h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I'm going to be absolutely slaughtered for this post but, ah well.

I don't understand what all the fuss about the World Cup is. Don't worry, I'm not going to say, 'it's only a game,' because I understand that's just annoying; but all the same, why is everyone so upset about England being knocked out in the later stages? Frankly, if the England team had not qualified at all, there wouldn't be half of this fuss - everyone would forget about it instantly and all the tabloids would stop whining.

Be realistic - did anyone REALLY expect England to beat Brazil? Does anyone realise that the English team isn't actually particularly good? And why was virtually everyone in England, for a fortnight, suddenly a huge football fan, when normally they couldn't care less?

Another source of irritation - why do fans insist on referring to the England team as we/us? As in, 'we knocked the s**t out of Belgium' or 'we scored a cracking goal'. As if they, sitting on their arses at home drinking beer, did in some way contribute to the team's successes.

Why all this patriotism all of a sudden? Why are people flying the English flag now and not before?

And is football really a valid excuse for badmouthing other nationalities? The media has got away with comments about the Germans and Brazilians in the past fortnight that would never normally be acceptable. It seems to me that the World Cup has done far more for xenophobia than any world war did.

Most of my thoughts exactly.