It's becoming carnival time in Germany says our roving reporter Hyder Jawad...

It looked like an England home match, except that England had nothing to do with it. It was Portugal versus Angola in Cologne on Sunday night but the England flags were, like the overpriced sandwiches, inescapable.

Germany is ostensibly hosting this World Cup but everything, right down to the bare-chested fans, is English. So far, I have seen spectators wearing West Bromwich Albion shirts and others holding Aston Villa banners. At the England-Paraguay match in Frankfurt, it would have felt like London had it not been so warm.

Everybody has a suntan and everybody wants a flag. Even Tony Blair has acquired a flag and that aroused amusement from his nemesis, George Galloway, who said: "I'm surprised at Tony Blair saying he was going to fly the St George's flag. I thought he would have been supporting America."

Apart from the Americans, not many people are supporting America. It seems that neutrals are either supporting England or are latching on to some of the smaller nations. That is why Angola had so many admirers in Cologne on Sunday.

Not many have actually travelled over to Germany from Africa. Those who have, help to turn these German cities into de facto carnivals. As the fans slowly take over these World Cups, so the football becomes more and more peripheral.

In every city hosting a match, there is a concert, a cultural event of some sort, plenty of drinking sessions and tonnes of food. Somewhere, lost amid the enthusiasm, is the football.

And the football has, alas, been rather erratic. The World Cup began well with that enthralling opening match between Germany and Costa Rica in Munich. But slowly, with England setting the agenda, the whole thing is turning into something of an anticlimax.

Some are blaming the heat but that excuse does not wash. It was hotter during USA 94 but that tournament had plenty of open, attacking football.

Some blame the intensity of the Western European season but that excuse, also, is weak. In 1974, when Germany also hosted the World Cup, half the German team won the their own league championship, then the European Cup, and then the World Cup.

Even in 2002, when Brazil won the World Cup in Yokohama, half of their players endured tough seasons in Europe, yet how many of their players complained?

The players of 2006 are trained to compete at such intensity for so long. That is why, deservedly, they are paid so much. Look at Steven Gerrard. His season began with Liverpool on July 13, 2005. If England reach the final and he plays, his season will end on July 9, 2006. And he will be the last to complain.

It appears that the heat is more difficult for the fans than for the players. The fans, some of whom are drunk, sit in their seats for up to three hours, sweating and baking in greenhouse conditions and usually unprepared for 30-degree heat.

The stadiums here are marvellous but they somehow keep the heat inside. And now somebody from Fifa, the game's world governing body, is asking for the stadium roofs to be closed to protect the players. But surely this will have the opposite effect, making it even hotter for players and fans.

Off the pitch, the tournament is working well. Every match will be a sell-out (yes, even the one between Tunisia and Saudi Arabia) and in the press box, more than half of the first-round matches are oversubscribed.

The waiting list for the Brazil-Croatia match in Berlin is longer than the list of journalists accepted for the match. That was the case for the England-Paraguay match, except that 251 journalists failed to turn up. Fifa does not like this. Fifa wants full stadiums and a full stadium includes a full press box.

At the Portugal-Angola match, I was rebuked by a stadium steward for inadvertently putting myself on to the television screens of more than eight million people. As Andy Townsend and Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink discussed the match from their comfort of their studio at the back of the stadium, I walked past at the wrong time. A good job my suntan is flourishing.

A good job, too, that my adrenalin is working. My plan is to attend 26 World Cup matches, which would, I am reliably informed, be an all-time record. It will mean a lot of sleepless nights, a lot of hours in trains, various hotel rooms and a lot of waiting around.

I ate like a pig in Japan and Korea four years ago and still lost a stone in weight. Then, I did 20 matches, including the final. This time, I intend to destroy my body in the pursuit that seems to matter at the moment: attending World Cup matches.

Everyone wants to attend World Cup matches. The black economy in tickets is more subtle here than in previous World Cups but it is still alive and well. During my train journey from Cologne to Gelsenkirchen yesterday morning, I saw one American with a one-inch thick wad of tickets.

The German organisers are trying to stamp out the black market. They are checking every ticket, every passport and making sure the name on the ticket corresponds to the name on the passport. The problem here is that it can take up to an hour to get into the stadium, in searing heat.

Ticketing will always go wrong in a World Cup. There will never be a perfect system. The reasons are obvious: too many people want to watch too few matches.

I see the need for a black market. It does provide a service. I was only able to attend the 1994 World Cup in Los Angeles because I bought a ticket from a tout. Everybody was happy. I got into the match, the tout made a profit, and the organisers had a stadium with no empty seats.

The 2006 World Cup will be the first in history to be completely sold out. But if the football does not improve quickly, the 2010 tournament in South Africa could be the start of diminishing interest.