Warning: watching football could be damaging to your health

FOOTBALL could be damaging to your health as new research suggests that avid football viewers are in increasing danger.

A Swiss study compared heart attack rates for the World Cup in 2002 and those from previous years. It revealed that heart attacks outside hospitals went up by almost 60% during the championships.

Though there is no concrete link yet between the tension and excitement of a football match and heart attacks, other studies back up the Swiss findings. The British Medical Journal last year found that heart attacks increased by 25% when England lost to Argentina in a penalty shoot-out during the 1998 World Cup.