Derek Lawrenson gives the Champions League Final some Sugar treatment

Sorry, Paul, but resistance was actually incredibly easy if you happened to be part of the sizeable, disenfranchised minority who regarded 'English soccer's biggest game since 1966 as the nightmare showpiece.

Manchester United versus Chelsea might represent a collision of the country's two most successful teams on current form. It also represented a meeting of arguably the two most despised.

Football, you're fired! Sir Alan Sugar

Coming from the north and therefore with no interest in United (I know, a cheap gag, but a good one), the whole point of watching their games is to cheer on the opposition.

But how could you do that when the other team is Chelsea? Who could stomach the thought of watching the loathsome Ashley Cole or the despicable Didier Drogba dancing around the pitch in celebration?

For all those London football fans who don't support Chelsea, swap the above scenario and substitute the names of Cristiano Ronaldo and Wayne Rooney.

Yes, I know Ronaldo is a sublime footballer when he bothers to stay on his feet. But who wants to watch someone so arrogant that he raises his arms pathetically to the heavens when the referee has the temerity to recognise his constant diving as just that? You wouldn't mind if that arrogance was founded on the fact he was well on his way to curing cancer. But because he's quite good at a stepover?

For me, the Champions League Final is unquestionably the highpoint of the football calendar. Nothing is normally allowed to get in the way of tuning in to the ultimate occasion in the club game.

But Manchester United versus Chelsea? Do me a favour. Who are you supposed to root for - the club founded on loadsahype or the one built on loadsamoney?

Personally, I was rooting for a 0-0 draw followed by a goalless penalty shoot-out that went on so long the referee called it all off and declared the result void.

Meanwhile, I bet the viewing audience for The Apprentice on BBC1 held up very well.