Footballers fuel a ruder Britain: Poll

which long prided itself on a reputation for good manners, is becoming increasingly rude, according to a poll out on Monday.

Highly-paid footballers and celebrities are setting a bad example, according to the survey, which listed spitting and swearing as the most offensive forms of behaviour.

Almost nine out of 10 people — 86.2% — think Britons have become ruder than a decade ago, found the poll for ITV1 Tonight TV programme.

"I suppose it's part of the breakdown in society, the fact that we stopped having respect for figures in authority, partly because those in authority didn't command it," said etiquette coach Diana Mather.

The rise of football culture — and football hooligans creating mayhem — has long dented UK's good-mannered image abroad, and now Britons themselves acknowledge they have a major problem.