Keir Starmer: What Football Means To Me

I've been supporting Arsenal for a very very long time when I was growing up I didn't go to games because we didn't have the money to go to games until I was an adult living in London and then we'd go down to the old stadium and watched four quid to get in through the turnstile to stand on The Terraces and as you go down towards Highbury

there was no getting away from that mix of smells the horse manure and the hamburgers mixed together with the smell of the grass I've been playing football pretty well every week since I was 10 years old and I'm still playing now every week for 90 minutes what you do for a living is completely secondary when it comes to playing football on a Sunday how I would

for a long time now but when I took her to see the England team in the semi-final of the Euros last year she was captivated there was something special about the women's game and it was really inspiring and that's why she stayed at the end watching the women celebrate after their success on the pitch for you know a long long time it was a very very

special moment of inspiration [Applause] one ball was 22 players you've got to score you've got to work as a team and it brings people together in a way that I mean sport often does that but football in particular I think has gone deep deep deep into our culture I think there are lots of lessons from the pitch that you can take to your career there's also

tolerance and respect you have to respect your own team and the opposition [Music] I just love being on a football pitch and when I'm on that pitch I'm not leader of labor party I'm just here one of the teammates football is essentially it's a team game you've got to work as a unit and that's really important in any work environment [Applause] [Music]