Football fans

[catherine at cator-manor.demon.co.uk]

--- In HPFGU-OTChatter at y..., "Amy Z" <aiz24 at h...> wrote:
> Benjamin wrote:
> 
> >I think it only fair to point out that the 
> > recent 
> > > Scottish Old Firm match caused riots in Ireland (Dublin's 
> O'Connell 
> > > Street)...  And not an English hooligan in sight.
> > > 
> > > Well it struck me as slightly ironic anyway.
> 
> Glad to hear there's progress on the English hooliganism front. 
>  
> > BTW - did the other Brits out there notice on the main list about 
> > Italian translations that Argus Filch's sirname is Gazza?!  
Somehow 
> I 
> > can't see Filch with a beer belly, badly peroxided hair, geordie 
> > accent etc.  The crybaby element doesn't do it for me either!
> 
> Who's this Gazza?
> 
> Amy "Ignorant Yank" Z
> who has made a mental note to avoid attending matches with Scottish 
> and Irish as well as English teams from now on (go, Cameroon!)

Oh come on Amy, we're not that bad! <g>.  What you really have to be 
careful of is England/Germany matches or even England/Turkey matches 
after last year's fiasco.  I am not defending the English hooligans, 
but it is a very small minority.  These people aren't even football 
fans - they just go along to incite.  It's a universal problem, but 
other nations seem to deal with it much better than we do.  The 
German government, for instance, had a very organised way of 
preventing their known troublemakers from attending the last World 
Cup.

Anyway, to the point...
Gazza is the nickname of Paul Gascoigne.  He is a Geordie footballer, 
who has had a very controversial international career, and is 
probably more famous for his personal life than his football skills.  
His first major tournament (IIRC) was the 1990 world cup in Italy, in 
which he got two yellow cards which disqualified him from the next 
game.  He famously started crying on the pitch, and had to be 
comforted by our beloved Gary Linaker, who hadn't retired and joined 
the BBC at this point.

His personal life has helped bring his fitness to play into 
question.  He was dropped from the last World Cup squad because, 
under the influence of the likes of Chris Evans (Virgin Radio DJ and 
owner) he was drinking and smoking to much, often with his friend "5 
Bellies" or whatever.  During this period he was also married and 
divorced.  His ex-wife took to appearing in the tabloids with a badly 
beaten up face, alleging wife beating etc.

Believe it or not, he is (or was) a very good football player - he 
just did not have the discipline to match the skill.

All in all, not a very pleasant person (IMHO), but all the other male 
English people on the list may disagree with me!

Catherine