The charm of the WAGs is wearing off

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Hamburg (dpa) - The Sun has named "pampering, shopping and posing" their job, but the charm of the Wives and Girlfriends (WAGs) of the England team seems to be wearing off rapidly.

Even worse, there is now a major backlash in the making, with Spanish daily ABC naming them "hooligans with visas" and Britain's Daily Mail reporting on "The empty world of the WAGs."

Victoria Beckham, Elen Rives (Frank Lampard's girlfriend), Alex Curran (Steve Gerrard), Coleen McLoughlin (Wayne Rooney) and others were the toast of Baden-Baden ever since they descended on the old spa on June 8.

Shopping sprees were well-documented by the tabloid press, with designer dresses and sunglasses top of the list. A local bar is making money like never before as they show up there every night and Mrs. Beckham's trip back to England for a hairdo also made headlines.

The attraction initially took pressure off the team, but after weeks of almost identical behaviour the thrill has gone.

"Backlash begins against England's 'WAGs,'" titled The Independent as early as June 20, but further below-par showings of the women's partners on the pitch kept them in the headlines.

But by now there is speculation that the WAGs have been warned by the FA to behave and that Victoria Beckham has long distanced herself from the party-going faction, seemingly aware of the backlash.

"Victoria is also aware that the more the WAGs go out and get drunk, the more criticism is going to be levelled at them, both at home and abroad," the Daily Mail quoted an unnamed source as saying.

The report went on: "Their charm has waned. As a species, they are predictable verging on robotic.

"Their lack of imagination and narrowness of outlook is staggering. They possess no curiosity about anything other than clothes, champagne and their reflections. Empty days, mindless nights," the paper said.

Splits into WAG factions have been observed and reports also point out that the women from the other 31 World Cup teams have almost entirely managed to stay out of the headlines.

"With all this glitzy orchestration, it is easy to forget why they were here in the first place. Their husbands and boyfriends are playing in quite an important football tournament, apparently," said The Daily Telegraph of the England WAGs.

England's footballers on Saturday were due to meet Portugal, whose star Luis Figo is married to Helen Svedin, a former super model who even won an English poll for most beautiful WAG but lives the exact opposite life style of the England WAGs.

"They married five years ago far away from the public eye. Instead of partying she cooks for visitors at their Milan house. She doesn't show up at players' parties and rather has candle-light dinners with her husband," said Germany's Bild, naming Svedin "the perfect mum and wife."