Dominic Green, writing a neat historical reflection on football’s place in English society for the Spectator following England’s loss in the final of the European Championship, says:

Football is more than a religion to the English. People drop in and out of religion, and faith comes and goes. But football is a constant, furious passion at the heart of English life — the only activity apart from tea-drinking that unites everyone, regardless of class, race or ethnicity …

If soccer is the reality, and politics the shadow play we conduct while waiting for Saturday afternoon, then this European Championship suggests that English soccer is again in sync with what the unromantic and unsporting call ‘real life’.

See also Green’s The Religious Revolution: The Birth of Modern Spirituality, 1848-1898.