France captain Patrice Evra has already blamed the noise generated by the vuvuzelas, which has been likened to the drone of thousands of bees, for his side’s poor showing in their opening group game against Uruguay, which finished goalless.

He said: “We can’t sleep at night because of the vuvuzelas. People start playing them from 6am.”

It certainly didn’t affect England, though. They played as crappily, throughout, as they usually do, with wonderful displays of possession, most of which might as well have terminated in a back pass to the keeper – as they often did!