Great news - for me, that is.

[Joan]

I think I know that pub, Tarquin ... There were a few like that on the way to Murrayfield - all gone now, I expect.  I suppose the crowd's not allowed to walk down the middle of Corstorphine Road any more after the game - not sure whether they blocked the traffic or we all just did it and the traffic had to wait until people gradually dropped off at pubs on the way into town.

[Joan]

The atmosphere at football games here in Brisbane is pathetic. This is no fault of Suncorp stadium - an ideal venue, very much in the British mould, i.e. no athletics track around the pitch.

The problem is that football is still a "new" sport here, and people don't know how to react to it.

The equivalent of the Premier League here is Brisbane's "A" League club (Queensland Roar). They have "diehard" fans,  but the club has only been in existence for about 4 years, how diehard are you going to be with so little history?

What you get instead is a stadium at least half-filled with the Yuppie nouveau fan from the Fast Show, you know the guy.
Aussie nouveaus describe every free kick as a "penalty" and don't understand if you correct them, they also complain about the "umpire" and insist that headers are "head butts".

They also have no fear at all of getting their heads kicked in by rival fans, that's because it won't happen - at least not here in Queensland. So they stand up and caterwaul incessantly, shouting the most idiotic and unnecessary rubbish which in the UK would see them safely out early on a stretcher.

I had the great misfortune to sit in front of about six German girls at one game, who obviously were not football fans even in Germany, as they chattered loudly to each other throughout the whole game, one of them constantly tapping a set of those mini hand clappers on her thigh for the full ninety minutes.

I now no longer attend games unless I'm in the company of drunken football fans from the UK. They at least can be funny.

What do you expect from a nation whose most popular sport is cricket?  Possibly the most boring team sport ever invented.  (She  ducks as several cricket balls are bowled through cyberspace in her direction.)  It's like football in the UK - even if you're not a big fan here, it's in your psyche.  I'd rather watch a football match any day than a cricket one - especially a test series.

The crowds here for all sports, even Grand Finals, just don't produce the same atmosphere as in the UK.  And what's with having a "singer" sing the national anthems?  The crowd do a much better job.  You haven't lived until you've been in a stadium with Welsh supporters singing - not just the national anthem, but throughout the match.  Matthew Johns from the ARL Footy Show was on one of those 10 to 1 shows the other night and he said that being at the World Cup match between Australia and Japan was the most amazing experience of his life - topped all of the rugby league Grand Finals he'd been to or played in, or any other big matches (including cricket tests) he'd been at.

[Vulture]

The oddest 'match' I ever saw was in Toronto last year. It was a roller derby and before everything kicked-off (so to speak), there was utter silence while a woman sang, first the American anthem then the Canadian one. As most of the people I came in contact with supposedly hated the Americans and what they stood for, I was amazed at all the cheering that followed their anthem.