Euro 2024 in a time of flux

Welcome back to my faithful readers and hello to any newbies. I have thought long and hard about whether to write a blog this time round. It has not been an easy period since the events of October 7th, and to be honest, I have found it difficult to feel any excitement about the upcoming football. 

However, I have been very pleasantly surprised by the number of people who have asked me, is the blog coming out?  so that I have decided to go ahead and produce some content. I also know that, as my beloved Leeds United were fighting for promotion (unsuccessfully), that they helped provide a welcome distraction from the events going on around us and I realised how lucky I was to have that distraction, however fleeting it was.

I am going to skip the group stages and will start to blog properly from the knockout games which are scheduled to begin on June 29th, A short introduction to the tournament follows below and then I will see you then.

As ever, this is supposed to be a humorous and not very politically correct view on the tournament, it will also be sprinkled with cultural and literary references and participation via the comments section is welcomed. I will respond to every comment, the more inane the better. 

The European nations tournament of 2024 is due to start tomorrow in Germany, as the Sherman Mannschaft face the Tartan army from Scotland in the opening game in the Fussball Arena in Munchen better known to football fans as the Allianz Arena home to Bayern Munchen. 

The format is the same as last time but just in case you are unfamiliar or new to the game I will explain it here, especially for our followers in the US of A, a coming powerhouse in world football and one of the host nations along with Canada and Mexico for the next World cup due to take place in 2026.

The twenty-four nations taking part have been divided up into six groups of four. So, in a group of four, each team will face the others once in a mini league format, with three points for a win and one for a draw. 

The top two from each group plus the four third placed teams with the best record will qualify for the last 16. The competition then follows the standard knock out format until we are left with two teams to battle it out for the title.

We don't use fancy titles, such as "Sweet 16" or "Elite 8" or "Final four", so as to avoid any confusion, those are known respectively as the last 16, quarterfinals and semi-finals.

I wrote the following words in my introduction to Euro 2020 which took place in 2021 due to Covid and if anything, they are even more accurate today.

An event such as the Euros, where national teams battle it out one against another only adds fuel to all the things that are supposedly not welcome in today's world such as nationalism, jingoism, racial stereotypes, etc.  A lot of average football fans who do not necessarily habit the world of social media actually revel in all the above mentioned and cannot wait to paint their faces in the national colours, get out their flags and revile against all foreigners.

The reality is that the tribal divisions, mistrusts and even hatreds that have riven the European continent for over two and a half thousand years are alive and well and are simmering below a barely civilized veneer. To this potent mix has been added the increase in religious hatred which has exploded across Europe since the last Euros.

We are lucky that today, the battles for the moment are settled by twenty-two men kicking a ball around a field being watched from all over by the baying masses, The Allianz Arena instead of Stalingrad as the battlefield, if you like. It is these divisions and differences that we shall focus on as a background to the football. Football is just a means to an end, thankfully a peaceful one.

Anyway, enough waffling on about serious things, when I come back, it will be to educate the unaware, bring new angles to the informed and above all to try to bring a smile to our faces.

Here is a little amuse bouche to whet the appetite,

As ever the lot of anyone who sets themselves up as a football pundit is fraught with the very likely possibility of looking a complete idiot come the end of the tournament. My heart obviously wants England, it is now 58 years since they last won anything when I was 5 months old, and they do have a chance. 

However, my head is telling me that the runners up in the last world cup, the froggies in bleu are the favourites, it will probably be a different team from either of those, but you have to choose someone.

Let the football begin, see you on the 28th for the first Knock out previews.