Is there some kind of football match coming up?

Now here's somebody who speaks to my condition.

I've said it before and I'll say it again. I won't be following the World Cup, or at least I won't be following England's fortunes in it. It's not that I lack enthusiasm for my country - I'll be rooting for the cricketers as loudly as anybody - it's just that while I'm happy to be represented by Andrew Flintoff or Jonny Wilkinson, I really don't want to be represented by the boorish, overpaid and underbrained oafs who play for the football team. (I may perhaps he heard to utter a subdued 'Forze Italia!')

I don't have a lot to add to Michael Henderson's piece. I may revisit the idea of the 'proletarianisation' of the country in the future, though.