Germany 06 vs West Germany 88

Not done much since my last posting. Made my overly-late debut for the Rangers and really enjoyed playing. Went bowling with work and got my new personal best of 135.

So 100 000 England supporters are expected to make their way to Germany this summer. The world has moved on a long way since the last time (then West) Germany hosted a big tournament, the disastrous Euro 88 – being my first ever international football tournament I remember it well, though for all the wrong reasons – England were humiliated finishing bottom of their group, losing 1-0 to Ireland, 3-1 to Holland and 5-1 to the USSR. Only 3000 fans went over to West Germany, and it probably at least half of them were hooligans. This was at a time when English teams were banned from all European competitions after Heysel. There was a lot of trouble and everywhere England went the towns were trashed. The tournament got relatively little publicity on TV (and most people seemed to support the team England were playing against) followed almost exclusively by men. Games were played in half-empty stadiums with barbed-wire fencing separating rival fans. France had failed to qualify and were about as good as Wales at football. The Soviet Union was still a superpower (not a bankrupt 3rd world state with the living standards of Ethiopia!).

And now England have probably the best chance they’ve ever had of winning, Germany are a bit of a joke and aren't the feared machine they used to be, football is ultra-cool and trendy, swimming in money and footballers are worshipped and have more power than most world leaders. It’s a funny old game.