They were not drunk louts who'd arrived on a coach; they were among the Newcastle Jets' core supporters, a group known as The Squadron. And many have come out in support of their right as soccer fans to behave as they like after they've paid the entry fee. At 5pm yesterday the poll on The Herald's website was 72 in favour of their right to behave offensively and 55 against their offensive chants.

As I write in my column today, a great deal of the behaviour of soccer's fans and players can be fairly described as infantile. And that description covers, too, the histrionics, the melodrama and the diving of the players. This puerility is soccer's culture and it is a more pronounced difference between soccer and real football than the shape of the ball. At a Jets game your children are subject to the crowd chanting obscenities; at a Knights game your children will be respected as children and young Knights fans.

But why is this immaturity so rampant in soccer? Did the people of soccer become infantile

after they took up soccer or did they take up

soccer because they are infantile?