For a good number of years now I have been loosely named as coach/manager of the Parliamentary football team.

It all started way back when I was managing Northern Ireland and Craig Brown was managing Scotland.

We both managed teams of MPs from Westminster, England v Scotland, on West Ham's ground at the end of a season.

They hired a bagpiper to march up and down the corridor, which helped me make my team realise the importance of the fixture.

Whether it was because we scraped a win or not, but a few weeks later I was told they had decided to become a bit more organised and play more games to raise money for charities, and would I help out?

I really enjoyed the association, even when I was told we were to play the Marquis of Queensbury XI who, rather than being a group of toffs, turned out to be customers of a pub in Norwich!

However, generally it is an opportunity for the MPs to relive their youth and run off a bit of steam before all the hot air in the chamber.

The team is often subsidised with assistants who work in Westminster and I have been interested watching how in the last six or seven years some of the younger players have now become ministers.

The problem is, of course, they become so busy they can't find the time to play any more.

Inevitably in this modern age, when critical stories sell more papers than the good stuff, problems are never too far away.

This particular trip to Germany for instance has already been the subject of a front page headline last Sunday with many inaccuracies, such as naming ministers who were never going to be on the trip anyway.

But the biggest criticism is that the tickets for the first England game were obtained through the team's connection with McDonald's.

To start with, every MP along with the rest of us always pay for flights, hotels etc.

And while McDonald's may not be everybody's idea of a good meal, I know the work they have done in the last few years helping to encourage normal' people to become coaches at the basic level. Recently they celebrated their 10,000th coach.

Sir Geoff Hurst and Eric Harrison, the ex-Manchester United youth coach, along with Kenny Dalglish and Pat Jennings, organise coaching sessions all round Britain.

The best case I heard of was a lovely 71-year-old lady in Sheffield who, sick of seeing the many teenagers hanging around the street corners in her area, heard about the scheme.

She promptly went out one night and got 90 youths to agree to play football.

Two or three years on, she has organised a whole league.

Good work like this does not always get the same publicity.

In addition, McDonald's are one of the FA's main sponsors and, because of that, get a share of tickets for every occasion.

Sadly, the criticism received this week meant one or two pulled out of the trip.

However, the rest of us set off early Thursday morning, reporting to a packed No 2 terminal at Heathrow.

After all of the media build-up, everyone is now getting ready for the real stuff, and there was a definite buzz in the air as people queued for the planes.

There was a complete mixture with many England shirts dotted around the large plane.

When we landed in Frankfurt, we found the Germans have certainly entered into the spirit with flags, banners and huge cut-out figures of famous players all around the airport and on the outside walls massive murals of people like Ballack, Zidane etc.

No one could escape the good news that Wayne Rooney is able to take part, though I still remain slightly dubious.

The sprinting, jumping and striking the ball in training is all well and good but no one can tell me that his foot will not be brought to defenders' attention.

The team spirit has always been good under Sven and Rooney's presence can only enhance this.

Also, speaking to Kenny Dalglish about the gamble with young Theo Walcott, he could see a situation as all of us can with Walcott appearing at some stage against Trinidad & Tobago next Thursday or even starting in a 4-3-3 formation.

Let's hope everything goes according to plan.

I don't think the heat and conditions over here will affect our players as much as it will the MPs in their game against a German assembly team! Then, somewhat foolishly, an extra game has been organised for this morning against the press.

It will be interesting to see what angle the reports, if any, take on these games.

I wonder if, for instance, they mention that the MPs have raised £10,000 for each of two charities in the games that they will play on this trip.