Ard Mhacha mate, the MAJORITY of football fans (including England supporters) ARE like me. It's just that the moronic minority are the ones who make it on to the front pages of the papers and on to Radio and TV. Reporting that a middle-aged, folk-singing accountant and his wife went to the game in the family car, enjoyed a half-time pie and a pint, had a laugh with a couple of fans of the other team, bought a shirt in the merchandise shop, stroked and patted a police-horse and then went home and had a chinky take-away doesn't sell papers. However, reporting that some pissed-up neanderthal dickhead smashed the skull of an opposing fan with a length of drainpipe does!

As I said in my previous post, don't impose a stereotype on all football fans based on the crap you see in the papers and on TV. Yes, there are rotten apples in the barrel and yes, there are too many of them, but most of us are just guys (and gals and kids) who enjoy the spectacle of the game.

Beardy/Stewart - quote ".....the petty-minded halfwits........ who then run riot when visiting other countries...." sounds disparaging to me! My post was in response to that accusation - I totally agree with you about our lunatic rabble-rousing press, I just think you're wrong to tar all England fans with the same brush. When I'm abroad I eat their food, drink their drinks, try to learn a bit of their language, rejoice in their art and culture, wonder at their architecture and, most importantly, befriend a few of their people.

And my last point in my previous post was that bad behaviour isn't limited to the English. There are few sporting nations who can truthfully claim to have no louts amongst their supporters, and Scotsmen (of whom I count a large number amongst my friends), or even half-Scotsmen, are in no position to preach to anyone about how to behave at a football match! There's been plenty of blood on the terraces, and in the streets and pubs, in the past North of the border too! :-)