"Fans using their mobile phones to take my photo means it is difficult to relax at games," says the singer and former Watford FC chairman.

Elton has said he avoids going to football matches because he doesn't "like crowds". The star, who is Life President and a former chairman of Watford Football Club, said that it wasn't easy to relax at their games because people kept taking his photo.

"One thing about me not attending matches more recently: I don't like crowds," he told the Watford Observer. "It is not so comfortable going to matches as it was back in our day, back in the 1970s. People are different and they have these mobile phones and their cameras. They didn't have them years back, so it is different. You are having your photo taken all the time. It is not so easy to relax and just concentrate on a game."

Elton, a lifelong fan of the club, is set to attend his first Watford match in four years later in December 2014 after the club decided to rename their new stand after the star. The singer, along with manager Graham Taylor, guided Watford from the old Fourth Division to second place in English football's top flight, and into Europe, in the space of six seasons between 1977 and 1983. He will return on December 13, 2014 to open the new 3,000-seater stand, which has cost the club £4.4m and increases the capacity of the club’s Vicarage Road stadium to more than 20,000.

In his interview with the paper, Elton also claimed his partner David Furnish is a football fan, despite repeated media stories to the contrary. Elton said David supports Watford, who are currently seventh in the Championship, the second tier of English football. The couple’s two boys are also proud wearers of the Hornets' distinctive yellow kit. "He gets blamed for everything and he is rather hurt that people think he is responsible for me not going to football," Elton told the Watford Observer. "He supports Watford: both our boys are into football and watch it on television and they have the Watford kit. In fact David is very encouraging about my love for Watford."

Sir Elton also said he was "very proud" that the club – who have twice been promoted to the Premier League – were in the Championship, considering they had in the fourth tier when he took charge in the 1970s.

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