Xbox Becomes Official Partner Of The England Football Teams

Love the current England team, but the toxicity around English football "fans" at the moment makes this a risky marketing move... So much violence, racism, homophobia etc.
Honestly, if I were a business, I would keep my brand far away from the nastiness that surrounds football in England at the moment (not that it is the fault of the England team itself).

This is a great sponsorship deal and I am personally very pleased to see this.

In the UK Xbox has had a huge problem for a long time whereby their brand is not anywhere, whereas you could walk down the street and see busses with PlayStation adverts on, billboards, people in PS branded gear.
This needs to change, to a lot of people 'PlayStation' means 'game console'.
For a while, during the 360 era, Xbox actually had the mainstream mindshare, but it's it's completely gone here. This is a good start. More adverts, more sponsoring events and sport.

This will bring good brand exposure here in the UK for Xbox... A step in the right direction.

Have said this since Sony took FIFA rights and sponsored the champions league, that Xbox needed to get back into football somehow.
This should be just the start now they need a football hold in the rest of Europe.
See I’m a wise old gamer, well done Xbox.
At the moment this year I’m almost 10/10 on what Microsoft should be doing to promote Xbox.

Let's have a Three Lions limited edition Xbox!

@antstephenson
You should have gone football in the 80s.
Currently it is a very very small minority and nothing compared to other European countries, where Sony sponsor the champions League.

Someone else’s comment from a neutral website, sums it up perfectly.
“ A strong move. Xbox knows that the U.K. is the most influential European market and that PlayStation has been able to reach a mainstream demographic through football.”

@Dezzy70

Hi Dezzy...
I did! Was born in 72, so I remember the bad old days of hooliganism and the National Front etc. Also, Hillsborough, Heysel, Bradford...
Football (and society generally) feels like we are rushing headlong back to those times... note the scenes at the Euro final with fans literally fighting their way into the stadium and the torrent of racial abuse that followed the shootout result.

I wish I could agree it is a small minority, but I think that minority has grown hugely in the last few years.

Yeah, there are problems in some other countries... But there are also other countries who don't really have these issues (or not to the same extent)... We need to aim higher than where we are.

Sad, but there it is.

I'm not against Xbox being involved with football, but I would hate for the brand to be tarnished by association with some of the stuff going on in the game right now... has to be managed carefully is all in saying.

@CaptainCluck

Well... I'm not against Xbox being involved with football... just saying it needs to be managed very carefully given all the stuff going on around the game in England at the moment.
It's something to be wary of... But, if managed well, it could be very good for Xbox.

P.S. let's keep the discussion friendly eh? 🙂

@antstephenson
I don’t think we are rushing back in, I think media and especially social media brings it more into the general public’s homes.
Many came out in support after the Euros in support of our penalty takers etc, even when the new premiership kicked off this season.

Unfortunately the country has a whole has seen violence, stabbings on our streets etc increase, 3 near where I live last weekend etc, which means crime is badly on the increase.
Apart from local news papers most of the UK crime goes unreported on any news etc.
The country needs to sort it out.

Anyway I think Xbox will be fine, will be interesting to see if they get involved in the World Cup November 2022.

@antstephenson Toxicity around England fans? Where did you conjure that up from? You're examples are a typical media tactic of taking an extreme minority and amplifying that to justify hate for England fans and claim there is a problem.

Seen nothing toxic this year from them. Sure there was the false racist narratives because fans booed a political gesture which kept getting regurgitated (with nice guy Gareth talking down to fans not helping) but apart from that?

No violence (see France for that), no real homophobia, no racism at grounds outside an extreme idiotic minority. Italy has more of an issue with racism in their club level and they haven't done anything about.

The morons who tried to get tickets to the London final, London hosts a major international final like that with fans (though no capacity) after well over a year of people being stuck inside and with England finally making a final after 55 years? You could see it coming from a mile away.

@dezzy70
It was heartening to see a lot of people push back against the events surrounding the Euros final... It was a shame it was necessary though and it is a sign of how divided the country has become (and the division extends beyond sport to politics, race, religion, vaccinations, 5G... much of it had resulted in violence).
Football isn't the only sport affected... you should see some of the awful stuff posted about Lewis Hamilton on social media F1 posts... truly sickening.

