29 JUNE 2002, Page 33

From Mr William Macke* ,

Sir: After a fortnight in Japan and South Korea, I can confirm that the female love affair with football described by Tania Kindersley is not restricted to Britain. Outside the South Korean team's hotel in Daej eon, several hundred diminutive teenagers screamed every time a curtain twitched. They were restrained by ranks of tough-looking, body-armoured riot police. It was redolent of Beatlemania.

My favourite sight, to be relished in both countries, was of numerous pretty, demure, Italy-supporting Asian babes in Azzurri shirts, which bore one word: 'Toni'. Confusingly, a number of men were clad likewise.

William Mackesy

Bledington, Oxfordshire