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My name is Stuart an d I hav e a problem Stuart Fuller from The Ball is Round confesses his problem to us all. I didn't realise I had a problem until I was confronted with it. The problem was storage. I had run out of room for my football socks. Come on admit it, we all have a few pairs don't we? Some people collect shirts, others collect programmes (I have a few of those myself) whereas some individuals I will not mention (Dagenham + Dan is a clue) have to keep their match tickets in pristine condition. Those things do nothing for me. To me, I express my love of the game with football socks. CMF says thi s is a " Syndrome". It is obsessive compulsive. Just because I like socks and never throw a pair away does not make me a bad person. I never complain about her collection of Marc Dorcel DVD's so why should she make me feel bad about my collection? After all I get enjoyment from wearing my socks (and yes I also don't mi nd sharing her "hobby" as well"). Sometime s we even swap items in our c ollections, but that is another story completely. It all started out of necessity. I went to a Wasps rugby game, that is how long ago it was - they didn't have the London bit in their name, despite the fact they played in London, as opposed to now where they are called London Wasps despite playing in Buckinghamshire. It was raining, my shoes had a hole in and my feet got very wet. I needed to get some new socks and so I went and bought a pair of rugby socks from the club shop. That was back in 1998 and I still have that pair of black and gold socks today. After that I was hooked. It was the comfort, the almost rebellious sign against the system. I wore purple Fiorentina socks on business meetings. When people said things like "nice socks" I would launch into the tale of who they belonged to and where I got them. I wore a pair of olive and chocolate Kappa Werder Bremen socks to a relative's wedding, going to great lengths to find a new pair of brown shoes that matched the socks. My collection has now reached an impressive 61 pairs from 52 different sides. I have four times as many football socks as I do proper work ones. They aren't any old pairs either. One rule has to be observed. You can only buy a pair from the ground or town/city of the club. So no cheating and buying socks online, or from a di scount sports shop. That would be cheating, and we all hate cheats in football. Never does a trip go by these days without being on the look our for a sports shop, or a visit to the ground to see if I can get a pair in. And who wouldn't. Some people may try and find a magic
