Picking sides for Euro 2008

In the absence of any Home Nations presence in the upcoming Euro 2008 football championships, there’s been plenty of talk about which teams we Brits should support. I suspect many will have been scouring family trees or revamping tired old prejudices in a desperate attempt to give a hoot about what will happen.

Personally, I find it difficult to forget past footballing harm inflicted on England, and could never bring myself to support the perpetrators. As such, this condition rules out Portugal, Germany, France, Romania and, well, if you go back far enough, pretty much anyone (except maybe Spain). Which doesn’t leave a whole load of choice. Perhaps, then, there’s a different way to go about things, whilst remaining steadfastly British: namely, supporting the underdogs. But even this seems unsatisfactory – should we really decide our allegiances on a game-by-game basis and applaud any upsets?

Probably the best solution is to forget fabricated support entirely and just enjoy the sport on offer.