Richard Williams (Ribbons and salutes, Sport, 27 February) is right in asserting that “history has a way of making fools of us all”. I give an account of the 1938 Berlin salute and its political context in the memoir I am writing about my father, the England football captain Eddie Hapgood. After the war, he maintained that the decision to salute was made after several days of discussion but only minutes before the match began. The unrest in the dressing room triggered an instruction from the Foreign Office in response to the ambassador’s anxiety. It was a flawed and ineffective decision inspired by panic.
The players’ perspective as footballers rather than political puppets is rarely acknowledged. The salute wasn’t necessary to “keep the crowds happy”, as the FA secretary, Stanley Rous, claimed.
An unforgettable aspect of that contentious tour and one which my father treasured, was the delight with which German football supporters welcomed the English players when they arrived in Berlin, waved them off when they left and the roars of admiration as the final spectacular goal scored against them made the result 3-6. England won, and the players reclaimed their rights with a style of playing that demonstrated, as they believed, the very best of national values.
Dr Lynne Hapgood
Leamington Spa, Warwickshire
• I cannot imagine what possessed Richard Williams to link Pep Guardiola’s fronting for Qatar’s World Cup bid with the FA insisting its players salute Hitler. That was five years after the Reichstag fire, the Enabling Act, the establishment of the Gestapo, the opening of Dachau and the first book burnings. It was three years after the passing of the Nuremburg laws. By all means criticise Guardiola, but with a sense of proportion. Allusions to Hitler are rarely wise – and this was no exception.
I am not a supporter of Catalan independence.
Justin Horton
Huesca, Spain
• Pep Guardiola’s yellow ribbon does not, as Richard Williams states, constitute a display of political affiliation. There is a consensus in democratic European countries that jailing politicians for their beliefs is reprehensible. There is also a consensus that it is appropriate to remember the millions who died in the last century’s two world wars. If managers and pundits are allowed to wear red poppies to acknowledge the latter, surely Guardiola should be allowed the same freedom in relation to the former.
John Clark
London
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