Well it can and has been in Euro 2008, as I found out first hand when I soaked up the atmosphere in Basel, Switzerland, last week for the second biggest football tournament in the world.

As England were not invited to the football festival, I decided to gatecrash the party, thanks to some free accommodation (courtesy of my older brother) and some cheap flights, to go over for two quarter-finals.

For a year my brother and I had a fruitless search for tickets for either quarter-final but managed to pick up tickets for the Portugal versus Germany off the first person who stopped us outside the ground, 15 minutes before kick off, for less than the official price.

Inside the ground, as well as the superb match we saw, I was struck by how such a fantastic atmosphere was whipped up by both sets of fans who sat side-by-side in a manner I have never seen in an English ground.

At no point did their enthusiasm spill over into any provocation or any hint of violence, which I fear would have been the case if a certain minority of the followers of our countrymen had been put in the same situation.

I thought it may have been partly due to no alcohol being available in the ground but 48 hours later, the lager was flowing all day as an estimated 150,000 Dutch supporters flocked to Basel, which only has a population of 165,000, for Holland's game against Russia.

Draped in orange they brought the city to a standstill and despite their all-day drinking there was never a sniff of any trouble. Even when their side lost, the Orange Army made their way back to their tents with no hint of retribution towards the victors or the host city. Would all our fans have behaved so well?

England may have missed the Euro 2008 but I wonder if they've missed us.