It’s the biggest and best football tournament of the year. Shame then that no
UK team made it to Euro 2008, which means the build-up and sense of
anticipation here are more muted than they might otherwise have been.
Nevertheless lots of fans will be making the pilgrimage to Austria and
Switzerland, where it’s being hosted, for the spectacle of 16 top teams
thrashing it out and for the live atmosphere. If you are not one of them,
but still want to share the enjoyment, then go online. As well as watching
the live action, you can find classic clips from past tournaments, read
players’ blogs (though some will need translating) and, if you have a
last-minute change of heart, secure late travel and accommodation.
THE MAIN EVENT
The tournament kicks off on June 7, and the first name on any fact-finding
team sheet is the official www.euro2008.uefa.com
website, which provides plenty of information on fixtures and host cities.
Hidden behind the site’s dog’s dinner of commercial branding is lots of
entertaining trivia: for example, the most goals scored in the finals by one
player is nine, a record held by Michel Platini, the French midfield maestro
and current Uefa president.
The site’s history section also has evocative match reports and player details
that date back to the first contest, won by Russia in 1960.
FOLLOW THE ACTION
The BBC and ITV are sharing live television coverage of the tournament in the
UK. Both also promise web-based packages consisting of live streams of the
games and catchup clips, though these will be too grainy to enjoy on a big
screen. If you miss, say, the mouthwatering clash between Russia and Sweden
you will still be able to catch all the goals online at www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer
or www.itv.com/catchup .
Neither service works outside the UK, so Brits on holiday or with homes abroad
will miss the respective insights offered by Gary Lineker or Steve McClaren,
who will be a pundit for ITV.
For online news of teams and matches once the tournament kicks off, www.football365.com
is hard to beat, though it has too much distracting advertising. The site
also has strong links to football-obsessed Sky Sports. Alternatively there
is NewsNow ( tinyurl.com/5xt6gg
), an English-language news website that pulls together hot football gossip
from other sites around the world. It’s clunky but comprehensive.
Come the event there will be plenty of podcasts to download, and The Game (www.timesonline.co.uk/thegame
) is the Ronaldo of insightful audio reportage. As a wild card the www.fancast.com
podcast puts the public in front of the microphone and allows them
to have their say - which can be illuminating, if a touch scary.
If you’re a foreign national living in Britain then you may want to link up
with fellow expats to watch the action. One way is at themed sports bars.
Check www.sportspubs.co.uk
for a good nationwide selection. Time Out, the capital’s entertainment
guide, also has a list of London pubs showing the matches (tinyurl.com/54rxqa
).
GET IN THE MOOD
Many of the UK’s best football sites have surprisingly poor coverage of the
forthcoming tournament. They should take a leaf from www.worldcupblog.org
, which already has dedicated pages for every team, and bundles of news and
background features. It reveals, for example, that Slaven Bilic, the
eccentric Croatian coach, can boast a law degree and has recorded Croatia’s
Euro 2008 song with his heavy metal band Rawbau - enjoy it at tinyurl.com/5e5b32
.
The postings on worldcupblog.org range
from factual to fun, epitomised by Rupert Slade, an England fan who has
curiously decided to adopt the Polish team to support and has even composed
an ode to them. His stirring line of verse: “I may not know Krakow from
Gdansk / But I’m willing to give it a go,” is without par in modern football
songs. Savour the full thing at tinyurl.com/58rfgy
.
The competing teams all have blogs (official and otherwise), but as these are
mostly in native tongue they preclude English speakers. Proof that Britain
isn’t the only nation obsessed with Wag culture comes from the unofficial
French site blog.pleinelucarne.com
. It’s packed with snippets of French team news, but the two most read
stories are currently “Femmes de footballeurs” and “Encore des femmes de
footballeurs”. Draw your own conclusion.
THE FUN FACTOR
Traditional news outlets, particularly TV stations, tend to offer
comprehensive but rather dry coverage of big football tournaments. Oddball
sites such as www.dangerhere.com
don’t worry about upsetting the big names. This site revels in cheeky videos
of classic own goals and gaffes.
