Dutch trio Ruud van Nistelrooy, Rafael van der Vaart and Ryan Babel have personalised their football boots in the lead up to Euro 2008.

With just days until Euro 2008 kicks off, the tournament players are now breaking in their chosen artillery.

One of the surprises in the football boot world was Nike’s decision to rewind the clock back to the 1954 World Cup in Switzerland and relaunch brown leather football boots.

Nike Euro 2008 Football Boots

The collection of three Euro 2008 special edition football boot models have been selected by three of the Dutch national squad.

Ruud van Nistelrooy Football Boots

Ruud van Nistelrooy will be hoping to hit the target with the Nike Tiempo Euro 2008 football boot.

Ruud personalised his football boots by adding the names of his children Liam and Moa.

Rafael van der Vaart Football Boots

Van der Vaart’s selected the Total 90 Laser Euro 2008 football boots.

Like van Nistelrooy, the football boot displays the name of his child Damian and his shirt number 23.

Ryan Babel Football Boots

Liverpool winger Babel (inured, no longer in the Dutch squad) will be seen in the speedy Mercurial Vapor IV Euro 2008 football boots.

Babel’s note on his football boots is a religious one “I belong to him”.

Read more about the Nike Euro 2008 football boot collection.

Portugal power through Turkey. Who covered the most ground? Who was the fastest player? Get the stat’s here.

Portugal 2-0 Turkey

Polish born Podolski hits a brace as Germany power past Poland.

Germany 2-0 Poland

A Modric penalty after two minutes was just enough for Croatia. Who covered the most ground? Who was the fastest player? Get the stat’s here.

Austria 0-1 Croatia

Fifa has voted overwhelmingly in favour of President Sepp Blatter’s ’six-plus-five rule’, which would limit the foreign players in a team to five.

Fifa wants to bring in the proposal by 2012/2013 but it faces opposition from the European Commission and a number of Football Associations and Federations.

The EC says it is discriminatory and illegal as EU law currently allows workers to move freely between member countries while the FA chief executive Brian Barwick is unconvinced by the strategy. He said: “It’s about balance. We still believe in the meritocracy of players in the team on performance and on ability first and foremost.”

The Fifa congress supported Blatter’s plans by 155 votes to just 5 against. Blatter can now plan for his scheduled meeting with the EU on 5th June and said: “Speaking about it is illegal? For whom? For when? If there is a law, a law can be amended.”

But an EU spokesman said: “As far as the EU is concerned, Blatter is flogging a dead horse and any discussion is pointless.”

Blatter wants to restrict the number of foreign players in teams by the start in the 2010/11 season, with a minimum of four home-grown players.

He added he expects it to grow to six, with a maximum of five foreigners, by 2012/13 - and claims the plan has the backing of key European delegates.

In contrast, the “home-grown players” rule which is set to be expanded from next season so that eight players in a Champions League or Uefa Cup squad (their nationality being irrelevant) must have been developed by the club has received EU backing.

As Blatter’s ideas go, and let’s remember that another of his brainwaves was for women players to “wear tighter shorts” it’s probably not a bad one. He obviously believes that by having more home born players remaining within their national league structure, national teams will benefit. And he uses England’s non qualification for Euro 2008 as one of his leading arguments for the change.

But it’s hard to see. Players themselves, particularly English ones, say they have improved thanks to working closely with foreign players. Would they say so if they were forced to play alongside mediocre home grown talent?

Also, if foreign players remain within the country of their birth and national teams benefit as a result, it’s likely that they’ll do so at a similar level resulting in nothing more than the status quo.

Admittedly, some of the ‘lesser’ teams might improve but then again, how many internationals do the likes of Honduras, Japan, Guinea and Chile, all top 50 sides in the latest world rankings, have playing overseas? Not too many.

Unlike a number of Blatter’s other madcap schemes, you can, at least, see why he’s trying it. He says it’ll be his legacy to the sport. But with no proof that it will work and with Uefa and the EU dead against it, the Fifa President faces an uphill battle if he’s to implement it in the time frame he’s set himself.

As David Beckham collected his commemorative Gold Cap marking his 100th game for England on Wednesday night (the match against the USA was his 101st) wearing a special pair of embroidered Adidas Predator football boots, his potential heir apparent David Bentley was celebrating taking delivery of his new football boots, the V1.08 X-ray.

V1.08 X-ray

Following on from the launch of the v1.08 football boot collection in January at the African Cup of nations, Puma has introduced its latest design, the inspiration for which is the following mantra:

Wear your emotions on your sleeve! leave it all on the pitch! show your inside on the outside. Obviously, some Puma exec has been listening to The Vapors and ‘Turning Japanese’ just a bit too much.

The new v1.08 football boot features an X-ray skeleton of the Puma leaping cat logo on the medial side of the football boot and the skeletal outline of a foot on the insole.

Launched in time for Euro 2008, it will be worn in Austria and Switzerland by the likes of Nicolas Anelka , Mario Gomez, Freddie Ljungberg, Gianluigi Buffon and Mauro Camoranesi.

Along with the X-ray logo, the new line also features vibrant color touches and creative details that are uniquely Puma and allow you to “show your inside on the outside” - though that might not be too bright if you’ve had a curry the night before a big game.

