Footballers like Gary Lineker and Marcus Rashford demonstrate that they make a more effective opposition to the government than the formal Opposition.

FOOTBALL PLAYERS, huh? Those on the far left are a bunch of woke snowflakes.

Well, not really, no.

Tories were the party of choice for the vast majority of professional footballers during Gary Lineker’s playing career.

Here we have a group of men who have made it big on their own, many of whom came from disadvantaged backgrounds but have overcome them to become multimillionaires in a highly competitive, meritocratic field.

What could be more Thatcherite than that?

Although Brexit has harmed Britain’s export market, the Premier League (“the greed is good” league) is one of the country’s most successful international examples of doing business.

This is not a place where radical leftists can grow and thrive.

Nonetheless, as the Gary Lineker scandal has shown, footballers of the past and present can increasingly oppose Government policy more stridently and successfully than the actual Opposition in Westminster.

Before Lineker was banned from Match of the Day and BBC Sport was nearly blacked out, we had Marcus Rashford’s crusade against child poverty and the resolve of football players to “take the knee” in support of racial equality.

This is truly a remarkable era, as footballers have long been portrayed in popular culture as bumbling idiots, a stereotype that has only recently begun to be challenged. Unfairly, they became stereotyped as a bumbling bunch of dolts.

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However, in the era of social media, footballers have found their voices, and many of them are incredibly articulate, socially conscious, opinionated, and skilled at conveying their messages to their audiences.

Dressing rooms in the Premier League are some of the most multicultural and multiethnic places of employment in the country.

And in a time when England has become insular and isolationist in the wake of Brexit, the league itself is a success story for multiculturalism and internationalism.

Footballers act from a place of knowledge when they feel strongly about uniting to oppose, say, racism.

Just like many other people, Rashford saw firsthand the effects of poverty on children.

Conservative lawmakers love to mock soccer players and former pros in the press, but this isn’t a popular tactic.

Rashford “should have spent more time perfecting his game and less time playing politics,” Dover MP Natalie Elphicke said after the Manchester United forward missed a penalty in the 2021 European Championships final shootout against Italy.

Several Conservative Members of Parliament had voiced their disapproval of the England team taking a knee at that tournament.

And the argument against that action was that the Black Lives Matter movement was “Marxist.”

Even more so, it’s laughable to think that some of the highest-paid athletes in the country would follow the Communist Manifesto, especially those who play in the Premier League.

After a game, you won’t hear many players saying, “In the end, the proletarians have nothing to lose but their chains, Clive.”

Moreover, Lineker is engaged in legal battle with the HMRC over a tax demand of £4.9 million, which is connected to the dispute over his employment.

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After Lineker’s “Nazi” tweet last week, the question of whether he is an employee or freelancer of the BBC resurfaced.

How much leeway did he have to express his opinion while still adhering to the BBC’s nebulous impartiality guidelines?

With the war over and Lineker’s return to Match of the Day confirmed for next weekend, the former England striker stood firm in his advocacy for asylum seekers.

The situation has been a public relations nightmare for the top brass at the BBC.

Now that it’s over, the general public can enjoy two live FA Cup quarterfinals on the next BBC Match of the Day broadcast the following weekend.

Due to the Beeb’s clumsy handling of Lineker, many football fans who cannot afford subscription TV have been severely disappointed.

Lineker may not have “won” his argument with the BBC, but he certainly “won” the support of his peers.

Similar to how Rashford successfully lobbied for policy changes to address child hunger and was eventually decorated with an MBE.

Neither Lineker nor Rashford has ever publicly declared their support for the Labour Party, so it’s possible that they could end up voting for a different candidate.

Footballers have become the outspoken voices of reason in a divided and angry nation, while Keir Starmer is too afraid to speak freely about immigration or Brexit for fear of losing votes.

They could enter the next election as an independent party. Likely, they would emerge victorious.

BOYLE IN THE BAG

I was riding the District Line with an elderly Scotsman and two American tourists after Chelsea’s victory over Borussia Dortmund.

The guy next to me was asked if he’d ever been to the United States, and he definitely had.

John Boyle, who also captained and managed the Tampa Bay Rowdies of the North American Soccer League in the 1970s, is a former European champion with Chelsea.

When I asked if he had ever played against Pele, Boyle revealed that he had marked the great player while he was in his mid-30s and playing for the New York Cosmos.

Boyle sounded genuinely pumped up after hearing about Chelsea’s win over Dortmund.

This is a far more impressive recommendation than Blues manager Graham Potter, who marked Pele, could have hoped to hear a week or two ago.

SOUL FAR AWAY

The England rugby team’s record 53-10 loss to France at Twickenham, after head coach Steve Borthwick had benched captain Owen Farrell, was the same as the England football team losing 7-1 to Germany in a competitive match at Wembley, after manager Gareth Southgate had benched Harry Kane.

Though there were scattered boos after the final whistle, the 81,000-strong crowd reacted with mostly muted indifference.

The Twickenham crowd, mostly made up of business travelers, will cheer on England when they’re winning but doesn’t seem to care much either way.

Therefore, the whole thing has a very soulless quality to it.

HORSING AROUND

An objective observer of the “posh derby” between Fulham and Arsenal might wonder why so many mounted police were present.

This matchup is the Premier League’s safest.

There was so much interest in the Met’s horses that Craven Cottage resembled a petting zoo.

BRAIN GAME

According to ANTONIO CONTE, Spurs were “too soft” in their loss to AC Milan in the Champions League.

And yet, wasn’t his defensive general, Cristian Romero, sent off for two reckless challenges, the second of which derailed a late comeback attempt?

Tottenham were too soft? Too brainless, more like.