Football, of course, has always provoked argument and discussion all over the world. It's one of the many things that makes it so special.

But in England, there's a long, embarrassing tradition of unbelievable hypocrisy which Peter Shilton is partaking in this morning.

In England, we treat flying elbows and seeking to maim the opponent as "commitment" and "getting a foot in". We have a tabloid press which is considered the nastiest anywhere in the world. Our club game is the epitome of Greed Is Good.

Yet what happens? Up pops old man Shilton to whine about Maradona's "lack of sportsmanship" when his body's not even cold yet.

'Lack of sportsmanship'... about a quarter-final in which England offered literally nothing whatsoever until two goals down.

'Lack of sportsmanship' - about a game in which the referee's first serious mistake was not to send Terry Fenwick off for elbowing Maradona.

'Lack of sportsmanship' - about a match in which England's yeomen, unable to compete with Maradona, tried to kick him off the pitch.

This very same neo-colonial one-eyed nonsense is why the whole of the English media treated Luis Suarez' handball v Ghana as some affront to the whole world - flags practically at half mast in mourning - when in 1966, Jack Charlton had done exactly the same thing.

In the semi-final against Portugal, Big Jack handled on the line to prevent a goal. No sendings off back then, no bookings for it either. Just a penalty, which Portugal converted. He went on to become a national hero in two separate countries.

Suarez' handball followed:

- An utterly absurd free kick, given for a Ghanaian dive with the Uruguayan defender yards away

- Not one, but TWO Ghanaians offside in the move leading to the handball

- A terribly officiated game, with Ghana indulged in horribly over-physical play

Strangely, none of the media noticed any of this. And why? Because it was *only* Uruguay. And besides: Argentina and Uruguay are slimy scheming Macchiavellian cheats, whereas the African sides "play with joy in their eyes" and are "just happy to be here" - right?

See also: the same idiotic, xenophobic media always treating Italy as the masters of defence, corruption and cynicism, regardless of reality; always claiming Brazil "play with 11 attackers" when they've not done so since 1986; and hailing Holland for "total football" too.

No Dutch side has played anything resembling total football since 1998... but what does any of that matter when set against ridiculous cliches and stereotypes? Get a reputation as an early riser, and you can stay in bed til noon.

Thus the violent progress of maybe the most thuggish side I've ever seen at any World Cup - Holland 2010 - was actively *celebrated* by these idiots... who only woke up to what they were doing when they met another European side in the final.

Thus an entire generation of English players were disdained as 'mercenaries' who 'didn't want it enough' when their insanely overpaid managers couldn't be bothered to send them out in even halfway sensible formations. "FOUR-FOUR-TWO! LET'S 'AVE IT!"

Thus Spain's dominance between 2008 and 2012 was viewed as 'boring'... while Germany's counterattacking in 2010 was lauded. Npne of these idiots even noticed that Germany fed off two of the most tactically clueless opponents ever seen at any World Cup.

English football has, forever and a day, been full to the brim of piety, moralising, hypocrisy, anti-intellectualism and out and out nonsense. From its journalists too: who assumed en masse that England would've won the first three World Cups had we bothered to enter them.

This very same strain of thought lauds Roy Keane, a thug, for "calling it as he sees it" - while ridiculing Graeme Le Saux for having read The Guardian, disdaining Michael Carrick for "sideways passes" and thinking Alan Shearer ever had anything interesting to say at all.

To say nothing of picking Gerrard and Lampard together again and again and again and again; playing Paul Scholes on the fucking left wing and wasting geniuses like Glenn Hoddle or Chris Waddle altogether.

In Argentina, do you know what they refer to the England football team as? "The idiots". The passionate central defender charges passionately into midfield and is passionately pulled out of position by his ruthless, clinical, dispassionate opponent.

Of course, it's changing now, bit by bit. Thank God for the likes of Jurgen Klopp, Pep Guardiola and in his own limited way, Gareth Southgate. Not for them the laughably clueless "these fuzzy-wuzzies don't like it up 'em!" approach of the past. These are serious, cerebral people.

But Shilton? Mr Brexit himself is from a different era. Great goalkeeper, one of the very best - but he's from a time when English football sneered at foreigners and celebrated its less than splendid isolation.

And boy oh boy, does it show.

FAO Shilts: we all know you'll feel humiliated for the rest of your life that you were out-jumped by someone 20cm shorter than you. Stop blaming others and just own it, for pity's sake.

He may have been shorter than you... but my oh my, was he the much, much, MUCH bigger man.