WAGs should have stayed at home

LONDON: They may be getting more publicity than their footballer husbands and boyfriends, but they are also getting more sneers and criticism than their celebrated better halves.

The wives and girlfriends of the England football team have swallowed up more newsprint in the English and European tabloids and magazines than their professional husbands, but not all of it is good. Some enthusiasts are insisting they should have stayed at home.

The WAGs, as they are now affectionately known, led by the queen bee Victoria Beckham, wife of England captain David Beckham, are ensconced in the small, picturesque town of Baden Baden in Germany for the duration of the World Cup, ostensibly to cheer on their spouses during the matches. But all appearances say otherwise. The real reason seems to be to participate in a daily fashion parade for the papparazzi, and to go for outrageously expensive shopping sprees in the daytime and guzzle down bottles of champagne in the evenings.

Sir Bobby Robson is the first to criticise the decision to allow the WAGs to go to Germany. “We’re going to war, you can’t fight a war worrying about your wife or child. For one month, kiss them goodbye,” said Sir Bobby. And most football pundits agree with him. The WAGs were famously pictured nearly two weeks ago arriving in the spa town with trollyloads of designer luggage, but it was obviously not enough to carry everything they needed judging by the daily trips to boutiques.

Coleen McLoughlin, Wayne Rooney’s fiance, flew 900 miles, back home to Liverpool a few days ago to change the colour of her hair extensions. Environmental groups have lambasted her polluting the atmosphere using up unnecessary ‘hair miles’. “Are there no hairdressers in Baden Baden that she has to make the short-haul trip which is the most polluting?” said a spokesperson for Friends of the Earth.

The bars and boutiques of Baden Baden may be happy with their unquenchable thirst for shopping and champagne, but sports pundits have likened their antics to a rowdy hen night, which is creating a bad image for England.

“It’s more like a hen night the way they behave — a military style operation where everyone has to drink themselves under the table,” said football writer Markus Hesselmann.

German football players have wives and girlfriends too, but they are not getting the same exposure even in the German press.

“The English wives are more interesting and their escapades are good for our business,” said an editor of the German magazine Bunte.

Brenner’s Park Hotel, where the WAGs are staying with a contingent of family and friends has been nicknamed ‘Little Liverpool’, and they are never seen leaving it unless it to shop or watch England matches.

“I don’t understand why they don’t visit the two amazing art museums we have here,” said Edith Kopf, news editor of the local paper. “We have such great contemporary art. But maybe they just aren’t that kind of women.”