Other products like the Puma v1.08 ball and training shirt also feature the X-ray logo.

Similar to the football boot, details on the apparel and accessories include graphic references to the inside of the human anatomy with subtle messages related to football incorporated in the graphics.

“Puma Football continues to be different and stand out from the rest with its playful take on colour and design,” says Gavin Ivester, Puma’s General Manager of International Footwear. “At the 2006 World Cup, we had huge success with our green camo boot that looked like the grass on a pitch. In 2008, the skeleton details and bright colors of the v1.08 will again allow players and fans to show their passion for the game.”

The new line will be supported by a new version of Puma’s popular “Until Then” ad campaign giving a glimpse of what football will look like in the year 2178 - which has Sir Alex still in charge at Old Trafford, Jose Mourinho telling anyone who’ll listen that he’ll be back at Chelsea one day and Dean Windass in his testimonial year at Hull City.

The new v1.08 design is available from retailers as from the end of May.

Do you wear the v1.08 X-ray? If so, tell us what you think here

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As the build up continues towards Euro 2008 and the eagerly anticipated opening match (Switzerland v Czech Republic!) Footy Boots can reveal that before and during the tournament, it will effect a Euro 2008 take over of the Footy Boots site.

What does that mean exactly? Well this.

You’ll still get all the up to the minute football boot news and pictures as you would expect from the world’s Number One football boot web site. There may be a delay of an hour or so if our respective partners drag us off to Sainsbury’s over the opening weekend, and to be honest, during the Austria v Croatia game we won’t complain that much, but if a football boot story puts it’s head above the parapet, you’ll read about first on Footy Boots.

In addition, we’ll be running match previews of every single game, plus those all important betting odds for you over 18’s and we’ll employ some of the most sophisticated technology on offer to compile unique match and player statistics and the tournament unfolds.

To that end, it’s worth noting that official sponsors Castrol, using their Castrol Performance Index, have come out this week to pronounce that Germany (oh joy) are the favourites to lift the trophy. Where’s Johnny Jensen when you need him, eh?

The Castrol Performance Index is a new tool being used to objectively analyse team and player performance. Although Spain is the strongest team going into the tournament, based on international teams’ performances and results since 2000, their Group draw means the team are second favourites behind the Germans, who have a 17% chance of glory.

The Castrol Performance Index has used the past performances to work out each team’s attack and defence ratings, weighting recent results to count for more. Then, by simulating the tournament more than 100,000 times, it has calculated each team’s chances of progression at Uefa Euro 2008 and then winning it.

The figures look like this:

The Castrol Performance Index will be updated live during the tournament on Footy Boots and we’ll also get to hear from CPI’s panel of experts who include Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger, FC Bayern Munich’s Bundesliga-winning manager Ottmar Hitzfeld, legendary Spanish striker Emilio Butragueno and former international referee Pierluigi Collina.

Back in 1978, before Paul Young made it big as a solo artist, he enjoyed a novelty hit with Streetband with a song called Toast.

It only reached number 18 in the Top 40 but it had one stand out moment, a little phrase that went!..There’s brown bread, white bread, all sorts of wholemeal bread; It comes in funny packages with writing on the side.

Thirty years on and you could very easily substitute the word toast for boots. There are red boots, blue boots, all kinds of yellow boots; They come in funny boxes with logos on the side.

Coloured football boots are the thing right now, or at least they were until Nike announced that all their endorsed players at Euro 2008 will wear brown football boots (other than Ronaldo of course), taking the market full circle so to speak.

Nike say they’ve been inspired by the venue of the tournament (Austria and Switzerland) and in particular, the shaky TV footage of the 1954 World Cup, held in Switzerland, where players such as Sandor Kocsis (leading scorer with 11 goals) Ferenc Puskas and Nat Lofthouse did their thing wearing basic football boots in basic colours.

And so, in a couple of weeks time, the likes of Franck Ribery, Fernando Torres and Cesc Fabregas will take to the field in their Mercurial Vapors, T90 Laser II’s and Tiempo’s not in the usual rainbow collection of colours but in brown. (Read the original Footy Boots report Brown Football Boots.)

It’s a step back in time and yes, while it is a marketing ploy aimed at generating maximum publicity and increased football boot sales, it will be interesting to watch the Nike players expressing individuality with their on the pitch exploits as opposed to their choice of coloured boot.

Nike are not the first manufacturer to announce a Euro 2008 football boot strategy.

Adidas revealed recently a new tournament colourway for the adiPURE, F50 and Predator and Puma are using the event to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the King XL.

More announcements are expected over the next few weeks.

Holland set Euro 2008 alight by thrashing Italy.

Holland 3-0 Italy

Swedish spirit is victorious as Greece pay for their negative tactics.

Greece 0-2 Sweden

France fail to overcome Romania in their group opener.

Romania 0-0 France

Italy are fortunate to get their first point against the underrated Romanian’s.

Italy 1-1 Romania

Co-hosts Austria get a lifeline with a stoppage-time penalty against Poland.

Austria 1-1 Poland

Tenacious Croatia do a job on the pre tournament favourites, Germany.

Croatia 2-1 Germany