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I’ve often wondered if my obsessive support for a certain football club also explains my lack of interest in following any form of religion. Is the innate human need for moments of communal gathering – and spiritual humbling – fully sated, for many of us, by the rituals of the sporting stadium, or the routine of the long-distance run?
In our latest Insights long read, Hugh McLeod – an expert in both religious and sporting history – explains how and why sport came to usurp religion as many people’s true faith over the past two centuries. But he also notes that some of sport’s familiar names have religious roots, from Aston Villa FC, founded in 1874 by young men in a Methodist bible class, to Northampton Saints rugby club, started by a church curate.
And he observes a modern paradox. While religion has been crowded out by sport in general society, it is a conspicuous part of elite sport for many professionals – from England footballer Raheem Sterling to boxing world champion Tyson Fury – who rely on their faith for support as the sporting world gets ever more demanding.
We also have an expert in international economic law on hand to explain the implications of the new Brexit deal and its “Stormont brake”. And, on St David’s Day, we explain why Wales’s patron saint was definitely on to something when he said, back in the sixth century: “Gwnewch y pethau bychain” (“Do the little things”).
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