The trouble with this World Cup marlarkey is that it brings out the wrong kind of supporter!

In some ways, it was heart-warming that the England fans were praised for their behaviour in South Africa by the local plod and it is a far-cry from say Mexico 1986 when someone unfurled a massive WEST HAM NF banner (that’s West Ham National Front btw - not a very nice bunch, give me Cass Pennant as yer essential East End hooligan any day of the week!). 

However I feel the breed of fans who actually went to South Africa are a vastly different breed to the kind of fan you will see come to Elland Road on a match day next season. Granted there are some exceptions. However, to get the time-off work and fund a trip which must have run into thousands, you’ve got to be a bit….erm middle-class…you know, a bit like Baddiel and Skinner, Euro 96, Footie and all that.

For christ-sakes Mick Jagger was there! I will stand corrected, but I bet he has never stood on the terraces of say Boundary Park or Oakwell on a freezing wet January afternoon with his pie and Bovril?

Yes I am jealous the nearest I got to the World Cup was the Slovenia friendly last September at Wembley and I was cruelly convinced that Fabio was worth every penny of his six million salary and he had moulded a team of potential World Cup winners.

It has to be said, what I hate most about the World Cup is that millions who have no interest in the game between August and May suddenly break out the face-paint, rush-down to their local sports-shop and get the latest England shirt (which has a shelf-life less than fresh milk) and after “10 minutes of Motson” they proclaim to be experts on “the beautiful game”.

No doubt, I will spend the week at work listening to “their pain” - “another dodgy refereeing decision”, “bloody Germans again” and if I do, I will turn round to them ala Pete Poselthwaite in Brassed Off and say in blunt Yorkshire terms “…..does it Bollocks!”.

The real pain begins on August 7th. Pain is missing out on the treble in 1970...Wembley 1973.…Salonika and a bent ref…..Paris 1975 and another bent ref (and them bloody Germans again)….relegation in 1982.…Ormsby’s slip up in 1987 and Peter ‘bloody’ Shirtliff.

Pain is winning the league then selling your best player to your most hated rivals six months later….pain is seeing two golden generations of superb young talent either woefully squandered or sold off to keep the bailiffs at bay….pain is going into administration and having every bastard with a memory span as far back as King Herod wanting to put the boot-in!…..pain is going from losing the European Cup semi-final to losing the Johnstone Paints Trophy Northern Area final…..pain is being knocked out of the FA Cup by an unknown Cambridgeshire village  team.

Think of Rochdale fans on August 7th when they play their first game outside the bottom Division since 1974...think of the fans of Darlington who have been dumped out of the league and even seen their manager resign by email…..think of the fans of Chester City who saw their club wound-up in February.

So don’t give me all that crap about a nation in mourning taking prozac with their cornflakes….the Ingerlund fans will soon wake up to reality: the vile Chris Moyles show, price comparison websites, the fucking Tory/Lib Dem coalition government, Kerry fucking Katona, fucking Jordan….

Get some true Yorkshire grit down yer and geroverrit”!

Photo: Action Images

Leeds United Polls