Its guide to Ronglish - talking like Big Ron Atkinson - is peerless. Better
still, the deeply impudent www.whoateallthepies.tv
is packed with video clips that poke fun at the professionals, mock the
managers and pillory the pundits.
If you plan to throw a Euro 2008 party you’ll need some local produce to set
the mood. The Austrians love a knödel with their pork. These bread dumplings
are available from www.austrianfood.net
- lederhosen not required. Wash them down with Castle Eggenberg Urbock beer,
originally brewed by Austrian monks to stave off hunger during lent fasting.
This 9.6%-strength brew possibly explains their odd monastic chanting.
GETTING THERE
Uefa has sold all its tickets for Euro 2008 matches. There are certainly no
tickets available from official sources in the UK and it is illegal under
legislation designed to combat touting for agencies in this country to
resell them. Anyone thinking of risking a purchase should first go to www.tickettout.org
where tales of fans who’ve bought duds make for sobering reading.
There’s nothing to stop you buying tickets from agencies overseas, but ensure
you are dealing with a reputable firm. For example, the French site of
Viagogo, the online ticket exchange (www.viagogo.fr
), has semi-final tickets from £956 a pair.
Most of the host cities are easy to reach if you can bag a ticket, and even if
you can’t, all the venues will have fan zones with giant screens to soak up
the big-day atmosphere.
From Calais, Bern in Switzerland is a mere 7½ hours down the autoroute by car
but, according to a ready reckoner at Viamichelin.com
, it costs £117 in tolls and fuel each way, plus ferries. Much cheaper is
Eurostar and TGV, France’s high-speed rail network. For European rail travel
advice www.seat61.com remains an
excellent source.
The official Swiss tourist board website at Myswitzerland.com
can help you find accommodation, but it’s filling up fast. If you are
heading to Austria, “Your charming Austrian hosts”, as the tourist board
modestly points out, have put together a series of sightseeing packages
based around matches at www.austria.info
where accommodation can also be booked.
Don’t forget to take the usual health precautions. The National Travel Health
Network’s advice on the tournament (tinyurl.com/6d2jq6
) says UK residents need a European Health Insurance Card, available from tinyurl.com/6ns89u
.
FANTASY ISLAND
One of the best ways to get into the tournament is to pick a fantasy football
team, whereby you accumulate points whenever the players in your team do
well. The official fantasy league (en.fantasy.euro2008.uefa.com
) is free to enter, but it’s all a bit corporate. There are plenty of
alternatives - and you can win big money.
Whichever league you opt for, any successful fantasy campaign requires serious
research, and facts are at a premium. The UK-centric www.footballanorak.com
is a superb source of player information, but is based on club games, which
have marginal relevance to internationals.
Bizarrely Castrol, the oil company, has comprehensive player data from the
Euro 2008 qualifying games, making euro2008.castrolindex.com
a must.
BET CLEVER
The oldest method of pepping up the matches is to take a wager on the side.
There’s no shortage of bookies waiting to take your money, but if you want
to keep your funds among your friends or colleagues organise a sweepstake.
The simple cut-out team shirts at tinyurl.com/5um7qe
make sorting this out easy.
You can also bet on anything from the outright winner - Germany is once again
the bookies’ favourite - to the number of yellow cards shown by referees
during the whole tournament. There’s a good guide to betting smart at www.online-betting.me.uk/euro
.
If you are simply looking to place a straightforward bet, such as on an
individual game, the overall winner or top scorer, www.oddschecker.com
will help you find the best odds, which means you will make more money if
you win.
However, these simple bets are often relatively boring over the course of a
whole tournament. More fun is taking a position on several teams in a
betting exchange such as www.betfair.com
or www.wsex.com . Back a decent
team at attractive odds such as Croatia (currently about 13-1 to win the
tournament) then also bet against them at shorter odds.
With a little research and some shrewd choices you can manoeuvre yourself into
a position where you win money whether your teams win or lose. The prospect
of loss-free gambling is a sweet thing.
