I was SO excited about the World Cup last week, and really enjoyed the SA and England games (apart from that result!) … but otherwise it’s all been a bit dull really. France v Uruguay was dire, NZ v. Slovakia was dreadful and as for the hotly anticipated Portugal v. Ivory Coast ….. pah. What a let down.

So what’s it all about? Why is the world’s most exciting football tournament so blinking boring? Is it problems with playing at altitude, or the new balls, as many of the pundits have said?

I reckon it’s those vuvuzelas myself. The constant buzz, like a swarm of wasps ready to attack, did annoy me at first but I’ve started filtering it out now. Trouble is, while the vuvuzelas create an atmosphere of sorts, it’s just not a FOOTBALL atmosphere. We need singing and chanting and cheering and booing to make the game come alive. So I reckon that the games are probably not that bad actually – it’s just that we can’t hear the reactions of the crowd over the sound of the vuvuzelas, so it feels like there’s no atmosphere at all, and that makes the games feel very flat.

That’s my theory, anyway. Or maybe it really has just been the dullest show on earth so far.