SHORT ESSAY: Overpaid, mollycoddled European stars getting their comeuppance.

It seems the camps reporting the most unrest behind the scenes and putting in the worst performances on the pitch come from the old, established 'super powers' of European football.

Players are kicking off because they've been taken out of their comfort zones, and shacked up in not quite luxurious enough hotels for a month. They think they're better players than the Algerians, New Zealanders or Mexicans of this world. Well, maybe they are more talented individuals, but they make pathetic team players, compared to the well-drilled units of the three teams mentioned above.

This tournament is giving Europe's big, rude boys a long overdue wake up call. Sure they're better paid players, but on the evidence of the tournament so far, the antics of the English, French and, to a lesser extent, the Italians are nothing short of disgraceful. Their squads deserve to earn nothing other than the wrath of their fans. In the six games these teams have played in this World Cup so far, they have registered precisely zero wins, and just three goals.

Utterly pathetic.

The big money bubble of European football surely has to burst before the next World Cup, if these are the kind of performances these so- called stars of the World game are churning out. They're clearly putting individual needs ahead of the team good. They're playing how they want to, not how their coaches or the rest of their team wants them to.

It's time to start refusing to pay over-inflated ticket prices to watch these over-inflated egos strutting their stuff for tens of thousands per week.

Let's get back to the days when playing football was barely more lucrative than getting a decent office job. At least we might get more players who're in it for the love of the game and not the love of the pay packets.