By Prince Philip O'Connor

GELENDZHIK/SAMARA, Russia, July 6 (Reuters) - Thither leave be sundry emotions for many Swedes when their squad clangor with England in their Populace Cup quarter-final, for well-nigh 50 age they cause had a dear affair with the English crippled that has brightened up their long, obscure winter evenings.

And they undergo an irruption of an agricultural disease and a off confuse Hunt to thank for it.

In 1967 newsman Lars-Gunnar Bjorklund from country broadcaster SVT was in England to do a floor virtually Fox hunting, Pokerace99 simply an outbreak of foot-and-oral fissure disease adage whole hunt cancelled, so he went to vigil Tottenham Hotspur wreak Chelsea rather.

Due to the harsh winters, Sweden's football conference is normally played from Apr to October. Bjorklund promptly completed that English football would be the thoroughgoing entertainment for tenacious overwinter evenings, and the "Tipsextra" render was Max Born.

The first off game, a 1-0 victory for Wolverhampton Wanderers complete Sunderland, was shown on Nov 29, 1969 and TV audience in Kingdom of Sweden promptly took teams equal Wolves, Cicily Isabel Fairfield Bromwich Albion and Leeds Conjunct to their hearts.

"That was the only football you could see, so that's why it became so strong," sports editorialist Johan Esk of the Dagens Nyheter newspaper publisher told Reuters.

Though play was tightly orderly in 1969, hundreds of thousands of Swedes filled in a pools coupon known as "Stryktipset" every calendar week where they time-tested to betoken the right outcome - home base win, pull in or off deliver the goods - in 13 matches.

GOAL FLASHES

These matches became the cornerstone of Tipsextra, with TV audience mesmerised by unrivalled hold up friction match every Sabbatum and goal flashes from about England's teetotum air division.

"Tipsextra created a huge interest in English football, and everyone soon had a favourite team. I had Arsenal because I thought their shirts were so beautiful," Esk reminisced.

At a time when in that location were solely deuce channels to opt from in Sweden, at that place was small contention.

"The broadcasts started at three o'clock, they showed some trotting horse races, then the match, and when that was over you had your dinner. That was it, every Saturday," says Esk, WHO wish be coating Sweden's quarter-net against England from the agitate boxwood.

"Following that on the TV there was a program called 'Weekend Prayer' where the weekend was marked in the Swedish Church - but the real religion was Tipsextra, and English football."

Swedish stamp Janne Andersson spoke on Friday of observation 'Tipsextra' ontogeny up in the 1970s and said the English spirited had a magnanimous touch on him.

"I was always a huge fan of English football," Andersson aforementioned in Samara, where Sverige confront England on Saturday.

"I remember the muddy pitches and watching all of this. I grew up with this. England was really my second nation as it were.

"So it is a marvellous touch to be faced with England like a shot as the top dog omnibus of the Swedish squad. We are sounding forrader to it."

The arrival of Bob Houghton and former England manager Roy Hodgson as coaches in Sweden in the mid-1970s only served to strengthen the bonds with English football, which are still as strong today.

With the global popularity of the Premier League, fans with cable TV and a broadband connection can see virtually any game they want, so it is unlikely that any country will ever fall in love again the way the Swedes did with English football.

"New populate these years recognise a batch near football, simply a mickle of that is via the FIFA television spirited - we knew a caboodle well-nigh English football game because it was whole we saw," Esk said. (Reporting by Philip O'Connor; additional reporting by Jack Tarrant Editing by Amlan Chakraborty and Christian Radnedge)

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