Portsmouth FC's manager, Harry Redknapp, has blamed England's current ineptitude at The Beautiful Game on the Xbox.

In his column for (wait for it!) The Sun, Redknapp moans, "It may sound old and corny but when I was growing up, working class lads like me in the East End lived and breathed football. Now I rarely see a kickabout in the park. All I see are the dazzling lights of bedroom windows from the glare of TVs and computers. It seems football cannot compete with an Xbox."

We're sure he means games machines in general, and not just the Xbox. Or the 360, at the very least.

Redknapp is being hard done by, he reckons. "I'm fed up with managers being made scapegoats for the state of our domestic game", he whinges. "The English working class is turning its back on football - and that is not my fault."

No, Harry, it's Nick Bloody Hornby's fault.

Harry continues, "I do have a lot of foreign players at Portsmouth but believe me I'd love nothing more than to field a team of 11 so-called 'home-grown' lads born within the city limits. But it has become harder and harder to find enough kids of the kind of quality required to make the grade without buying an air ticket".

Of course! They don't have Xboxes outside Portsmouth (and Southsea)... blimey a whole new market for Microsoft!

Redknapp's solution? Go where they can't afford games consoles! Africa, to be more specific. "Maybe they have the hunger and drive that working class boys of England had 30 years ago but now is replaced by video game passion", he said.

So, the fact that Top-Flight players have given their names to video games since, well at least 1988 (Peter Beardsley Soccer) doesn't come into it? It all smacks of rank hypocrisy to SPOnG.

SPOnG feels that its weekly five-a-side matches have benefited from the endless hours we've spent sitting around, drinking beer, farting and playing PES. Tactics, innit?

^{Source: ITV.com}