Despite the enormous success of Euro 2008, it looks likely that Uefa will expand the tournament from 16 teams to 24 by 2016.

Uefa have a meeting pencilled in for late September this year when the main item on the agenda will be the progress of stadium construction in Poland and Ukraine who are due to joint host Euro 2012.

But after the proposals submitted by the Scottish and Irish Football Associations last year on a 24 team competition were agreed by all 53 Uefa member nations on Saturday, it seems extremely probable that they will be ratified in full at the September get together.

Of course, it’s not difficult as to why so many national federations support the move. 16 teams qualified for Euro 2008 meaning that 37 didn’t. And under a 24 team qualification process, the competition ‘nearly teams’ such as the proposing members, Scotland and Ireland, would have a much better chance of ending up with a slice of the finals cake.

Uefa President Michel Platini says that increasing the number of qualifiers won’t necessarily impact on the quality of the tournament. Speaking in Vienna he said;

“Remember, I won the Euros in 1984 (just you then Michel, not the other 10 French guys) when there were only eight teams.

“It is not certain it was better with eight teams than 16 or that 16 is better than 24 or 32 or 54.

I am not worried about the quality by increasing the number of teams. Countries like England, Denmark, Scotland, Ireland, Belgium, Serbia, Ukraine and Bulgaria all have the ability to participate in a European Championship.”

He’s right of course, but only to a point.

Euro 2008 was a wonderful tournament with only a couple of nondescript games. All of the matches were, at some level, competitive.

The old adage ‘if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it’ comes springing to mind.

Euro 2016 with 24 teams might be great. But, then again, it might not. Whittling down 24 sides to the 8 required for the quarter finals is a lot more complicated than promoting the top two sides in four groups of four. There’s a far bigger chance of having to sit through tactical matches and as well as teams adopting a no-lose mentality (unlike the majority of sides we’ve enjoyed watching over the past few weeks).

Uefa officials and national members would do well to give themselves a period of reflection and take a look in detail at exactly what occurred in Austria and Sweden before giving a bunch of also-rans false hope.

The hosts

Lovely people, generous hosts but poor players. Austria managed a single draw from their 3 group matches while Switzerland’s only points came in a dead rubber against a weakened Portugal side following their own elimination. So in total, 4 points from a possible 18. Perhaps Uefa should consider seeding possible hosts making previous qualification for the Euros within a 10 year period a pre-requisite of any bid to stage the tournament. As it is, Uefa are less than happy with the progress being made in Poland and Ukraine who are hoping to host 2012 and President Michel Platini will be leading a task force to the two countries later this week. At least Poland can say they’ve played an active part in past competitions. Since splitting from the USSR, Ukraine has never once qualified for the Euros in four attempts.

France

Before the tournament got underway, Platini said he was unconcerned by the fact that England had failed to qualify and that they wouldn’t be missed. Bearing in mind the fate of his native France, England got away lightly. France were awful and were eventually put out of their misery by an almost as dreadful Italy side. Perhaps the Group of Death was so called, not because of the quality of the four teams it contained but because most of the French side are rapidly approaching retirement age.

Colin Kazim Richards

Some of the greatest club sides in the world were represented in Austria and Switzerland. Manchester United, Real Madrid, Barcelona, AC Milan……Bury. Well sort of. If any young player wants to draw inspiration from the events of Euro 2008, the exploits of Colin Kazim-Richards, or Kazim Kazim as he’s now called, should be where they look. Kazim-Richards had spent a largely unfashionable club career with the likes of Bury, Brighton and Sheffield United before moving to Fenerbahce in the summer of 2007 having previously made his debut for the Turkish under 21 side. Born to a Turkish Cypriot mother, he made his full debut later that year and played in all of Turkey’s five games at Euro 2008. In terms of career development, that’s pretty impressive.

Offside

If the offside rule wasn’t complicated enough, Uefa decided to make it more so after Ruud van Nistelrooy scored against Italy in the group stages. Was he offside? To any normal and sane person, the answer was yes. But to Uefa, the answer was no. The reason being that an injured Italian player, lying on his backside, off the field and 15 yards away from the action was playing the Real Madrid player onside. Total madness. What’s next? Taking in to account the seat number of a defenders Mum in the stands? Or perhaps the geographical position of the team coach in the stadium car park?

Greece

The defending champions were terrible. Three defeats out of three. Five goals conceded, one scored. Nuff said.

