Popping the ball

A decade ago I was sitting in a hotel bar in Opatija, Croatia, watching the national side play Turkey in a European Championship quarter final in Vienna.

In almost the last minute of extra time, Croatia got what appeared to be a winning goal; the bar stewardess burst open a bottle of bubbly and wandered the room filling the glasses of delighted supporters only to see that Turkey had equalised by the time it was empty. The sense of deflation was palpable, even more so when Turkey went on to win the penalty shoot-out.

It struck me then that emotions in sport are transient. I can accept a lot of what Joyce Mcmillan said about the ugly sentiments that can emerge among some fans during a protracted World Cup campaign (Perspective, 13 July). We have to be honest and concede that they often show their head during the domestic season too.

But it is still debatable whether this shows a football following which is becoming increasingly xenophobic and intolerant. Some remarkable changes have occurred in the past decades in changing the ethnic composition of teams, and indeed, the near elimination of racist chanting in stadiums and terracings.

The sullen resentment of many Scottish fans watching

England’s games does not reflect hostility and bigotry towards people from south of the Border.

It more likely reflects a contempt for those broadcasters who seem to abandon objectivity and a dread that success for England would almost certainly mean endless gloating in the media for decades to come.

We should qualify that, of course, by reminding ourselves that had Scotland reached a World Cup semifinal there would have been a hullabaloo of deafening proportions. I doubt, though, whether that hullabaloo would have meant a lasting animosity towards people from outside our borders.

Football has a wonderful way of bringing the boastful and triumphalist back down to earth very quickly.

BOB TAYLOR

Shiel Court, Glenrothes