June 8, 2008
Euro2008: a political ballgame
1. Small countries prosper. The European Union is set up partly to defend the rights of small nations. And so it seems are the European football championships. Small countries that would never stand a chance in the World Cup can win the Euro championships. Greece won Euro 2004; the Danes won in 1992, Holland won in 1988 and Czechoslovakia won in 1976. The fact that the European soccer championship is a shorter tournament, with fewer teams than the World Cup makes it easier for a small country to go on a winning streak. It also helps that Brazil and Argentina aren’t allowed to compete. Top tip among the tiddlers for 2008 is Portugal, led by their magnificent, hair-gelled winger Cristiano Ronaldo.
2. You can mention the war For historical reasons, many teams in Europe particularly enjoy beating Germany. The Danish, Dutch and Czech tournament triumphs all featured emotionally satisfying victories over the Germans. But these old grievances are fading with the passage of time. And in this year’s tournament, Germany are fortunate to have been drawn in a group with two old friends - Austria and Croatia. Mind you, the fourth country in the group is Poland. The Germany v Poland game is on June 8.
The remainder of this column can be read here. Please post comments below.
Mr Rachman, your article is a good explanation of Europe’s current irrelevance in world affairs: if groups of a few million persons, crammed into an area barely a tenth the size of many US states, hate their neighbours because of wars that happened before they were born, how can you expect us to speak with one voice? Even worse is the kind of idiotic independentism of the new “nations” recently invented by regional politicians not only in Spain, as you mention, but also in Belgium, the UK, and even Italy and France in some measure. Is what happened in Yugoslavia not enough to teach us the consequences of nationalism going crazy?
Posted by: IGM | June 8th, 2008 at 12:53 pm | Report this commentIt is a tribute to Europeans’ maturity, their right of free speech that they can AND DO openly say which other member nations in the EU they like and which they do not like, without resorting to fist fights in Strasbourg, civil unrest and more wars.
Yes, Poles and Germans have already been having punch-ups in Klagenfurt although the PL v D match doesn’t take place till tonight. The most popular foreign immigrants in Switzerland by far are the Italians. And more than 40 000 from La Grande Nation commute daily to work in the Geneva-Lausanne region, yet the French call the Genevois “les petits Calvanistes”. And last night there were broad smiles on the faces of the TV commentators on GERMAN TV after Portugal beat Turkey 2-0.
Tips
1) Yes, you can mention the war but don’t mention Hitler or use the word “der Führer” in Switzerland. It’s true that Hitler did not invade Switzerland, but the reason was that he didn’t want to get involved with the Swiss Fremdenpolizei (the Police Dept responsible for Aliens).
2) The best looking player in the Euro 2008 is (acc. to Swiss media) the Greek goalkeeper who apparently looks like George Clooney.
Let me look at my “Spielplan”:
Gruppe D: Spain, Russia, Greece, Sweden.
Greece plays all its matches in Salzburg, on Tues 10, Sat 14th and Wed 18th.
3) Austrian jokes are for the Swiss & the Germans what Irish jokes are for the English.
So, here’s my Euro2008 joke:
Two Austrians are in a train on the way to a Euro2008 match.
Posted by: J.J. | June 8th, 2008 at 1:46 pm | Report this comment1st Austrian says “Oh God, I wish I’d brought our TV with me”
His pal says “Why? Are you afraid we won’t have a good view of the match? Don’t we have good seats?”
1st Austrian “Our seats are okay. But I left the tickets at home on top of the TV”.
It is time for Austria to end with all those political impediments to free enterprise and economic cooperation with Germany. After all Germany is the main Trade partner of Austria accounting for 40% of Austrian trade and being both part of Schengen and the Eurozone.
And if Austrians decide one day to join Germany as an state like Bavaria, well, that should be respected even if it gives birth to a Germany of 90 million people, not much in the World today (Mexico already has 110 million people and USA 303 million)
Posted by: Enrique | June 9th, 2008 at 12:31 am | Report this commentA minor factual correction. France vs Italy is on 17th June:
http://msnsport.skysports.com/football/match_facts/0,19762,11065_2925801,00.html
As a resident of England (for a few more months, anyway), a joy of watching these championships is that England have not qualified and one does not have to watch mass hysteria (and a loathing of “Johnny Foreigner”) being incited by the tabloids and the press. No flags hanging from cars and windows and no thuggish drunkenness by the ordinarily reasonable people and above all no interviews with inarticulate half-wit English players who cannot even speak their own mother tongue properly and no appearance by the ubiquitous “WAGS” in their low cut dresses, high heels and fake tans.
Best,
P
Posted by: Pacifist | June 9th, 2008 at 10:51 am | Report this commenthi gid….astute as always…I reckon portugal might win too…although Sal has bet on Greece ( a genetic bet of course ), Spain and Czech rep…
by the way watching your FT Video and seeing your ever receding hairline you’re looking more like Henry Kissinger every day …has anyone else noticed that ??
Posted by: Mike | June 9th, 2008 at 8:43 pm | Report this comment‘Small countries’ territory-wise or population-wise and soccer-wise are very different thing.
Posted by: Kost Kirnas, Ukraine | June 10th, 2008 at 10:16 am | Report this commentI would not dare to call Portugal or the Netherlands or even Czech Rep. a ’small soccer nation’.
As territory regards, Denmark is much bigger than some ‘big countries’ (Greenland belongs to it)