Willkommen, recepción, benvenuto, boa vinda, welkom...

Whatever language is yours, whoever you support, welcome to our adventures in football. For 24 years I have been travelling to World Cups and European Championships in the often vain hope that the England football team may actually win something. We’ve won nothing and lost plenty in that time. But at long last, we have started to win some friends and hopefully this new spirit of togetherness will continue to grow this year in Germany.

In my experience, football tournaments are less about the actual match itself - after all we all have our own memories and pretty much everyone watches the game live - rather it is more about the sights, sounds and the smells of the whole experience. More than this, though, it is about the friendship and camaraderie between fellow supporters, the Toms, the Dicks and the Harrys and their equivalents throughout the world.

Without doubt football is the international language. Everywhere you go people love to watch, play and above all talk football. For the next month or so, forget your woes, the mortgage, your career, the CCTVs, and join us on the summer holiday without frontiers, the ultimate great escape. It’s the World Cup, and not one of us can wait for it to start. Come on England, come on football. Jules Rimet awaits the bold, and for the winners, nothing will ever be the same again...