The future’s orange

They may not have made it past the quarter finals but for a couple of weeks, the Dutch showed the world how the game should be played. Cultured, focussed, pacey, tactically sound and ruthless – Holland had it all in the early stages of the tournament. They didn’t just beat Italy and France, the World Cup finalists from two years earlier, they destroyed them. Perhaps coach Marco van Basten made a mistake in resting his best players for the final group match against Romania as when the first team reassembled for the clash with Russia, they were comprehensively outplayed. Still, the memories will linger of those outstanding performances and spectacular goals in the Group of Death.

Toni and Cech

Two big players, two big reputations, two tournaments to forget. Toni scored more than 30 goals in the Bundesliga last season but his performances in Euro 2008 will leave most fans wondering how? Are the defenders in Germany’s top league really that bad? Toni had a hatful of chances and missed the lot. As for his pace, we’ve seen faster glaciers. Before the competition started, Petr Cech criticised the Adidas Europass ball saying it was unfair to goalkeepers. As it happened, as a dolly of a cross came over in the dying minutes of the Czech Republic’s quarter final against Turkey, the ball did nothing unexpected at all. But Cech still dropped it giving the Turk’s a lifeline which they exploited a couple of minutes later with the winner. A howler of the highest order.

Adidas marketing campaign

You have to hand it to Adidas - they threw the kitchen sink at this tournament and it paid off. From giant boots, supersized players to specially designed country by country F50 TUNiT football boots. Of course, it’s all designed to sell product but it was done with style, innvovation and a touch of class.

Croatia fine

Croatia’s fans were deemed to have been guilty of ‘displaying a racist banner and showing racist conduct’ during the game against Turkey. Uefa’s response was to fine the Croatian Football Federation £10,000. Pathetic. And not even a first offence. The Croats have got a bit of previous when it comes to this sort of thing. When will Uefa realise that to eradicate the game of such heinous crimes it will take a lot more than a gentle, financial slap on the wrist. If they want to be taken seriously, they need to action meaningful punishments, like the deduction of points from any following qualifying campaign.

Spain

After nearly half a century of hurt, Spain threw off their tag of underachievers to win the tournament playing a delightful brand of football based on a brilliantly creative midfield and the ability of the entire team to pass and move. Were you watching Fabio? Let’s hope so.

Viva Espana! Stylish Spain claim their first trophy for 44 years in Vienna.

Spain v Germany

Spain gained their first major title for 44 years after winning Euro 2008 with a deserved victory over Germany, thanks to a Fernando Torres first half goal.

Here’s the match statistics.

Sunday’s Euro 2008 final will no doubt be an intense affair. One key battle will undoubtedly be between two Premier League midfielders; Arsenal’s Cesc Fabregas and Michael Ballack of Chelsea.

Luis Aragones has only decided to start the young Arsenal playmaker in his side once during Euro 2008 so far – in the final group game victory over Greece. Despite this, it seems that Fabregas may be set for a starting berth in the final following his excellent performance in their 3-0 semi-final win over Russia; this after coming on for the injured David Villa in the 34th minute.

Ballack has been an ever-present starter in the German squad at Euro 2008 and scored a crucial goal in their 1-0 Group B win over Austria, as well as the eventual winner against Portugal in the quarter-finals. The Chelsea schemer is yet to assist a goal however, unlike Fabregas; who has managed three so far – all coming in the two matches against Russia.

Ballack has managed to run the furthest of any German player in all five of his matches so far at Euro 2008. However, in the one match that Cesc Fabregas did manage to start for Spain, he ran further in that game than Ballack has managed in any of his five appearances in the finals.

Which of the leading midfielders will triumph in the final?

Powered by Castrolindex.com

With Germany safely through to the final of Euro 2008 (how do they do it every tournament) and due to face the flair side that is Spain, conversations in bars and clubs across Europe and indeed the world are now focusing on who is the tournaments top player.

Whilst, in previous years, these arguments may have stayed between friends and family, this time round Euro 2008 sponsors Castrol are offering fans a chance to have a say as to which player will be crowned as the best.

Fans will be given the chance to nominate three players to be put forward alongside three choices from the Uefa Technical Study Group (TSG). The TSG will then make their selection based on this final list of six.

However, fan opinion will also be combined with subjective analysis. Players will only become eligible to be voted for once they enter the top ten of the Castrol Performance Index (CPI), a player ranking system which uses positional, speed and distance data provided by the Uefa Tracking System combined with data on player actions to create a definitive index of performance.

Voting is taking place now at www.castrolindex.com and the final winner will be announced after the Final which takes place on the 29th June.

