As in the UK, for many working class industrial communities in the grip of hard times, football is a release, a passion, verging on a religion.

BBC: North East football agent linked to failed Belgian club

As the junta is also thought nearly to have finished drafting principles for a new constitution that would, under the guise of democracy, cement its grip on power, it will seek to avoid potentially destabilising actions which the release of Aung San Suu Kyi would undoubtedly constitute, in the generals' eyes until its self-serving political "reforms" are more advanced.

ECONOMIST: The junta extends the house arrest of Aung San Suu Kyi