91Èȱ¬

The nature of this job is that, regardless of how well or badly you make the programmes, you are governed entirely by the contracts you have. So, this autumn, we'll have four of England's five remaining qualifiers (i.e, all the home games) live on 91Èȱ¬ ONE, and the fifth (away in Russia) in highlight form.

The following autumn, we won't have any of it, or certainly not the home games, since the will be underway by then. All competitive England home internationals will be live on ITV and will, I imagine, continue to be watched by large audiences on free-to-air television. However, home friendlies will be live on Setanta, so are unlikely to reach the 10m audience we had for .

For what it's worth, Friday's game was one of the better friendlies we've shown under this contract. Nowhere near as exciting as , but an OK watch, nevertheless. This is far from the best Brazil side in history and, between a long European season and the forthcoming , they were never in top gear, but England performed creditably. That said, the Estonia result is all that really matters this week.

I'm editing that show, and took a rare opportunity to escape from our outside broadcast vans on Friday. I watched the Brazil game from our studio, situated at the back of the controversial Club Wembley second-tier of the stadium. The first thing to say is that the ground is spectacular, but that second tier is certainly attracting a different breed of supporter from the old Wembley. In particular, the first 15 minutes or so of the second half became difficult to watch as people meandered in from the bars and hospitality areas, stood chatting, took photos and did more or less anything other than watch the match.

OK, so it was a friendly, but whereas you probably can turn up late after lunch at Wimbledon and still catch the end of the first set, this was England v Brazil, and the dawdling thousands were likely to miss the first international goal at the stadium, or Kaka or Ronaldinho doing something breathtaking. I wish they had, to be honest. Adrian Chiles has dubbed the second tier the "Ring of Indifference" and I can see what he means.

That said, on Sunday I went to see the feature film and was given a timely reminder of how England home matches were when I first came to London in the early 1980s. For those who haven't seen it, the film is set in that era and features an astonishing and chilling portrayal of a racist skinhead by the actor Stephen Graham. I think he may have based his performance on the guys who stood just behind me and my friends when .

That was supposedly a friendly, too. Karl-Heinz Rummenigge scored twice in a 2-1 German win but all I can really remember is the crowd backdrop of snarling far-right posturing and songs about various wars, not least the then recently-fought one in the Falklands. It was just horrible, and I think many sensible people stopped going to England matches at around that time. Football in this country has come long way since, through a combination of official steps like the , and self-policing - like the reclaiming of Wembley by the acceptable, painted face of patriotism at Euro 96.

So, while like many club fans I know I sometimes find myself bemoaning high ticket prices and the lack of passion found in certain sections of certain crowds, I wouldn't want to see a return to the footballing Dark Ages, either. There was even a round of applause for the Brazilian national anthem on Friday, and that has to be progress!