Quote Originally Posted by DUFCstokie View Post
I've lived in Somerset for 27 years and I don't hate the English. However, I despise their football team along with rugby, cricket, tiddleywinks etc. I'm dreading this weekend because if they win they will be insufferable. As if they need a trophy win to inflate their superiority complex.
My English wife refuses to watch England games with me as she thinks I'm unfairly bias
I don't hate them either, I just can't stand seeing them win at football (or rugby for that matter). For me, it's the arrogance and entitlement - like the fact that they once won a tournament nearly 60 years ago, they somehow deserve to win every time. There's also an expectation - before a ball is even kicked, they've got their route to the final plotted out. Even more annoying in recent years as they incredibly manage to get themselves in the half of the draw that avoids ALL of the tournament big guns, the favourites, the other teams with a tournament pedigree.

Would I feel so strongly if we'd had a half decent Scotland team over the last 20 or 30 years? We'll never know.

I think it also has something to do with the fact that I was just getting into football around 1987/88. The Euros in Germany was the first tournament I had really watched with interest. At the same time, I was seeing all these news reports about violent clashes and guys being loaded into ambulances with brutal stab wounds, etc. Thought it was a coincidence that it was happening in Germany at the same time as the football, but no - that was the English hooligans. I couldn't understand how that was in any way connected to the football.