So hang me for treason...

...but I'm kinda glad England lost last night and don't now qualify for Euro 2008.  Glad because, amongst other things, it'll mean (or at least should mean) that we're spared all the jingoism, flag-waving, so-called patriotism that we get EVERY FLIPPING TIME the football team qualifies for a tournament.

I'm also glad because hopefully, surely now the FA will have to look at the whole set-up, top to bottom, and actually do something to earn the unfeasibly large amounts of cash they receive.  The whole thing about imposing quotas on foreign players is a smokescreen, just put up so there's another scapegoat for failure to qualify.   Hopefully people will see past it.

You need to question why such immoral amounts of money are being paid for and to English/British players first before you start looking at the foreign imports.  If someone becomes a millionaire aged 20/21, by and large on the basis of the fortune of their nationality, hardly too surprising if they lose motivation.

Heard a few interesting theories.  We've got a plumber working at our house today and one of his suggestions was to pay players a basic wage, say £10k a week (it's outrageous but just go with me for now).  For a striker, you say you only get to keep that money if you score.  Go 3-4 games without a goal and I take 25% of your salary back.  For a 'keeper, it's based on clean sheets.  Concede goals, you lose money.

Of course, as with a quota system, it's pie in the sky and most probably illegal.

The other idea I like is one put forward, I think, by Danny Baker years ago.  It was simply this:  players get paid, in cash (obviously deduct all their taxes etc, not talking that kind of cash payment!) after each match.  But here's the catch: they have to go on the pitch and collect their wages in front of their paymasters - the fans.  Would be interesting to see how many of them had the brass neck to go and pick up £100k per week for being average when 50,000 pairs of eyes are trained on them...