needed defending ... the eagle eye of Andrew Angus on Twitter left us feeling vindicated regardless after he spotted during a clip of the Italy celebrations on their flight home that their victorious manager, Roberto Mancini, was sitting with a copy of the paper next to him – the European Championship trophy nestled on top.
Going by the reaction the front page received on Friday night into Saturday morning, you might be forgiven for thinking Mancini has thereby bought into vile anti-Englishness. I would love to have seen the smile raise in one corner of the big man’s face, Armani jacket over his shoulder, perched on one finger, after strolling into WH Smith and spotting The National on the newsstand.
There was less joy to be had elsewhere. One Twitter user went as far as to claim we were beyond embarrassment and bordering on fascism. Yes, fascism. A columnist at another Scottish newspaper labelled our front page “abominable” and suggested Scots supporting Denmark in the semi-final, then Italy in the final, were “bordering on bigotry”.
There is a good reason why Mel Gibson’s incarnation of William Wallace was chosen as the image to be Photoshopped – and it has nothing to do with bigotry or fascism or Star Wars or raising the spirit of those who murdered invading English.
READ MORE: Mancini rests Euro 2020 trophy on National's Braveheart front page
Braveheart is known internationally. That’s it, that’s the main reason. As much as we can all dislike and criticise and roll our eyes at stereotypes, they exist and many a Scot around my age and older will remember a time when foreign trips inevitably led to “FREEDOM!” being screamed at you multiple times.
That coupled with the fact it has been The National’s “thing” to put out front pages which grab attention. The one with nothing but a silhouette of then prime minister Theresa May and “HEADLINE IN HERE” after we were denied access to her Scottish press event is a case in point.
Those two elements are how Saturday’s front page came about. People picking it apart and “exposing” its logical flaws have, like Marcus Rashford, overthought it and ultimately missed the target.
The final ingredient in our front page was sporting rivalry, and any jibes at England over the past week have been nothing but that. That’s as far as the “anti-Englishness” goes. If anyone can point to any evidence where the front page goes beyond that, we’d like to hear it. You try being a Scot and listening to SamMatterface treat his commentary booth like a mini fanzone during an England semi-final victory, or watching yet another rerun of a Euro 96 match – a tournament they even didn’t win – whether it’s half-time in the game of the tournament between France and Switzerland or five minutes before Ukraine and North Macedonia.
READ MORE: Mancini and Chiellini praise The National's viral front page
You try all that and then try supporting what is, I have to admit, a very formidable and thoroughly likeable England team at a major tournament.
Wishing that your rival loses is a big part of football, club and international. Wanting England to lose every tournament match they play no more makes me a bigot than me wanting Hibs to lose every Scottish Cup match.
Claims or suggestions that the Sunday National had back-pedalled due to the reaction were also wide of the mark. The Sunday edition has its own voice and pieces are commissioned and often written well before the paper is printed on a Saturday and on the shelves on a Sunday.
Gerry Hassan wrote his excellent piece because that was an interesting narrative of the England team at Euro 2020. In contrast, the front page on Saturday didn’t have one single word written about it on the inside, far less a corresponding article linked to it. It was a front page that was a bit of fun ahead of a major sporting event that had gripped the attention of people across the entire continent. The two things aren’t comparable.
In the early days of The National, the sometimes wacky front pages were our way of standing out on a crowded newsstand as an up-and-comer. And while we have on the whole moved away from that approach, it is revived now and then to great success.
LISTEN: Our editor speaks about the The National's viral front page on BBC radio
And that’s the thing, Saturday’s front page was a success. It changed the conversation the day before the biggest sporting event for England in a generation – much in the way the May silhouette cover changed the conversation about her visit. The next day, no-one was talking about what May had said, but about our front page and why we were denied access.
Saturday’s front page, likewise, went viral and was the fuel of outrage for many a radio phone-in and panel show. That’s on top of Mancini and Italy captain Giorgio Chiellini both being asked about it ahead of Sunday’s match and Mancini being spotted with a souvenir copy on his way home with the biggest prize in European international football. The excellent work of Damian Shields and Callum Baird should be celebrated.
We could even take some credit for inspiring the Italians to victory.
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Callum Baird, Editor of The National
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