Harry Kane has done this hundreds of times before. The England and Tottenham captain is arguably now just as comfortable with a camera in his face as he is with a ball at his feet. For players like Kane, the final whistle no longer signals the end of the working day but rather the start of their second career as media personalities.
In the modern game, footballers are expected to spend as much time creating content as they do on the pitch. Amidst the standard interviews and press conferences, tweets, TikToks and YouTube videos have now crept their way in to the fabric of football as clubs attempt to milk as much from their star commodities as humanly possible.
Following last weeks history making display against Italy, every person with a camera, microphone or notebook wanted a piece of Kane; little did he know, that included the Prime Minister.
In what may go down as the most meticulously planned FaceTime in history, a video posted to the Prime Minister's twitter account saw Rishi Sunak congratulate Kane on becoming England's all-time record goal scorer. With all the forced enthusiasm of phone call to a distant relative on Christmas day, Sunak stumbled around the conversation with the England star for a gruelling two and a half minutes.
Typified by the occasional glance to the side (presumably towards an aide holding up large cue cards saying football buzzwords), Sunak muddled his way through what can only be described as a tough watch as he desperately tried to make it seem like he understood anything about football.
Probably off the back of filming a TikTok telling everyone what his favourite pizza topping is, Kane read straight from the post-match interview bible of modesty and teamwork in what felt like he was talking to your run of the mill journalist as opposed to the man with access to the nuclear launch codes.
I think to some extent, Rishi is a genuine football fan. His first ever response at Prime Minister's Questions saw Sunak reference his beloved Southampton whilst appearing to jibe the Portsmouth supporting, Leader of the House of Commons, Penny Mordaunt. Much like the Kane video, anytime the Prime Minister mentions football, it feels precisely crafted, focus grouped and workshopped to ensure that he looks like an average fan whilst avoiding any inclinations that he dons his finest Stone Island on a weekend to go and terrorise some away fans.
In all seriousness, the political establishment viewing football as a way to relate to the general public shows its transition in the eyes of those in power from the blood sport of the working class to a tool for genuine change in local communities.
A week before Sunak called Kane, two much more important conversations took place between those within the Houses of Parliament and English football's governing bodies.
Firstly a video call between England manager, Gareth Southgate, and newly appointed Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, Lucy Frazer. Twenty four hours before announcing his squad for the games against Italy and Ukraine, the Three Lions boss had requested a meeting with the Minister to discuss the lack of homegrown talent in Premier League teams.
Speaking prior to the international break, Southgate spoke on this issue, telling reporters:
“The numbers are the numbers. They’re not going up. That’s clear. Twenty-eight per cent (Premier League starters who are English) has happened in a couple of weekends in the last few weeks. It has been around 32 but that’s down from 35 when I took over and 38 in the years before, so the graph is clear, there’s no argument about that.”
Proposals to increase the number of homegrown players in Premier League clubs’ official 25-man squads from eight to twelve was vehemently opposed by top flight clubs, leaving Southgate with no option but to ask the Government to intervene on the matter.
Decades prior, the concept of an England manager working with the Government to address issues within football was virtually unheard of. Football was not something elected officials had an active role in but rather something a Prime Minister had to pretend to like every four years to relate to the electorate. Southgate looking for support from the Government shows not just the appetite for cooperation between the two parties but the understanding that politicians are now aware of the importance of football in both a sporting and a community sense.
Gareth Southgate took over as England manager in 2016 and led them to the final of the Euros in 2021 (the Conversation)
As Southgate and the FA seek to influence Government policy, those working within Westminster are starting to not just show a support for football but an active desire to improve the game within their communities.
Unpredictability is simultaneously the EFL's biggest selling point and its fatal flaw. For every Huddersfield Town that miraculously rises to Premier League stardom from Championship obscurity, there are a dozen teams that fall victim to the cut throat nature of England's second division.
Dubbed the world's biggest casino, Championship clubs exist in a perpetual cycle of spending their way to the brink of promotion before ultimately falling short and having to deal with consequences. Who can blame an owner for chasing a slice of the £2.5 billion pie when the alternative is mid table mediocrity in a division providing a fraction of the financial incentives.
Richard Branson famously said "you can't run a business without taking risks", however, in the world of football, taking risks can come with implications unique to any other organisation. If one business closes in a community, another will replace it; but if a community loses its football club, there goes its very heart and soul.
Wigan Athletic are the latest EFL club to find themselves on the brink of disaster. The lack of financial oversight and regulation within the Football League has led to the North West side falling victim to yet another owner without the best interests of the club at heart.
Around three years after suffering a points deduction as a result of the Hong Kong-based Next Leader Fund refusing to invest money promised during the takeover process, the Latics now find themselves in a near identical position.
After failing to pay wages on five separate occasions, Friday saw the pay packet that had been promised multiple times finally hit the bank accounts of Wigan players and staff. Very much a case of too little, too late, with the debacle surrounding the unpaid wages prompting the EFL to slap Wigan with yet another points deduction; this time to the tune of three points. Presently, Wigan find themselves four points adrift at the bottom of table, all but condemned to yet another season in League One.
It is the unfortunate reality that stories like that of Wigan have become all too common in modern football. The failure of football's governing bodies to properly vet potential takeover bids has left clubs stranded without much support from the organisations designed to protect them.
In a world in which football clubs and their wider communities are in constant jeopardy, an unlikely voice has emerged from the woodwork to support the clubs that mean so much to millions of people across the UK.
Lisa Nandy, the MP for Wigan, has been outspoken on the club in her local area. From a motion to congratulate the Latics on their FA Cup success in 2013 to dedicating the opening passages of her book to the club, it is clear that Nandy gets what football means to the community she represents.
The latest move by Nandy exemplifies this understanding with a letter written by the Shadow Levelling up Secretary requesting an urgent meeting with the EFL to discuss the ongoing situation at Wigan Athletic. Commanding a certain authority, MPs can approach bodies like the EFL in a manner that club officials cannot. Nandy's letter may appear purely symbolic in nature but raises the profile of Wigan's struggles beyond those within the football bubble.
Lisa Nandy pictured at the DW Stadium (Wigan Today)
Anyone who argues that politicians should stay out of football and vice versa should look at the change that can come from these groups working together. Footballers and politicians operate in a unique sphere allowing them to command significant public interest towards their causes and as a result, achieve great things. There's no coincidence that Marcus Rashford was able to provide the kind of effective opposition to the Government that Keir Starmer could only dream of whilst the House of Commons push through legislation to regulate football ownership in football for generations to come.
Whilst Rishi Sunak phoning up Harry Kane is an overproduced piece of public appeasement doing very little to promote politicians understanding football, it sets the precedent that these two groups once on the opposite sides of society can come together and work towards a common goal.
Whether its Government intervention to boost the national team or a local MP fighting tooth and nail to save their club, to say politics and football don't belong together is ignorant to the impact that the two can have when both on the same page.
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