MY 50 YEAR WAR WITH FOOTBALL: HALF A CENTURY OF SOCCER LOVE/HATE

Watching this summer’s European Championships managed to rekindle acutely my festering love/hate problem with association football, or, to give it its English diminutive, soccer.

I’ve lived in England for 44 years and I’ve admired football in many ways: indeed, when I was sports editor at the television news agency UPITN I spent an inordinate amount of time covering the sport and editing match highlights into 1:15 news clips. This never was enough to convert me into a total fan, and certainly not an England supporter.