I try and comfort myself with the notion that these things are cyclical and that our country we become a saner place again sometime (at least for a while).

Anyway... Getting back on topic... I hope the Xbox thing works out. Maybe they will partner some footballers with some streamers to do some xbox promo for Halo, Forza, Gears etc.

@antstephenson
If else fails we could, Rent a Ghost 👻.

@BeautyandtheBeer
Hi Beauty and the Beer...
So... Yeah, there was violence at the final and there is NO excuse for it.
For toxicity and racism around football, just check social media... There's LOADS of it (and it isn't a small minority anymore)... Plus I have heard it at grounds as well (prior to lockdown).
I don't think saying "country X is worse than we are" is good enough... we need to stamp racism and violence out of the game better than we are at the moment.

Anyhow... I sense we are very different people and won't reach a common consensus on this, so... enjoy the bank holiday and happy gaming 👍🎮

I find England an extremely welcoming multi cultural society now a days compared to decades ago.
The most under lying and mentioned racism I see and hear is actually other cultures that are now in England against each other.
Not the traditional decades ago England racists against everyone else.
The clever thing about other cultures in England being racist is they don’t get to violent and don’t post stuff on social media, it is just spoken and kept quiet and managed by themselves.

@Dezzy70
It certainly felt like we became a more welcoming society as I got older... Until about 5-10 years ago, things seemed to have regressed.

I'm half Portuguese and my wife is Mexican (though now a British national)... We've certainly noticed the difference in attitudes.
It's been sad and worrying for us (and many of our friends).

I honestly can't speak to the racism amongst other cultures that you mention, except to say that ALL racism is bad... However, as someone who has been racially abused several times (usually, but not always, inaccurately by people assuming I'm Arabic or Asian), I actually would rather people kept their racist beliefs quiet than shouted them at me or my wife in the street.

@antstephenson
It’s terrible you have been a victim of racial abuse.
I can’t imagine what goes though these sick peoples mind to undertake such a thing on another human being.
Thing is there is good and bad in all countries and all cultures and all we can is hope that the bad over time disappears, but unfortunately it never will.
Be it racist crimes or many of the other crimes in the world today.
There is something wrong with the human race in general. I have always said if aliens visited earth and decided for the better of the planet and peace they could eradicate once race. They would chose the human race, not any animals etc.
That’s is terrible sad thing.

@antstephenson Why would I check social media? There is anonymity there (which we must keep), we don't know if the people sending the racist messages are even from this country or bots. If 100 people send something abhorrent online, that is going to be amplified so people think it's far more common occurrence than is reality. You see it time and again.

We will, sadly, never stamp it out because you can't police thought, you can't police an environment someone is brought up in. You can try your best in schools but once a kid gets home that's it.

I think comparisons with other countries teams is apt here, if Xbox partnered with Italy for example (or Argentina) you wouldn't likely say the same thing about them despite issues being much more of, well, an issue there.

Agree to disagree though, fair enough.

It has started...

https://twitter.com/England/status/1432312142485721095?s=19

It is a chance to win a Series S... Nice 👍
Surprised they didn't give it a limited edition 3 Lions crest, per a previous poster's suggestion, but nice to win anyway.

Also a comp through Xbox to win England tickets...

https://twitter.com/xboxuk/status/1432387687345008647?s=19

@BeautyandtheBeer

I'm a black man who's been born and raised in England. I was cheering for England to win at the Euros, but when I saw some of the vile stuff posted on social media, it really made me question my national identity; am I even 'English', or am I just some black person who just happens to be living in this country, who'll never truly be accepted?

Now you may say it's a minority, and that the media loves to stoke the flames of division. Both true, but minority or not, media agenda or not, those events had real, deep effect on people like myself.

So do me a favour, please show me these bots which are able to coincidentally post racist messages after three black players missed penalties, making totally innocent and obviously non-racist people seem very guilty indeed. They've been framed! Of course they're not racist, their accounts have been hacked!

Because they weren't racist at all, the real explanation is that a shady cabal of international tech experts holed up in a bunker somewhere in Afganistan picked the exact moment three black players missed hugely important penalties to hack into the accounts of dozens of white England supporters to send fake racist messages, in order to make them look really really naughty.

