Football is not the only spectator sport I have been absorbed in over the last couple of days.

Just as entertaining as a breathtaking tackle, a nail-biting penalty shoot-out or a cat-like save, is the high jinks of our boys in France.

Not the footballers - but the "fans", whose predictable antics I have been following with a perverse curiosity.

Were they not a national disgrace, their Neanderthal conduct in Marseille would be amusing to watch - in a chimpanzee tea-party sort of way.

England fans - that small minority of them, at least, for whom the football itself is little more than an irrelevance - can always be relied upon to give their rivals a good kicking before the real teams have even kicked off.

After a riotous 90 minutes, if neither set of fans has scored enough direct hits, there is time to gulp down a few stamina-replenishing pints of beer before a punishing half-hour or so of extra time.

Here, the only tackle in sight is typically that belonging to a glassy-eyed England supporter wearing little more than a silly grin as he shuffles along with his trousers round his ankles.

At the end of extra time, signs of strain typically begin to creep on to every young face.

Tired and emotional from their exertions, the withering fans are only too well aware of what comes next - the tear-gas shoot-out.

In this scenario, riot police and fans take it in turns to blast each other, one lot with streaming tear-gas canisters, the other lot with bricks and stones.

The winner is the set who don't end up in police cells.

Contrast this with Jamaica's happy-go-lucky supporters. Despite losing 3-1 to Croatia yesterday, the all-singing, all-dancing Reggae Boys' fan club were in - as opposed to consuming - high spirits throughout.

The permanently party-going Jamaicans are so laid-back that it would be entertaining to witness a boozed-up England fan attempting to provoke them.

In the event of England and Jamaica coming head-to-head in the second round, our supporters will no doubt do the honours with a selection of their favourite acts of pre-match disruption. But I doubt if the chilled-out Reggae Boys' fans would even notice.

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.