Solvitur ambulando, as Saint Augustine is alleged to have remarked, is the idea that things can best be solved by walking – a theme clearly appreciated by John Croot, the man most associated with the invention of walking football in Chesterfield at the end of the 2000s.
Largely ridiculed until Sky Sports televised a match in 2017, the game for the over-50s demographic has proved so popular there are now more than 1,200 clubs in the UK, an international body – the Federation of International Walking Football Associations (FIWFA) – and at least 70 countries now playing the sport. It’s the next big thing, in case you didn’t know, and just to prove the point the first walking football World Nations Cup was held at St George’s Park last week over three days, with 28 countries officially accepted. I was picked to play in the tournament as captain of the Basque Country, affording me the privilege of a 3G-pitch perspective.
As the name implies, it’s a version of football in which running is banned. There are different variants of the game, but the six-a-side version with goalies was the one used by FIWFA in last week’s tournament. The other criteria applied tend to be universal – the ball can not go over head height, tackles can not be made from behind or from a player’s blind side and it’s a game of two halves, usually totalling 40 minutes. There were blue cards for sin-bins and red ones for seniors who got over-grumpy.
The World Nations Cup, originally scheduled for Manchester in 2021 but scuppered by the pandemic, finally took place at England’s national base and consisted of two age groups: over 50s and over 60s. Participating nations could take a maximum of 12 players per age category, with a maximum of three ex-pros per squad. England were the favourites in both categories and, just in case you can no longer bear the tension, football has finally come home. The over 50s team beat the Czech Republic in the final on penalties while the 60+ team beat France 3-0, with two excellent goals from Graham Collier, once of Nottingham Forest, Scunthorpe and Barnsley. Now 71, he has not gone gently, and the French couldn’t handle him.
The PA system subsequently pumped out Three Lions as the players celebrated England’s first world title since 1966, but you were left wondering which song the organisers had prepared in the event of a French win, for example. A bit of Johnny Hallyday, peut-être, or La Marseillaise? We shall never know.
After Saudi Arabia and Georgia pulled out, 26 sides showed up to the party, ranging from Jersey to Japan. Australia, Singapore and Canada sent squads, and the African representatives were Nigeria, Rwanda and Egypt. The Caribbean squad was a collective of players who participate in the walking leagues of Birmingham and London and the presence of the Basque Country and Spain made for a rare side-by-side appearance in an international competition. Had the tournament’s participants been backed by their respective federations, the official nature of such backing would have precluded such a pairing.
But in a general sense, that was the beauty of the whole caboodle. The squad configurations were the result of the bottom-up development of the game in its global version. Rwanda had official backing, but they were the exception. The Basque squads were cobbled together two months ago from players participating at Real Sociedad, Bilbao and Plentzia – but that was about it. England, by contrast, had been holding country-wide trials from 2017 and had whittled down the squad to 24 players who knew each other well.
I’ve lived in the Basque Country for 32 years but five years’ residency made me eligible to participate. I played for the over 50s squad – I’m 66 but was invited to share my experience with the younger ones – and can attest to the brutal high quality of the football. Any side who had failed to do their homework were mercilessly thrashed and the anaerobic nature of the game combined with four matches in a day meant you had to be in decent fettle.
We made it to the quarter-finals where we lost 2-1 to a very good England side. When we equalised in the second half, they seemed genuinely surprised anyone should have the temerity to obstruct their inevitable path to the final, but hey, they were good. I’m just jealous.
Fifa has so far remained at a disrespectful distance but its future involvement is inevitable. This inaugural World Nations Cup was a success as an intercultural gathering and as a sporting event, but following on so quickly from the Women’s World Cup it came up short in terms of basic inclusivity. Given walking football ticks all the 21st-century boxes and its participants are an influential and financially comfortable demographic, it makes sense to keep them happy, but if the tournament was supposed to be mixed gender then the organisers did their best to hide it. Only Wales and Australia sent female players, resulting in a slightly over-testosteronic atmosphere.
The two England teams consisted of 24 white blokes, which is disappointing after their coach stated the final squads were a result of five years of national trials. Some referees should also have been selected from among the participating nations, but the organisers went for a quicker fix and kept them local with only one woman among them. She was by far the best.
It was intense and it was wonderful to be back in the competitive mix. Walking football does indeed represent a kind of rebirth, a chance to reconnect with what you thought you’d left behind. The next edition will be in two years and although Saudi Arabia were rumoured to be the hosts their sudden no-show at the event should mean that it goes elsewhere. I sincerely hope so.
Phil Ball is a sports journalist and author based in Spain
