I'm happy to stand up and be counted.  I'm happy to champion your cause mrsdjd!  I have no interest in football or any other competative sports, for that matter.  I'm not saying they're not good at kicking a ball about a pitch and some of them, when playing abroad are aware that they are ambassadors of their country.  My grouse is the old chestnut: are they WORTH £6,000,000.00+ PER YEAR?  Are they really worth at least twenty times the wages of nurses, doctors, surgeons trying to save people's lives?  Are they really worth more that our soldiers out in the Middle East who put their lives on the line every single day for an absolute pittance?  I don't blame their managers - I blame their sponsors.  Like pop stars poncing about on stage or film stars on both the big screen and on television, in the end they actually firmly and sincerely BELIEVE they are worth the obscene morey they get - NOT.earn!  That is why they are so *Bleep* scared of communism.  This country is FAR too sports orientated.  Let's concentrate on kicking this country into touch job-wise and employment-wise, then we can mess about kicking a ball about in a pitch, but let's get our priorities right.  Winning the world cup was wonderful - I'll never forget it.  My late father and I drove straight up to a public golf course and teed off with absolutely nobody on the course.  Normally there'd have been a forty minute wait.  There was nobody on the course.