I AGREE with Christopher Wardell (HAS, Aug 25) that the Press do the nation no credit when they try to encourage anti-German feeling prior to meetings on the football field.

The booing of Angela Merkel and Gordon Brown at Wembley was disgraceful.

On a wider scale, football really has gone beyond the pale. The blatant and almost slavish worship of money shames what was once a really nice game and the FA are coconspirators who refuse to act to control the situation. They, of course, are quite happy to jump on the gravy train which sooner or later will go off the rails.

Sadly, especially in the Premier League, supporters are quite happy to confer god-like status on players who could not lace the boots of Matthews, Lawton and Mannion.

I will probably not be around to see the demise of football as a respected national game, but it is not too late for the FA to act to bring some sense and decency into football and they could start by capping the salaries of players who, let's be honest, are not worth a fraction of what they are paid.

Hugh Pender, Darlington.

ISN'T it a sorry state of affairs when the Football Association has to turn in desperation to Kasper Schmeichel, who is a Dane, in order to try and find a decent goalkeeper.

Because Kasper Schmeichel has lived in England for 16 years they think he might be willing to play for England. But no, he says he is a Dane through and through, just like his dad, the great Peter Schmeichel.

Both Paul Robinson and David James, England's two leading goalkeepers, have made errors recently so I suppose what other option does the FA have than to ask a foreign goalkeeper to play for England? There just isn't one decent goalkeeper who is English.

Maybe the Football Association ought to start a training scheme for English lads to become goalkeepers.

Margaret A Greenhalgh, Darlington.