I enjoyed your post, as there were so many things I could relate to. Growing up in Bavaria, I had the same experience: Football mattered! Though the place was not typically working class (at least not like the Rhine-Ruhr area) as much as it was rural, if you happened to be one of those negligible few who could not get excited about footie matches, it would make you a punk. Eventually I stopped fighting it, and embraced my punk-ness. Though during the Euro- and World cup tournaments I found myself enjoying... not the games so much - I absolutely agree with you that they are punishingly dull - but the atmosphere around it. Right now, however, without a football crazy crowd around me, I barely noticed the championship, and had no idea England made it into the finals. Congrats, but it's bit surprising, isn't it?
The other thing that made me laugh is how people "hang their St. George's out of the window," as if it was their ass or something. I don't know how common the expression is, but I remember a bunch of travelers from the UK hanging out in a hostel in Mexico, who would remind each other "Hey, your St. George's showing!" when someone made a somewhat nationalistic or pro-English remark. Occasionally it was their "Union Jack", and in the case of this one guy from Scotland, his St. Andrew's, when he was going on about Scottish independence.
Well if yer a punk, better to be a punk!
But I'm with you I enjoy a good football tournament down the pub especially.
I personally don't get the flag waving thing of any sort!
Hehehehe, yeah it took me a while to discover how much of a punk I really am!