Mark Daniels: Can they do it?

It's no secret amongst my customers, friends or family that I have very little time whatsoever for football.

I don't understand the tribal religion we, as a nation, seem to put in to it and I can't fathom out why politicians fervently pray for a good result because they think it'll actually make them look good. Not to mention everyone seems to think it'll do wonders for the economic mess that good old Gordon and Alastair left behind, too.

Whenever I watch football all I see are a bunch of guys running around and Didier Drogba lying on the floor wrything around as if he's been shot, all because somebody ran passed ten feet away and looked at him. And don't ask me about the offside rule; I must be the only male on the planet who doesn't understand it...

When Wayne Rooney appears on the screen my ten-year-old son practically swoons, while I spend most of my time surfing the web for pictures of Peter Crouch's missus.

But there's no denying that football, especially major tournaments like the one kicking off this weekend, are good for the pub trade. In 2008 it was estimated the industry lost in the region of one billion pounds because England failed to make it in to the tournament.

And this is something of a worry for me. Already the nation is in a state of fevered excitement and my customers have been coming in for days now to make sure I've got a telly set up in both bars and that this time, unlike 2006, both TVs will broadcast simultaneously, rather than the two second delay that was caused by one being on a standard terrestrial broadcast while the other received a digital freeview signal.

(Gosh, that provided me with hours of entertainment.)

But if England weren't good enough to make it in to the Euro2008 tournament, do we really want to be building our hopes up for this month's World Cup?

Well, yes, I suppose so, because after forty-four years it's about bloody time that we got our act together and went out there to win. For two years now we've had a British Formula One world champion and the England cricket squad did well in the 20/20 last month. The signs are good: surely our football team should be able to do well too?

I'm hoping so, because the last time my business had a truly good summer was 2006. England were defeated in the quarter finals by Portugal on penalties and the most defining moment of the whole tournament was Zinedine Zidane's ignominious end to his international career as he headbutted Marco Materazzi in the final.

But business was good that year. Very good, and I'd like to see it like that again after four years of waiting.

Of course, in 2006 customers were allowed to smoke, tax was high but not as high as it is now, the war with the supermarkets hadn't fully got under way and the weather was very, very good.

I look back on it fondly because it all conspired to make for a cracking summer but, four years down the line, the smokers have been ousted, tax has gone mental, the supermarket offers have become certifiable, pubs are no longer allowed to do promotions around sporting events and the weather in 2007, 2008 and 2009 could pretty much be described as a wash-out.

I might be less inclined to giggle like a girl than my children - and most of my customers - do when Jermain Defoe smiles at the camera, but this year I'll be putting all of my support behind the England squad like I've never done before.

And I'll be praying that football - and the weather - does, finally, come home.