Internstional football is brilliant from a suppoeters' perspective. I was living in the US during last year's world cup. I watched the first half of the tournament there. Pubs that would normally be full with Cubs and Sox fans were packed with football fans cheering on Landon Donavan. I've never seen Americans so united behind a cause before. After that, I went to the middle stages of the cup, and again there were real shows of powerful national spirit, something you won't usually see without aggression and hatred fueled by war.
I am also fortunate in that I am not invested emotionally in the world's two biggest tournaments. My national team can't qualify for the Euros and hasn't been good enough to get to World Cup. So I can enjoy football as a neutral, which is very liberating.