Also, in another huge coincidence, the people who own these accounts don't even live in England, (because as long as the England fans who were racist don't actually live in England, everything is A-OK) meaning when the police traced the accounts back to their owners and arrested them, they were totally wrong to do so!

So which is the more likely explanation? The above, or the explanation that we simply still have a lot of racist scumbags who live and work in the UK, who probably have friends who are people of colour (so, you know, they definitely can't be racist), and who have kept their thoughts to themselves for years, but who now feel emboldened to voice their views by the anonymity of social media?

Occam's razor, my friend.

@Originut
Thank you... Have a great day 👍

@DrEagleG I didn't say they categorically were bots or not English I said they could but you know that and just wanted to go off on a rant.

England does not have a problem with racism, it exists and always will but nowhere near widespread unless you accept the approved form of racism that is pushed these days by 'progressives'.

Your words make it seem like I'm trying to defend or divert attention away from English people who do send vile comments and I ain't. It happens, it is a minority and you cannot use that to tar many others.

@BeautyandtheBeer who are the 'many others' I used it to tar? Did I say ALL English fans are racist?

Read my comments again. I was illustrating that even though these messages were from a minority, they had real affects on people like myself. But you reduced my experience to a 'rant'. Which, well, thanks for the empathy I guess.

I was also illustrating that you suggesting it could've been bots sending those messages was laughable. I'm sorry, but if you really think there's a chance those messages weren't from real people (after many of those people have been literally been named and dealt with by the police), then I don't know what planet you're living on. You may not want to divert attention away from the racists, but comments like that really aren't helping your cause. I'm sure you're a cool bloke, and probably not a racist yourself, but stuff like that just makes it seem like you're unwilling to accept the evidence staring you right in the face, and that you don't actually understand the problem.

Maybe I haven't made my point clear - even though people like you think the UK doesn't have a problem with racism because you haven't personally witnessed it, or you can pass it off as something that has always happened and always will, there's still enough of a problem that people like me are being profoundly affected by it in 2021.

For me, this isn't even about whether England has a problem with racism or is a racist nation, as I can appreciate that as whole were far ahead of where we were in the 70s and 80s.

It's about how every person of colour knew exactly what was coming after three black players missed those penalties. It's about the stories I heard of people of colour walking back from the final at Wembley, just as upset as anyone else that England lost, but having white England fans shout at them 'We lost cos of YOUR people!' (after no doubt cheering Sterling's goals that helped them get to the final). THAT is a problem.

I actually consider myself lucky - I'm 41 years old and I haven't experienced a massive amount of overt racism throughout my life, but I can remember clear as day the few times I have, exactly what was said, and how it made me feel, and I'll never forget them.

So yes, racism may not be widespread enough that it passes your threshold to officially categorise it as a problem, but it only takes one hateful comment or experience to have a long lasting effect.

We all know racism isn't the same as it used to be in decades past, that clear progress has been made, and that England is a much more welcoming nation than some others, but when obvious racism rears its head on social media, and someone comes out with 'Maybe it was bots!', it makes you think twice.

If your comments had begun with some sort of condemnation of the idiots who sent the messages instead of a list of reasons why this country isn't that bad when it comes to racism, followed by a theory about the social media stuff which is quite frankly ridiculous, (and makes it look like you're doing the exact thing you're trying to avoid) I don't even think we'd be having this back and forth.

Anyway, I reckon a Three Lions Xbox would be bloody cool.

@CaptainCluck
I hope I am not one of the people you are accusing of anti-English racism? I am half English, half Portuguese and have always lived in England.
I am a realist about my country... I will praise it when it should be praised and criticise it when it should be criticised.
I also deliberately used "fans" in quotation marks in my post to indicate that the hooligans and racists are not real fans... So I am not trashing actual fans of the sport and the England team (I am one of them, so why would I do that?).
Hope that clarifies for you.

@DrEagleG
Isn't it funny how in life that it is often racists who try and gaslight us, telling us that racism doesn't exist (or even that WE are the racists for calling out such behaviour).
I think I'm gonna stop posting to this thread now, because it's too depressing seeing some of the comments here.
Might avoid the site completely if this is the way things are going to be.
Such a shame, as most people on here are wonderful, smart, funny and friendly.
But... It only takes one person to take a crap in the swimming pool to make you want to jump out!

eLions. Christ.