So, correspondent Alistair-Paul Borg wants to educate Italian supporters on football.

Let us put matters in their proper perspective. Who gave him the idea that football was invented by the English? According to the history books football was invented in Italy, more exactly Florence in the early 17th century. It may be true that they did not always use a ball; sometimes the head of one of their victims. And what's more, rumour has it that when some of these victims apprehended that their head was to be used in lieu of the ball, they would rise up, tuck their head under their armpit and run off with it. Thus, history has it, that even rugby was invented in Italy!

The English invented the laws of the game, which is not the same as having invented the game. So it is with boxing, where the rules were written by an Englishman, the Marquess of Quensbury. But this does not mean boxing was invented in England. Most probably the first unofficial boxing fight was between Abel and Cain, who had a digression over the way the smoke from their sacrifices was going !

It is a pity the correspondent was not born in the 1930s. I am certain he would have added more than a valid contribution to the "pari passu" debate. Who knows, maybe the then coloniser would have made him a Sir, or a Knight of the Garter.

I would like to congratulate all Anglophiles, and all Italophiles, on the appointment of an Italian to manage England. It seems that, despite the fact that the previous England manager went to the Christmas party dressed up as a pumpkin, no spell will ever succeed in turning him into a coach!