Not sure I follow your post here David - mine was light-hearted - I don’t seriously think that what sports team you support, or your accent or dialect, are any indication of nationality.
But I do find it interesting - and a little surprising - that, although I still like to see England (and the other ‘home nations’) win, emotionally the French team is now more important to me. (Unfortunately - in this tournament!)
Well it wasn’t quiet at Wembley tonight, well done England, first major final since 1966.
Mind you, 60,000+ people, tested or not, its a bit of a worry
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We’re all well chuffed…!
Everyone was watching from home but participating in a “family chat” that my son set up at the start of lockdown…
I doubt I’ll be able to actually watch the final but I know I will get a running commentary from my family…
My dad’s parents were Londoners and he was born within the sound of the bells so was considered a cockney…despite the family moving to Leicester when he was still quite young he never lost that distinct accent…
And neither did my Scottish gran lose her accent despite being sent into service to Leicester at the age of 14…(never to see her parents again)
My accent although I think i sound broad Leicester is probably a blend…
I used to try and correct my kids as they were growing up if I heard them using what I considered “slang”…,my personal hatred was if they used the word “ain’t”…it never sounded right to my ears and to be fair none of them use it now they’re of an age where they have no reason to listen to me if they don’t want to…
That was the point I was trying to make earlier, you seem to have proved it by not inheriting your Dad’s Cockney accent, but instead were ‘infected’, probably for life, by your Leicester school friends. Of course the fact that he ‘never quite lost’ his Cockney accent also strengthens the case, he obviously retained elements of his two local accents.
School is the key and who you mix with there. My primary school was for 1 year in Southampton, 1 year at junior in Manchester, then all the rest in Notts, which is where I got this EM accent that I can’t notice till I hear a played back recording. 
As to the football, I lost interest many years ago, disillusioned by the big money coming into the game. Most of the ‘clubs’ should not be called clubs anymore, imo the word club refers to an association owned by its members, in this case the regular fans (the German principle I think), whereas many in the Leagues are owned by big business or rich foreigners, or both, and run as money making businesses. But I do take a passing interest in international games but don’t watch more than a few minutes before becoming either bored or over-stimulated on tenterhooks. 
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Lol you might gather we’re on tenterhooks for the final 
Yes I know what you mean…i thought my accent was probably more like my dads London accent with a subtle Scottish blend until I called into a local radio station trying to win tickets for my youngsters to go to a take that concert…I was horrified at how broad Leicester I sounded…!
Is there a specific East Midlands accent…???
There probably is…I was born in Leicester city (next door to the actor Michael Kitchen as it happens ) but we moved away before I was 4…:my 3 were all born on the outskirts of Leicester…
So whereas I would a visit a “bar” rhyming with star for a drink…one of my daughters especially would visit a “baahh”…and whereas I may have taken a “bus” on my way to school she took a “buz”…,
If I listen to the brum accent then I probably have close to the same difficulty (although not nearly as much) understanding broad Glaswegian…which is odd as my beloved gran was Scottish and I remember her gentle lilt in pronunciation to this day…
I love the subtle and not so subtle diversity of accents…it fascinates me…
Hey up me dook! Of course there is, there may be subtle differences in tone between Leicestershire (where I for many years played all my petanque 
) through Nottinghamshire to South Derbyshire, West Lincolnshire and even South Yorkshire. I certainly recognise an affiliation with friends from Sheffield but in no way with the quite distinct accents of the West Midlands or indeed the unintelligible (to me) babble I heard in Barnsley.
I once backed my lorry up to an unloading dock there to be faced with the question ‘Ow dlou oppen tha dooers?’ I was mystified and embarrassed at the same time and, as if talking to a poor foreigner with slower, clearer tones I finally realised that he wasn’t sure how I would be able to open the doors.
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