The off-season in football can be painful for the addicted. It lasts about three months until hostilities resume in August. Until then there is a period of cold turkey leavened only by transfer gossip, rumour, speculation, plain disinformation and the reporting of Jose Mourinho's every move.This year it's different. For one thing, we know where Mourinho is going, and there is a veritable feast of the football - from Euro 2016 in France, to the Copa America Centenario, being held for the first time in the US, to Tembisa.This afternoon in Lille, Russia take on Slovakia, one half of a country the Russians invaded 48 years ago to keep a tottering Soviet Union together for a few more years.Considering the havoc wrought by Russian gangs at the weekend in Marseilles, where England and Russia drew 1-1, events today are likely to be more violent than during the Prague spring of 1968 when Russians arrived in tanks.Tomorrow afternoon England meet Wales, which sounds more like a Six Nations rugby match and could have the same intensity.The Welsh, in their first European championship, top the group and, with Gareth Bale in their ranks, are considered the tournament's "Leicester City". Most of the pressure will be on England, who need to win to ensure they qualify for the knockout rounds and hope their fans behave.Across the Atlantic, the Copa America Centenario is so called because it began in 1916 at a time when Europe was deciding who had the best team with cannon balls rather than footballs.Later tonight, at the unreasonable hour of two in the morning, unassailable Argentina and uninspiring Bolivia meet to confirm the former's place in the quarterfinals against Venezuela.For all that potential excitement, it's this afternoon's game at Makhulong Stadium in Tembisa that intrigues me most.If Highlands Park win against Mbombela United - as they should if recent form could be used as a yardstick - they will ascend to our Premier League next season. It's impossible not to be a little nostalgic about the prospect of Highlands Park playing in the PSL.We hated Highlands Park. In the 1960s, at the time of the National Football League, we considered ourselves part of Johannesburg's southern suburbs' football proletariat and Highlands Park were a creation of the northern suburbs' moneyed classes.We supported Rangers, the perennial underdogs from Mayfair and the only multiracial team in the old NFL courtesy of centre-forward Percy Owen, who not only eluded the best defences but also the Race Classification Board. He was also ungainly: he could score from 40 yards or miss from four.We did, however, have grudging admiration for Highlands. They had wonderful players, were led by a gentleman in Malcolm Rufus and had the best goalkeeper I ever saw in George Ryder.There was towering Freddie Kalk, the Scotsmen Charlie Gough, Willie McIntosh and Joe Frickleton - all blokes you want on your side during a night in Mayfair.There were also the magical Brazilians Jorge Santoro and Walter da Silva, whom I saw score at the Rand Stadium with a bicycle kick that even Mayfair applauded.Highlands Park of the NFL days played at Balfour Park, where a shopping centre now stands. Their old home ground might be gone, but perhaps there will still be some affection for the Highlands of long ago.Certainly, the loathing would have disappeared...