The silly season has well and truly arrived with the World Cup's opening shots just two weeks away. Stories in the British press of David Beckham eating Ostrich steaks to maintain his fitness ahead of the tournament are just the tip of the proverbial iceberg.

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With the attention of the world focused on this tournament for its sixty-three games in thirty days the football will naturally do most of the talking but there is always the capacity for the bizarre and this last two weeks of build up amplify the inane and insane.

So prepare yourself for scandals within the different squads over who controls the changing room stereo, who has been out of the team hotel to buy some paracetamol, which hotel employee stumbled across a player getting out of the shower and what type of breakfast cereal guarantees you World Cup victory.

At such a time, focus can understandably drift from who will win and how 'your' team will do, to other debatable issues: will the Germans call on their home fans to win their group and avoid the Rooney-less England? What will the results have to be for us to see the clash of South American giants Brazil and Argentina? Who will throw their toys out of their perambulator first France or the Netherlands? Which African team will finish the tournament without having a player sent off? Who will earn, in a wholly patronizing fashion, the epitaph 'plucky' inevitably followed by 'losers'?

Answers to questions like this and a range of others that will keep us going until D-day will have to wait. To add more fun to the waiting the opportunity to part with some hard earned can be found at PinnacleSports.com.

So while editors scratch around like Chanticleer in his yard fans twiddle their thumbs and weigh up the merits of calling in sick for the clash of Togo and South Korea. It is obvious such a move makes sense, but nothing replaces the joy and indulgence of the opening ten days of the World Cup.

Then we will be treated to examples of commentators consistently insulting certain players by failing to pronounce their names correctly, anchors bluffing their way through a post-match conversation of a game that warrants nothing more than the reflex action of finger to remote, and how an old pro cannot be convinced of the blatant elbow that should have cost his team victory.

In preparation for such heady days, the nifnaf and trivia will continue to rain down, but fellow fans hold on to the knowledge that the 9th June will be a wonderful release and football will reign.

By J. Simon Rofe,
Englandfans member since 1995, England fan since birth.