Why I wont be supporting England at the FIFA World Cup Finals!

Right, although this is a travel blog I need to get something of my chest, I keep asking why I wont be supporting England at the FIFA World Cup and Im fed up of explaining, so here is a post that may go someway to explaining why I couldnt give a toss how England do! This might sound weird hailing from a town in England, but I would love it if England did their perpectual crashing out of major footballing competitions early! There are many reasons for this, and I dont want this to turn into a rant, but it probably will, and unless you are a Manchester United fan, you probably just wouldnt get it! This isnt some crusade to get ''Top Red Points,'' im just fed up of explaining why, every time somebody has the audacity to ask why I dont want England to win they reply with the retort ''BUT YOU'RE ENGLISH!!!'' Well in footballing terms, I do not identify as that, if I HAD to choose, in those circumstances I would want Wales and Northern Ireland to both win (although my world wouldn't crash down if they lost), but all I care about is United, whether that is to me the first team, reserves, youth team, or a team set up by fans!!!

As a kid growing up I did used to support England, I can remember going into school early to watch matches from the 2002 World Cup in South Korea and Japan so what's changed!? Well I have! I have grown up and I come to realise I do not identify with England fans, their team, or their national association!

Anyone who knows me knows my political views, so this isnt some left wing socialist crusade, personally speaking, I will support England and Great Britain from the Olympic Games to the World Tiddlywinks Championships and everything in between, rugby league, rugby union and cricket to name a few, but I WILL NOT and CAN NOT support the 'England Football Team'.

The difference between football and other sports is that I actually care about football, I dont have any gripes with the other associations and federations in other UK sports, with football and the FA I do. As a United fan, I am fed up of Man United players getting injured on England 'duty'. You can go back to the 1960s, but a breif look at history shows Steve Coppell's playing days were ended playing for England (Nov'81), Neil Webb(Sep'89), whilst Captain Marvel Bryan Robson suffered multiple injuries whilst wearing the national shirt...now this in itself is no reason to not support England, but it is where United's antipathy to England began.

One thing that I began to realise is how ridiculous it is for England fans to boo the likes of Neville and other United players when they were playing for England, especially when they they were your best players...England fans are the first to bum these players like Beckham and Rooney who save Ingerlund year after year, but yet they boo them cos they are United players. All of Wembley singing frequently singing ''Stand up if you hate Man U'' (sic), why would I want to associate with people who sing that, let alone use the phrase 'Man U' (sic)? Your average United fan has nowt in common with your average England fan...racist, BNP supporting lager louts from Burnley who sing ''Ten German Bombers'' and trash up towns abroad. England fans are ABU Little Ingerlunders made up of supporters of clubs such as West Ham, Chelsea and Millwall and little Ingerlanders whose teams never/hardly ever qualify for European competition and hate United more than they love their own clubs...MASSIVE clubs such as Manchester City, Bolton Wanderers and the Yorkshire clubs. United have been going to Europe for over 50 years and get on well with all nationalities, it is a far cry from when England play away!

The thing that made me realise however how little I cared for the English FA's team (because at the end of the day that is what it is, not an England team, but the representative team of the Football Association) was when they (the FA) and the Football League/Premier League and all the other football authorities failed to protect their members clubs from leveraged hostile takeovers! The FA had a dereliction of duty when it failed to apply a fit and proper person's test on the Glazers, they failed to support my team, why should I support their team!?!? The FA did nothing when Sinawatra took over at Manchester City, he was wanted in Thailand for alledged corruption and other atrocities, what does somebody have to do to fail this test? Not be alive or have cash/want to make a profit out of clubs!? The FA used to have a rule, it still does! FA Rule 34, a rule that prohibits the taking of funds out of clubs to pay directors...Tottenham Hotspur got around this by forming a holding company, to which the FA did nothing and all clubs, most notably at the time Manchester United followed suit...the FA could have said no, they didnt, and English football has never recovered...in the last 20 years or so, the beautiful game has been on a road to ruin, and it is largely down to the FA and it's failings!!! The debt at English clubs is more than all that in Europe combined, more than 40 clubs across the pyramid have become insolvent since 1992 and entered administration or worse... why has our system got it so wrong!? It must be noted that Germany has the highest average attendances in Europe and fans can stand up on a safe standing terrace, drinking ale, and get free transport to and from games, all for the price of a FOOTBALL CONFERENCE (Division 5) ticket in England, and for a club that they have to legally have a 50% + 1 ownership stake in, in effect German fans run their clubs, much like Barcelona do...somewhere, somehow in England, IT ALL WENT WRONG!

