"The Brazil football team also suffered a hiccup in the Copa Amarica final, didn't they?"<br/><br/>"It's funny how some politicians pretend to like football. Thinking of the last few Prime Ministers, Margaret Thatcher never claimed to like football. although she once mentioned Blackburn Rovers were her favourite club, while her successor John Major is a genuine Chelsea supporter, as well as a cricket fan.<br/><br/>This really came in with Tony Blair, who reminisced, trying to look like the common man, of watching Newcastle United players in his youth; unfortunately at least some of the players he mentioned had retired before he was born.  His successor, Gordon Brown, is a very keen supporter of the Scottish team Raith Rovers. The Conservative David Cameron claimed to support Aston Villa, but gave a speech where his speech writers had him talking about following West Ham United (well, they do wear the same colours as Aston Villa). Theresa May is a cricket fan, while Boris Johnson changed in a matter of weeks from saying he would not criticise anyone who booed the team for taking the knee, to wearing his England shirt in that rather odd way when the team were doing well."<br/><br/>Someone who was not a Prime Minister, but is worth mentioning is Peter Mandelson, who is a very metropolitan Londoner who was the MP for the distinctly non-metropolitan town of Hartlepool In the Napoleonic Wars, the unsophisticated people of Hartlepool hanged a monkey because they thought it was a spying Frenchman.  When asked what single item he would retrieve from his house if it was on fire, Mandelson replied his Hartlepool United scarf....Hmm"<br/><br/>"I doubt anybody ever really votes for a politician because they say they like football or support a team."<br/>