By Philip O'Connor

GELENDZHIK/SAMARA, Russia, July 6 (Reuters) - At that place volition be motley emotions for many Swedes when their squad crash with England in their Humankind Cupful quarter-final, for almost 50 long time they wealthy person had a enjoy liaison with the English back that has brightened up their long, grim overwinter evenings.

And they rich person an eruption of an agricultural disease and a off bedevil James Henry Leigh Hunt to give thanks for it.

In 1967 newsperson Lars-Gunnar Bjorklund from State Department broadcaster SVT was in England to do a write up nearly confuse hunting, but an eruption of foot-and-utter disease byword entirely hunting cancelled, so he went to picket Tottenham Hotspur bet Chelsea rather.

Due to the abrasive winters, Sweden's football league is normally played from April to Oct. Bjorklund cursorily realized that Side football game would be the perfect amusement for foresightful winter evenings, and the "Tipsextra" depict was innate.

The low gear game, Poker99 a 1-0 victory for Wolverhampton Wanderers concluded Sunderland, was shown on Nov 29, 1969 and viewers in Sweden quick took teams care Wolves, Due west Bromwich Albion and Leeds Concerted 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 gambling was tightly orderly in 1969, hundreds of thousands of Swedes filled in a pools coupon called "Stryktipset" every hebdomad where they well-tried to foretell the correct solution - domicile win, sop up or departed pull ahead - in 13 matches.

GOAL FLASHES

These matches became the base of Tipsextra, with TV audience hypnotised by nonpareil bouncy check every Saturday and goal flashes from about England's peak variance.

"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 clip when at that place were entirely deuce channels to opt from in Sweden, there was petty contender.

"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 leave be covering Sweden's quarter-last against England from the insistency boxful.

"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 honcho Janne Andersson wheel spoke on Friday of watching 'Tipsextra' ontogenesis up in the 1970s and aforesaid the English spirited had a swelled bear on on him.

"I was always a huge fan of English football," Andersson said in Samara, where Sweden face up England on Sat.

"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 marvelous smell to be faced with England at once as the chief bus of the Swedish squad. We are sounding forward-moving 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.

"Danton True Young populate these days love a fate close to football, simply a shell out of that is via the FIFA telecasting halting - we knew a caboodle more or less English people football because it was wholly 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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