With the World Cup about to start, women all over the country will find themselves relegated upstairs with a magazine, desperate to escape the goals, the send offs and the dives that will no doubt have their husbands leaping around the living room. In the past years, chances were that said magazine she has escaped with would have had have pages upon pages dedicated to the wives of those playing in the matches. Whether it was who had dinner where, who is worth the most or perhaps most important of all, who was wearing what, each moment of the WAGs’ lives while their respective partners were playing were documented. However, this year Fabio Capello has banned them from attending the World Cup this year, informing them that they will be able to see their husbands and boyfriends once a week, to fly out for games and see them after. This comes after the shocking actions of the women during the 2006 World Cup in Germany. The FA paid for them to fly out and were forced to watch as they got into arguments in clubs, and drunk and shopped for the entire time. And it is a reasonable statement to say that their antics well may have overshadowed the events happening on the pitch; as they notoriously stayed in a club until 4am and drank £2,000-worth of champagne. During the trip the Wags were treated to a lavish banquet at a 12th century German castle by then England manager Sven-Goran Eriksson’s lover Nancy Dell’Olio. Included were Coleen McLoughlin, Elen Rives, and Alex Curran. They consumed 19 bottles of champagne, costing £3,000. So perhaps this year, with the focus away from ‘hooligans with visas’ as the WAGs were dubbed in 2006, the media will be able to return to what is really important about the World Cup; the football. And maybe with the country’s support behind them, we stand a chance of doing a lot better.
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