Quote Originally Posted by monty_rhodes View Post
Don't really know why or quite when it happened but I don't care much at all anymore. Same with the England cricket team. Sport is all about money now.
I'm the same really, can't really pinpoint when it happened for me either. Just a general wearing down over the years I suppose.
It just all seems a bit samey in recent years. A fairly straight forward qualifying campaign followed by a largely disappointing tournament, with a sprinkling of friendlies I'm mainly indifferent to.

Funnily enough, it's coincided a bit over the last few years with an increased interest in the Hungarian national team and their recent progress.
Since we've been spending quite a bit of time over there in the last 5 or 6 years, i've taken more interest in their qualifying campaigns which have been gradually improving without success up until the last one when they actually qualified for Euro 16.
I even managed to get over for their playoff 2nd leg victory against Norway last year, which was an incredible night.

We'd already booked to be in Budapest at the same time as the Euro's this year, but Hungary's qualification was a massive bonus.

I watched all the group games for both England and Hungary on various screens round the city, and have to say got much more enjoyment from the Hungary games.
After no qualification since the 80's the joy this brought to the football mad Magyars was amazing and every game seemed to end with a massive city wide street party as if they'd won the thing.

I suppose it comes down to levels of expectation, they were just happy to be there, whereas we sort of think we ought be doing better than we do.
I don't know how the drubbing by Belgium in the knockout phase went down as we were back home by then and I watched it in the local.
If I had to guess it ended with a massive city wide street party.