Footballers without borders

Us. And them. The concept of a nation is ultimately that simple. It’s based to a large extent on fencing off people who are considered different in some way. Borders are constructed initially by a nation – or a “Willensnation”, a country united by choice – and their primary job is to separate. That’s the theory, anyway. But fencing off can be a lot simpler. As the European football championships in France demonstrate so marvellously. It only starts getting tricky when two brothers face each other on the pitch. Xhaka versus Xhaka. That was the marketing for the game between Switzerland and Albania, the Swiss side’s first match at Euro 2016. Granit was playing for Switzerland and Taulant for Albania. Where’s the border there? The border between us and them? In fact, the whole game between Switzerland and Albania was a case of false advertising served up to us by UEFA, European football’s governing body. What we actually saw on June 11 was Switzerland A against ...