After Brexit, England football defeat calls for stiff upper lip

LONDON: Britain out of Europe, England out of Euro 2016, the scriptwriters could not have got it better with politics and the national football team the ideal targets for humour and barbs from across the continent.

One of England’s worst performances of all time in a 2-1 defeat to Iceland just four days after Britons rejected the European Union became an easy excuse for derision.

There was an air of Schadenfreude in the tweet by the Polish president of the European Council Donald Tusk: “UK-Iceland 1-2. Winter is coming.”

Iceland TV commentator Gissur Simonarson, whose ecstatic reaction to Iceland’s victory over Austria has become a social media legend, tweeted a blunt message to England.

“You can leave Europe, you can go wherever the hell you want!” But England fans saw the funny side of their plight.

A joke petition to the British Parliament — similar to a real one that has attracted more than 3.7 million backers calling for a new EU referendum — was started calling for a replay of Monday’s upset game in Nice and quickly spread on social media.

According to the parliament website, attempts to launch real petitions calling for a rematch or for England to repay fans tickets were rejected.

“England supporters joked that a rematch should be demanded if at least half of fans failed to back the result,” The Times newspaper wrote.