Sky thought it fit to apologise for the 'stereotyping' of 'Latin' football in its coverage. If the apology were needed, it should have been left to Souness to present it. This kind of public disowning/humiliation doesn't sit well with me at all.

I consider myself 'Latin', with some reason: a good part of my family comes from Marseille. French football is essentially 'Latin' football, regardless of where our players' parents/grandparents came from - i.e. everywhere. This is our culture, which we claim, and are proud of.

So a Scotchman thinks we Latins have a propensity to be 'cute'? I don't have a problem with that. It's just the way he describes how his own football culture perceives our own. Our own perception of the 'British' game is just as prejudiced, believe me.

As I was telling @larssivertsen earlier on, this didn't prevent Jack Charlton from handling the ball on his goal line as sneakily as he could (not very well) in England's win over Portugal in the 1966 World Cup.

Neither did it prevent Nobby Stiles from committing one of the worst fouls in WC history when he broke Jacques Simon's leg in a crucial group game. England carried on playing and scored. That's shithousery on a different level. The 'manly' game can be also the most hypocritical.

But the point is - we think we live in a world where footballing cultures have somehow blended into a single, global perception of what is 'right' and 'wrong' for the game, and, therefore, we can call out the people who step beyond the lines we've imagined. This isn't the case.

I'm glad it isn't. Souness's view of Latin sneakiness may be tainted and clumsily expressed, but it isn't false in essentia. It has a historical and cultural grounding which we should not brush away because it affects our sensitivities. Whose, btw? Not mine. And I'm a 'Latin'.

Challenge him? By all means. Discuss what constitutes 'cheating' in various cultures? By all means too. A fascinating subject. But this kind of sanctimonious, and perfunctory, 'apology'? No, not for me.