How lucky they are in Middlesborough to have a footballer like Gary Southgate.

Gary is unrecognisable as a footballer because he's a gentleman. Moreover, he is a rare example among those who play that savage game in that he can speak the English language intelligibly; whereas most of the Premiership players I've heard talk - sorry, grunt - can't string three words together without swearing and spitting. Whenever I see a TV close-up of a footballer in action I feel I want to tell him: "Remove that hideous scowl from your face or it will stay like that."

When Gary retires, he should be persuaded to become a Member of Parliament, for he spoke more truth last week than anybody who rose to his hind legs at any of the three party political conferences. He said: "As a parent, it's a massive concern to me that moral standards are disappearing. You can become famous by just appearing on a TV reality show and have no principles." We should be delighted to hear a footballer standing up for morality, especially now that the bishops have given up.

I'm afraid Gary will not be invited to spend his time off boozing himself silly in nightclubs and making a fool of himself with the groupies who make themselves available to our top players. For Gary disapproves of this animalistic behaviour. He goes on: "There's an attitude of, 'Well, as long as they perform on a Saturday, you have to ignore what they get up to in the week'. And if Arsene Wenger buys a player, it's rarely an Englishman. I suspect that, if you asked him, he'd say it's because he doesn't trust English players lifestyle-wise."

Gary has defined for us the rottenness which has destroyed the great game of football at the highest level. The spoilt idiots who rejoice in the worship accorded to Premiership players believe themselves above all normal standards of decency. The problem is that these players have the yob football culture and nothing else; and the problem is magnified by the vast amounts of money that are poured into their laps. The only lifestyle they know is self-indulgence and conspicuous consumption.

On the field they curse and swear and try to kick their opponents to death. But their behaviour off the field makes you weep. What do they do with their time off? They booze and they fornicate - and then they go shopping for designer clobber. When Rio Ferdinand failed to attend his routine drugs test, the excuse given was that he had gone shopping in Harvey Nichols. That's what they are, these pampered oafs, when they get off the pitch - just so many big girls' blouses.

It was truly said that cruelty and viciousness almost always go hand in hand with oozing sentimentality. You only had to watch the England-Turkey game to confirm the truth of this sickly combination. The savagery dished out to opponents was interlaced with the most cloying acts of "bonding" - kissing, cuddling and weeping - over their team-mates.

But leave the last word to Gary Southgate: "There is a fear in this country of standing up for what is morally right. People want to put down anyone who does that."

* Peter Mullen is Rector of St Michael's, Cornhill, in the City of London, and Chaplain to the Stock Exchange