FOOTBALL doesn’t matter. Not really. Deep down we all know that.

We live in an age when it’s not safe for kids to go to a concert without some lowlife coward blowing them up and so, because of that and all the other awfulness in the world, losing sleep over some team whose defending has gone awry is not only daft but a complete waste of time and energy.

That’s not to say watching grown men kick a pigskin around a field isn’t a joy. It is working class theatre at its best and the vast majority who go to games are good folk. Indeed, as my dad once told me rather sternly; ‘never trust a man who doesn’t drink or like football.’ Wise words.

I love football, always have and always will. It helps pay the bills, which even after doing the job for a thousand years never fails to amaze me. I’ll get found out one day. That is coming soon. I feel it in my water.

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It’s also the best sport in the world to play, even badly, and certainly to watch. Nothing beats it for drama and unpredictability.

Woody Allen once said that when he dies he wants to be reincarnated as Warren Beatty’s fingers. When my times comes I want to come back as the last-minute cup final goalscorer. That would do me.

The beautiful game can bring out the worst in people. You only have to be there when Celtic and Rangers meet. The behaviour by some is utterly unacceptable, as are those apologists who refuse to condone the more moronic in our society because they wear the same colour of scarf.

But they are the minority. The what I would call real football fans I know are funnier than most, good company and can tend to be a bit dreamy about life. My kind of people.

The reasons I love football is the Scottish Cup Final. I can just about remember Kenny Dalglish winning the European Cup with Liverpool and the World Cup that summer, it was 1978 and I was five, but my first real footie memories begin with the 1980 Old Firm final which ended with some spirited high jinks on the pitch.

Then Aberdeen seemed to be in the final every year; the 4-1 win over Rangers remains a classic.

My pals and I would lap up the entire day, from the very start when it some kids show had a football theme right through Sportscene then Scotsport- they were never on at the same time – right up until the highlights of the FA Cup Final.

For reasons which now escape me, a pal and I were in the St Mirren end when they beat Dundee United 30 years ago in a football match so bad that had it could have got the game stopped.

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It was still a right laugh because we were Buddies for the day and our adopted team won.

Everyone bangs on about the Motherwell-Dundee United epic and no wonder. I was there and can confirm it was a wonderful day made all the more poignant now that so many of the winning squad are no longer with us.

And as a journalist, I’ve been to the Scottish Cup and FA Cup Finals. It still gets me going like no other occasion and I hope Saturday is a classic. I hope Aberdeen turn up this time and give Celtic a run for their money.

If they do, it could well be one of the great finals because these are two good teams playing well.

More than 50,000 people will cram in to Hampden Park. The pubs of Glasgow and Aberdeen will be bursting with ticket-less punters. It is going be a great day. I bet it’s sunny. It always is.

Despite the horrors of Manchester, the game will go ahead. Everyone who can go will be there. Extra police will be drafted in and security will be tightened but it will be as normal as it can be.

Parents will take their kids, it might even be a first for some of the younger ones, folk will lose their pals and their shape because their tenth can of the morning was spiked.

We will have the usual cheers, tears and the traditional booing of the referee even if he’s not had to make one decision anyone could be annoyed about. That’s simply how it’s always been.

Not even a sicking act of terror will stop us all going to the football. It has been said many times that big matches could be the next thing to be targeted, something which won’t be far from many peoples’ thoughts on their way to Mount Florida, but these scumbags need to be shown that things will go on as they always have.

That’s real winning. It’s far more important that picking up a trophy.

Football is just a sport. It does take up too much of our time and money. It is silly. But we need it more than ever, don’t you think.