LITTLE BADGES - FOOTBALLS COMING HOME...IN A SUPERMARKET TROLLEY

www.thebiglittlebadgeco.com

Hi

The virtual kettle's on..... So while I let it boil I just have this to say

Apparently there is some kicky type football thing happening in South Africa. Lots of different teams from (not really all over the world) around the world are getting together to kick a pigs bladder around for 3 weeks.

And the whole nation is gripped by this....Erm well not so, when is the tennis on?

Having lived through quite a few of these World cups, and not seeing the best of results...I'm erm, less so.

I love to play football...or more likely I used to love playing football...But to watch it, well there's always a Top Gear on Dave I could be watching instead.

When I was a lad, you had your Umbro football boots, with interchangeable studs (always one worn down to the metal where you had walked for 5 miles on pavement to get to the local park, some naff "off the peg" training bottoms, t-shirt and jumper (jumper being the most important object of any football match) and an orange.....lolly for half time.

Only ever one person had the ball, and the game never started till they turned up, and finished when they had to go home. The pitch was marked out by "Jumpers for goalposts" and that was about it. The length and width of the pitch depended on where the stinging nettles were and the centre of the pitch was where ever you guessed it would be. The most important bit is...THERE WAS NO REFEREE. It worked on a mass collective. And there certainly was no 90 mins, or breaks. It would go on until the last player could stand no more or Greg took his ball home.

This was football...Long hot summers, jumpers for goalposts, cut grass with the whiff of dog muck hanging heavy in the air. Kids heads, noses, elbows and eyes bleeding from the beautiful games full contact approach...But we were happy!

The trouble with the world cup is...Well they have rules don't they.

The thing is, every 4 years is the same...We field a team mostly with recurring injuries, or injuries that are just about to be inflicted by a beefy German winger, and the team is always 1 or 2 men down by the end of the first game. We have certain players, that never really got to grips with anger management, and we are told that these players are not bully boy neanderthals but simply 'Passionate' for their team and country.

And we as a nation are passionate for it...Or so we are told. Like feeding time in a zoo we pack into badly constructed pubs with, even worse positioned tellies to cheer on, jeer on and jog on, anyone that manages to spill any beer over anyones naff slip on shoes.

And you have to wear the uniform...or you are looked at...really quite harshly sometimes. I remember going to a pub once with a yellow T-shirt on. The pub was in Clapham Junction...Proper pub, not a posh boys pub...and England were playing....Yep you guessed it, BRAZIL. Everyone else had there replica football strips on, St George flags wrapped around their shoulders, faces painted with war paint and huge non legal jugs of alcohol with a st Geroge's cross just for good measure.

I have never been so mauled, pushed, stared at, growled at, intimidated in the toilet and scared for my well being in all my life. My one mistake as a, so so ,well if it's on, England supporter, was to turn up to the party not wearing the right uniform. Probably did not help that I got confused and cheered a Brazillian goal either, but hey ho.

But I refuse to wear a football kit, in public, in a street and most definately not in a pub. For as a man of a certain amount of years, I am not what you would call BUFF. And as such find a football shirt very unflattering. But that does not seem to put off the other beer belly front lounge footie experts from turning out in...Sports wear.

Finally...I don't hold the optimism for England that I am supposed to and for that reason (people can just tell) I get shunned. I can't get excited about a lettuce in a supermarket wrapped in a plastic bag with a football design on it...I don't want a Ball-B-Q with a st. George's cross on it, I don't want deally boppers, I don't want flags for my car (I don't have one) I dont, want a beach towel, a tub of football twiglets (there still just twiglets) a well known chocolate bar which is normally black with a st. George's cross on.... I just dont want, bunting and frollie or inflatable balls hanging above me in a supermarket like something out of the Prisoner, I don't want Chelsea buns with a cross on them.......

.... I'm just happy to wear my badge to say football, nice to play....but to watch it is a branding excercise....

But for those of you who do want all the gear...Why not check out our alternative Footie badges in the Occasions section. Show your pride, button it down a little...and by little I mean...25mm :)

Oh Yes, and good luck England Vs America on Saturday.




Well, I can hear the kettle has just finished boiling so

Milk and sugar?

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