Watching bits of the Nederlands – Ivory Coast match on Friday I was surprised at a number of shots of the Dutch fans wearing their underwear. Not thinking too much of it (except I bet some of their mothers had something to say about always wearing good underwear because you never know when you are going to appear on TV) I put it down to same kind of motive as the fans who paint their faces.

Now I find that this was all part of policing commercial sponsorship. A lot (not sure of the numbers) had turned up wearing orange lederhosen sporting the name of a Dutch brewery, Bavaria. In the name of protecting the Bud sponsorship, officials had ordered the fans to remove the trousers…or at least the men (what happened to equality!)