I love football and I love the World Cup. Three or four matches a day, all on terrestrial television and all at pretty convenient times for TV viewing make for football heaven. The World Cup represents a chance to see some of the finest players on the planet in action in games that will live long in the memory.
There is a real buzz of excitement about the World Cup. A buzz of a tournament that brings people together.
It is a shame that a few grumps seem to be taking it upon themselves to ruin everybody else's fun.
There are the jobsworths and killjoys who are insisting that some people take their flags of St George down from their houses, businesses, cars and vans. What a load of nonsense. This amazing event is bringing excitement to people's lives up and down the country and around the world. The snobs (who talk about patriotism but seem to dislike it unless it is of the Last Night of the Proms variety); killjoy and let everybody show their support for the national team and their national pride. I, for one, will be proudly flying the cross of St George.
And then there are the people such as Laurie Penny of the New Statesman. I'm still trying to work out whether this blog is some kind of parody. Her blog suggests that "football is commidified nationalism that excludes more than half the population." She seems to be trying to make a bizarre sociological/ political argument out of the fact that she doesn't like football.
Clearly she is the kind of 'liberal' who decides to look down on ordinary, working class people and utterly fails to understand the importance of the beautiful game to ordinary people. She would get laughed out of town if she tried to make her absurd argument in a working class pub.
If she managed to look at ordinary people in a non anthropological kind of way, she might notice how the World Cup is bringing so many people and so many communities together, of all colours and backgrounds. She may have failed to notice that kids in working class areas are inspired by the multi racial team that we have sent to South Africa.
I will leave it to the moaners to continue to moan. Like most of the rest of the population, I'm going to enjoy this feast of football.
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