England v France: Let us look defiantly in the eye of the forces of evil at Wembley

France boss Didier Deschamps and the French Football Federation insisted that the show must go on

SPORT'S bright light will remain undimmed at Wembley tomorrow. And rightly so.

 

While England's international friendly with France will be overshadowed by Friday's terrorist outrages in Paris, most people agree the game must go on as a show of strength to the terrorists.

What happens in the match is now largely irrelevant. But the fact the French Football Federation have decided to fulfil the fixture is very relevant.

It is a symbolic gesture that whatever the outrages, whatever the death toll, the terrorists cannot be allowed to change our way of life. If they do they will have achieved some sort of warped victory.

Nothing unifies people quite like a sporting occasion and tomorrow's game will give 90,000 English and French fans the chance to stand side by side in a show of solidarity that will be beamed across the globe, and will be especially pertinent with Euro 2016 being staged across the Channel next summer.

 



Players, prior to the Match for Children charity match, observed a minute's silence at Old Trafford



Throughout recent history there are examples of how sport has jutted a defiant jaw in the face of evil and in doing so not only helped the healing process but also sent out a message to the cowardly perpetrators of terrorist attacks.

The day after the Paris outrage I was part of a subdued crowd at Old Trafford watching the Match for Children charity event, and there was only one topic of conversation. It was then that my mind went back to the events of September 11, 2001.

As those mind-numbingly horrific events were taking place in New York and Washington, I was in the skies with the Manchester United squad and other members of the media on a flight to Athens for a Champions League group fixture with Olympiakos, completely unaware of the events in the US.

As we stepped off the plane in Greece, I will never forget a journalist colleague ringing his desk and informing the rest of us as we waited for our baggage: "It looks like a light plane has gone into the World Trade Centre."

 



Gerard Houllier cited his experiences at Liverpool in the wake of the 9/11 attacks



Freak accident, we thought - only for the full, devastating circumstances to unfold. The press conferences were called off and we sat in our hotel rooms staring at our TVs in utter disbelief.

It is worth remembering that a full programme of Champions League matches went ahead that night across Europe, UEFA's argument being that teams and fans had already travelled to their destinations. No one's heart was really in it though, as Gerard Houllier admitted after Liverpool had played out a stagnant 1-1 draw with Boavista at Anfield.

Houllier, while offering no excuses for the result, summed up his view by saying: "If you don't have that drive and desire to win the game, there is not much point in playing. At the end of the night, a journalist wrote that a draw was the right result because no one would have wanted to celebrate. I agreed with that. No one had the heart to celebrate."

PSV Eindhoven even asked UEFA to replay their game in Nantes which ended in a 4-1 defeat, citing the distraction of a team who had sat in their French hotel watching the horror in the US unfold.

"We felt like mourners at a funeral," said PSV defender Kevin Hofland. "And when we got to the stadium, it provided the same odd contrast with our emotions - the place was like a disco! Their players were really up for it too, while we just couldn't concentrate. It was strange, as if they didn't have television in Nantes."

The following night's programme was called off, however, with the world on full terror alert and the ramifications of what had happened in the US sinking in. No one was in the right mind to think about football, let alone play.

 

Wembley will be lit up in the French colours like the Auckland Museum as a mark of respect

By the following weekend, with people desperate for a distraction after a harrowing week, football - with minutes' silences observed and black armbands worn - resumed as normal.

As did the Munich Olympics in 1972 after the massacre of Israeli team members at the hands of the Black September terror group.

As did the Atlanta Olympics 24 years later after a terrorist bomb that claimed one life and injured 111 people.

Here in Britain, the Grand National in 1997 was abandoned after two coded bomb threats were reportedly received from the IRA.

It was eventually run two days later in a defiant response from all those at Aintree, just as will be the case at Wembley tomorrow.

It will be sombre, it will be emotionally charged, but it represents a chance for the public to pay their respects to those who perished in Paris, show their support for French cousins, and look defiantly in the eye of the forces of evil.