The now long-running saga of Spain possibly being booted out of Euro 2008 got even more complicated yesterday. FIFA are still upset with the Spanish government forcing the Spanish Football Federation to hold elections early, and are still threatening to suspend the Spanish national team from all international competitions if they have to. Including Euro [...]

You know an international tournament is approaching when people start worrying about their sex lives. And you know it for sure when that information is revealed in survey form. And here’s the proof: 30% of Austrians surveyed by Vienna University expect to be have less sex than usual during the three weeks of Euro 2008. [...]

This is Austrian defender Martin Hiden. OK, so it’s not a very flattering picture, but the Austrian defender deserves some credit. Hiden is apparently the world’s first carbon neutral footballer after agreeing to compensate for all his carbon emissions with investments in Austrian projects to tackle global warming. He’s 35 years old, nearly 36, but [...]

I’m not sure exactly when video games started having trailers, but apparently they do. The above is a preview of EA Sports’ Euro 2008 game. I’m not saying you should buy it (though I’m not saying you shouldn’t either) but I am saying that this has got me all excited for the real thing this [...]

At first I was hugely skeptical. I mean, the Euros are a pretty big deal. Not only that but they’re, you know, European. (Feel free to send that brilliant revelation right there to the awards committees.) However, the more time passed, the more I realized this is an absolute stroke of genius move from the [...]

Things are looking up a little for everyone involved in the Eduardo incident. Eduardo himself is out of hospital and expected to make a full recovery. Even Martin Taylor has turned the tide of public opinion.
And now the Croatian FA are suggesting that Eduardo could join the team at Euro 2008 this summer. He won’t [...]

After a valiant but failed attempt at Euro 2008 qualification, Northern Ireland’s hopes of making the tournament are still alive (just about,) thanks to FIFA’s ongoing dissatisfaction with Spain. Basically the Spanish government is trying to force the Spanish Football Federation to hold early elections, so FIFA is threatening to ban Spain from international competition [...]

Alessandro Del Piero hasn’t played for Italy since the 0-0 draw with France on 8th September 2007. He was completely overlooked for the recent friendly against Portugal, where Italy claimed an impressive enough 3-1 win. So at 33 years old it’s possible he might not wear national team blue again, but he’s planning to. The [...]

I was looking forward to seeing Croatia in action at Euro 2008. After Slaven Bilic’s men manhandled England so expertly - twice - in qualification they looked a good bet to go deep this summer. But a lot of Croatia’s game revolved around star striker Eduardo, the expert finisher who so far has 13 [...]

Here’s an interesting concept, what if a best eleven wasn’t picked on reputation but entirely on statistics? That’s the the idea behind the Castrol Performance Index, which we’d be able to take a lot more seriously of it wasn’t sponsored by a lubricant. Still it makes for interesting reading. The mathamagicians working on the CPI [...]