Thanks for the compliment Quinlad. It�s a long time since anybody has recognised me as a curmudgeon (despite my best efforts) and I�m flattered.
I don�t have a particular aversion to football, or indeed any other sport. I have no particular opinion of many sports � I can either take them or leave them, and mostly I leave them.
What I do have an aversion to is the ridiculous hype that surrounds some of them. I have a lot of friends who are followers of football. They roam all over the country watching their teams play. Then I meet them for a drink. All they do is simply moan about their team�s performance, the results, their unsuccessful forays into the �transfer� market, the referees, the facilities, the clubs, the �opposing� spectators, the price of the beer or the pies, the cost of travel to and from the grounds, the price of admission, and just about anything else connected with �the beautiful game�.
So, I think to myself, �glad I�m not bothered about any of that�. It must be a terrible game to follow.
Then I open the paper or turn on the TV. If I was not so well read I would believe that no other sport (or indeed any other activity) took place anywhere in the country. Page after page of drivel during the summer about who was or was not being sold to whom. Then the season starts. Thirty eight matches to play. Two down and there is talk of relegation, qualification for the so-called �Champions� League� (a misnomer if ever there was one) and management sackings. It must be a popular game � and indeed it is. But the people I know who follow it clearly cannot stand it.
Then there�s the radio. Nine in the morning - �Match Day Travel� and �Match Day Weather�. As if all I am interested in are jams on the M6 getting to Manchester, or torrential rain at �The Stadium of Light�.
I�m sure you get my drift by now.