It isn't often that you read anything about football in this column, the reason being that I have only limited interest in the game.

It's chiefly a partisan interest. It was activated when Bradford City were making their bid for the Premiership and when they were fighting to stay in it. And it flared up briefly this week and last in support of the English team in Euro 2000.

What a sickening couple of weeks it turned out to be. First was the deep sense of shame felt at belonging to the same nation as those pot-bellied, tattooed members of some moronic sub-species who had travelled to Belgium with the sole aim of doing battle with the supporters of other countries' teams.

"What have you done today to make you feel proud?" asks Heather Small in her hit song. It would be nice to think that none of those knuckle-dragging, grunting, cursing louts would have anything to say in response to that question.

Trouble is, though, that in their twisted philosophy, to be arrested and deported for waging a phoney war in the name of your country is something to be really proud of. There's simply no communicating with such people, is there? They could be from another planet.

It might have helped to salvage something in terms of national esteem if the English players had turned the tournament into a sporting triumph. It would have helped those people travelling to Europe for their holidays this summer to hold up their heads at least a little bit rather than having to skulk around apologetically.

But no such luck. The performance of the England team against Romania saw to that.

I repeat that I have only limited interest in football and virtually no knowledge of its finer points.

But even I was left in no doubt after watching that game that the reason England lost was because they were rubbish. The Romanians ran rings round them, working together as a team with a common purpose.

Our lot, on the other hand, played like a scratch side put together for a Sunday morning charity match.

How can it be that these professionals, some of whom probably earn in a week as much as you or I do in two years, who play every week in different teams at the highest level in English football, who are regarded as heroes by the supporters of their various clubs, were unable to summon sufficient skill as a national side to be able to actually pass the ball to each other?

Nobody seemed to know what anyone else was doing. What's more, nobody seemed to care. With the notable exception of David Beckham, as the match drew towards a close they seemed ready to pre-empt the whistle and head for the dressing room.

In the many analytical discussions that took place in the wake of this match, I heard one person offer the view that the reason England made such a poor showing is that they think they're better than they are.

When it comes to Europe, he said, they were outclassed. In fact, they were in more or less the same position as Bradford City are in the Premiership - struggling to hang on in there with the big boys.

The difference, I reckon (in my humble and hopelessly under-informed opinion), is that City have a tremendous team spirit, are driven by the will to win, and are improving all the time.

If the England team had a bit of what they've got, then they just might make us proud to be English.

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.