Going off on a tangent for the moment whilst the words are flowing, but yet another point about the type of people who follow England that I can not stand, and I dont want this to be one of my main arguments, it just pissed me off, when there was the ''minute's silence'' at Wembley Stadium on the 50th anniversary of the aircrash that killed and injured the legendary Busby Babes, many of whom again were not just Manchester United players, but ENGLAND INTERNATIONALS, it was shouted down and booed by England fans, this only imflames the situation and highlights the increasing divide between a large segment of United and England fans...yes they were Manchester United players, but the likes of Duncan Edwards, Tommy Taylor and Roger Byrne were England heroes, and England 'fans' quickly forget that when having a pop at United. The fact that Frank Swift was on the plane, a City and England hero still doesnt stop the blue quarter of Manchester giving it large, but then again, we've come to expect nowt else from small town Ingerlunder loving ABU (anyone but United) teams such as them. The fact that England would probably have won the World Cup in Sweden in 1958, then maybe in 1962 is also lost on these fans, and the same fans who could finally stop going on about 1966 as they probably would have already won the World Cup more than once already had fate not intervened...but alas that is history. And I in no way am aportioning any blame for a terrible accident but you have to think what might have been had it not been for the stupid rules imposed by the FA and Football League that teams in Europe were required to be back in England 48 hours before a fixture after European Competition or face fines or even point deductions...and for what, all because their ego was they were the best in the world and didnt want their member clubs being shown up by foreign teams or their authority challenged by the European Union of Football Associations... They actively tried to stop English teams competiting in the European Cup and made it as difficult as they could for them, even today they fail to move games to help English clubs in Europe (except to Sundays after Europa League which doesnt help preparations or the fans commute), whereas in Italy, AC Milan played on the Friday night before they played Manchester United this season...the FA would never do that because it has never helped any of its member clubs except probably Liverpool when they got into the European Cup having come 5th despite knowing the rules before they failed to qualify...

The FA made us pull out of the FA Cup in 2000 as Champions, to represent England and Europe in the World's top competition, a decision I have NEVER forgiven them for! I love the Cup, and for those to say it has been devalued are wrong, it hasnt, the media just says it has, I love it, and the fact that I love it and the FA refused to help us speaks volumes! They wouldnt let us play a Youth Team vs Villa as it would put the integrity of the competition at risk, they wouldnt let us play it 2 weeks later when we got back from Brazil as it puts the integrity of the competition at risk (apparantly) as all 3rd Round fixtures must be played the same weekend, but yet they wanted us to go to Brazil as to not go as English and European Champions at a time when the English FA had a World Cup bid (a bid eventually won by Germany) would not have gone down well with FIFA or the other nations! Well thanks for nothing! It's interesting to note that when we went to Japan to play in the World Club Championships nothing was made of missing Premier League games and having to have them rescheduled, both in 1999 for the Intercontinental Cup and in 2008 for the World Club Cup...why the difference!?

Added to the fact it is always a United player who ''makes England lose'' I have actually begun to love it when United players ''make England go out of the cups'' as it is simply hillarious! It all began for me with Beckham in 1998, the entire nation villified him, hanging effigies from lamposts and sending him death threats, then it was Phil Neville's turn in 2000 for the hideous crime of giving away a penalty in the last minute against Romania. Of course it was Rooney's fault he played a few years later when he had injured his metatarsel and wasnt fully fit, and also when he got sent off vs Portugal in that infamous game, although most of the venom was reserved for Ronaldo who ''got Rooney sent off,'' not because Portugal were the better team and that England's discipline let them down. The entire France 98 thing is hillarious as England scored more goals vs Argentina, but everyone forgets Campbell scored but it was ruled out for a SHEARER push, but he's the golden boy and can do no wrong...interesting that nobody blames Batty for missing a penalty either, oh well, im glad it's ''United's fault''!

