Pubs, Football, and the Social Fabric We Keep Losing

This is not really a work post, which probably means it is one of the more important ones.

I am not even much of a football fan. I will watch England when the whole country is watching England, because at that point it becomes less about football and more about being part of the same weird national mood. Hope, dread, shouting at the television, and everyone suddenly becoming an expert in substitutions. Very British. Very normal.

But the decision to let pubs stay open until 5am for the England game got me thinking about something bigger than the match itself.

Growing up in the 90s, it was normal for families to end up at the local pub, working men’s club, social club, or community venue. Friday night discos. Big sporting events. Charity nights. Someone’s birthday. Someone’s uncle pretending he could still dance. Kids running around while adults caught up, laughed, argued, and made memories in the same shared space.

It was not perfect. Nothing ever was. But there was a normality to it. A sense that communities had places where generations mixed without it needing to be an organised “community initiative” with a laminated poster and a risk assessment.

The slow disappearance of shared spaces

Now that I have two daughters, I notice the absence of that more.

We have made a lot of progress over the last 30 years. In many ways life is better, safer and more convenient. But somewhere along the way, we also lost some of the casual social infrastructure that helped people feel connected.

The places where people saw familiar faces without needing to arrange it. The places where kids learned how to exist around adults outside the house. The places where people celebrated together, grieved together, watched finals together, and occasionally embarrassed themselves together.

A lot of modern life is efficient, but it is also strangely isolated. We order food without speaking to anyone. Work from home without seeing anyone. Message people constantly without actually being with them. Even leisure has become private, personalised and algorithmic.

Then every now and again, something like a major football match cuts through all of that and reminds everyone what shared experience feels like.

It is not really about the licensing hours

The 5am pub opening is easy to frame as a drinking story. And yes, there will absolutely be people who treat it like an Olympic endurance event for questionable decision-making. Britain does enjoy a challenge.

But to me, the more interesting part is the permission it gives people to gather.

During the tournament in America, we saw England fans and supporters from neighbouring nations welcomed and celebrated in ways that challenged the lazy stereotypes we are used to seeing. People came together around something simple, emotional and shared.

That matters.

Because communities are not built by telling people to care more about community. They are built by giving people reasons and places to actually be together.

Families should be allowed to make memories

I would like my daughters to have some version of that. Not a carbon copy of the 90s, because some of it can stay there along with dial-up internet and questionable curtains, but the feeling of it.

The feeling that local places belong to families as well as adults. That big moments can be experienced together. That children are not always an inconvenience to be scheduled around. That community is not just a word councils use when they want volunteers.

We spend so much time online that it is easy to forget how valuable it is to laugh, celebrate and make memories with the people around us. Not curated. Not optimised. Not posted for engagement. Just lived.

So yes, I think pubs staying open for a major England game can be more than a novelty. It can be a small reminder that shared spaces still matter.

And if you are strongly against families enjoying moments like that together, I will try not to judge you too harshly. But I may quietly move you into the Karen or Dave category in my head.

Community has to happen somewhere. Maybe we should stop being surprised when people still want somewhere to gather.

Draft adapted from Brad’s LinkedIn post from 2026-07-03. Source: LinkedIn post.