Anyway I did warn about a rant, so if you are still with me, well done...The years between 2003 and 2005 certainly did ''radicalise'' me if that is the right word, it was the time between 16 and 18 where you start to make informed choices for yourself, and one thing I noticed growing up was that I just did not have anything in common with England fans... FOOTBALL IS ABOUT IDENTITY, PASSION, SOUL, BELIEF! All of those things I have for my club side, none of which I have for the national side...

The way England fans behaved in Euro2000 was an absolute disgrace, trashing Charleoi all because of the hiddeous crime that some German football fans happened to be in the same town. We go to Germany regularly, as has our team since the 1950s, and we have a great relationship with German fans of most clubs, we are United and not England, as a banner proudly states, and dont the Germans know it. I was once in Frankfurt having watched FC United, the club formed after the takeover of Manchester United by Malcolm Glazer (c*nt!), I was approached by a waiter with a sense of humour in a bar during Euro2008 (which was on tv from Austria and Switzerland) if I was English...I replied ''yes mate from near Manchester'' to which he said, 'AH BUT THESE WHITE PLASTIC CHAIRS, YOU HAVENT THROWN ANY YET!' ...and he was right (and funny), that's what England fans do and are renown for...10 German Bombers, aeroplanes, mentioning the war when it has sweet FA to do with football...and people wonder why I dont support England!? Just because of an accident of birth Im supposed to identity with that mob!? ...No thanks! England to me are now just another Southern Football Club, whose fans all hate my club, a club who are WORLD CHAMPIONS ONCE MORE THAN ENGLAND, and a team that means the world to me, something that I can identify with, something I can not with regards to the national team!!!

So here I am in Australia, thinking I have escaped the World Cup hysteria banded about every 4 years by the likes of the Sun, only for Australia to have qualified...The original plan was to hit New Zealand, but the All Whites (now that's an unforunate nickname to take to South Africa) have also qualified, so the eastern seaboard of Australia will have to do. I had a Greyhound coach booked for England's first game, but now I will be down Darling Harbour watching the match vs USA in the FIFA fan zone (one of 7 I believe around the world) with the lads, who are very much England fans, and I hope we all have a good time watching football and having a few beers, but Im not excited! Im the biggest footy fan I know, probably watched thousands of games since that first one back in 1987 when my Dad took me down to Grundy Hill and then subsequently Old Trafford, but all I can wait for is the start of the new season at both MUFC and FCUM! The renewed fight against Glazer and actually being at games, the atmosphere, the comradeship, the songs...my routine! I wish all the best to United's foreign legion past and present in South Africa, and I wish all the best to United players wearing the white England shirt, I hope they have good, injury free World Cup and hit form, and if they win it, Que Sera, Sera, i'll be exactic for THEM, but I could care diddly squat about the fortunes of the FA, the other players or the fans of the team! Players such as JAMIE CARRAGHER http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LTJxocLDfEA who after this dummy throwing incident retired from England cos he wasnt getting picked, but then runs back at the first oppourtunity...unlike Paul Scholes! Englamd, a team who never gave Steve Bruce an international cap, not even as a sub in a friendly, the best centre half in England in the last 20 years without an England Cap; a team who arent taking Wes Brown to the World Cup, which in itself is an absolute disgrace, he's done more than most to earn it than most...it looks like just Carrick and Wazza are going after Rio's injury, lets hope they stay injury free and keep fit for the new season!

As I have grown up I have become aware of who I am, what I think, who and what I believe in. Football is a tribal game, it is about identity, pride and passion...it is why I am so AGAINST the unwanted, hostile, leveraged buy out of MUFC by Malcolm Glazer and his family and why I refuse to accept his legitmacy at Old Trafford. Football is about camaraderie, comradeship, a shared sense of belonging, shared experiences, it is a rollercoaster of emotions that binds you to like minded individuals... I associate as being a red, I have pride in my team, I feel the joy and agony in the highs and the lows...im sorry to say I dont in the national side...it's not hatred, im past that, I would say it is worse than that...I simply just do not care!

So in the words of all the ABUs around England who for the last 5 years have thought it was funny and highly original, Im going to finally take you up on your Glazer loving chants this summer... ''USA! USA! USA!''

Peace, love and bananas to all.
/RANT.