Castrol ambassador Arsene Wenger is backing Michael Ballack: “So far for me Michael Ballack is the most influential player in his team. I like the simplicity and efficiency of his game and the fact that he works very hard for his team. He makes final balls, good passes, he makes the difference in midfield when it’s needed and when you need him to score a header, he’s there as well. So you can’t fault him.

“I’m happy for him, because he didn’t always get the respect he deserved when he played in Germany. He leads now. He was quiet for a long time. I felt too quiet. He was leading by example but not with his communication. It looks like in this tournament he is leading by both.”

If you agree with Wenger (and as it stands he’s backed up with the statistical data as we reported on Footy Boots yesterday) you can support his selection, if you don’t, you can nominate your own choices.

Footy Boots will publish details of the vote at the end of the tournament. Watch this space.

Super slick Spain steam roll through Russia.

Spain 3-0 Russia

Which player is the quickest? Who covered the most ground during a match? Who’s our player of the tournament so far?

Now that we are at the business end of Euro 2008, the tournament statistics are painting an interesting story about some of Europe’s finest players.

In association with the Castrol Performance Index, we’ve put football boots to one side temporarily whilst we get an insight into the player performances.

Fastest Player - Ivica Olic

The Croatian striker who plays for Hamburg, has been recorded as the fastest player in Euro 2008 so far.

Thanks to technology that was used to track missile targets and using sixteen match cameras, Ivica Olic was measured running at an impressive 31.76 kmh - 19.74 mph, in his Zhero Gravity Due football boots.

Runner up is Robin Van Persie of Holland and Arsenal, recorded at 31.53 kmh - 19.59 mph. Robin van Persie wears the Adidas AdiPure football boots.

Most Ground Covered - Sergey Semak

The player that has covered the most ground to date is Russia’s midfield dynamo Sergey Semak. Semak has played 390 minutes of football so far. That’s four games, plus the extra time period against Holland in the quarter final round.

During that period he’s run a colossal 50.03 km - 31.09 miles in his Adidas Predator PowerSwerve football boots. Not bad for a 32 year old!

Russia have players taking 1,2,3 in the pecking order for most distance run. Proving that Guus Hiddink’s side are a team high on effort and stamina.

Tournament Player - Michael Ballack

With three fixtures to go, Michael Ballack looks like our favourite to be crowned player of the tournament.

The analytics prove that the German captain is an outstanding team player, who contributes all round.

Speed - Ballack comes in at a healthy 8th place with a top speed of 30.88 kmh - 19.19 mph.

Distance - Ballack has covered 46.27 km - 28.75 miles. He is sitting 5th in this league, but has played 30 minutes less football that any of the players who have covered more distance.

Passes - In his 360 minutes of football, Ballack has totalled 192 passes, just 18 less than the tournament leader, Ballack’s compatriot Philipp Lahm. 152 of Ballack’s passes were completed too, that’s a respectable 79%.

Fouls Suffered - He’s been fouled 12 times by his opponents, only four other players have suffered more fouls.

Michael Ballack is an attacking force too, he’s scored twice, hit the target three times and has seen three shots wide. As captain of Germany he has most definitely led by example.

Michael Ballack wears Adidas Predator PowerSwerve football boots.

Zidane turns up in Vienna, has a run around then talks Ronaldo.

Former French football legend Zinedine Zidane was in Vienna this week, running an Adidas Predator Youth Clinic where a number of youngsters were given the chance to play with Zidane.

Famed for wearing a pair of Gold Predators during the 2006 world cup, in which the great Zidane was sent off for headbutting Marco Materazzi in the final, Zidane now only laces his football boots up for promotional appearances and testimonial matches.

Following Zidane gracing the small pitch with the kids, he was inevetibaly asked about the Cristiano Ronaldo transfer situation. He’s a relevant source of information as Zidane Zidane is still the costliest player in history when Real Madrid paid Juventus £45.8m for his contract in 2001, although Ronaldo may just surpass that if the move goes through.

Zinedine Zidane:

Every time Madrid want good players they get them. He’s had a great season, and he’s a Champions League winner, and if he wants to play there, then he can.

If he goes to Madrid, it will be a big amount, but Madrid is ready to pay far more than they paid for me. This will actually lift a weight from my shoulders. Hopefully they will pay more for Ronaldo than they did for me.

Best team

Interesting thing about the four quarter finals at Euro 2008. With the exception of Spain, all three teams that rested their best players for their final group game got beaten in the last eight. Portugal waltzed through their group but were undone by new tournament favourites Germany. Croatia must have thought they were on their way after a group win over the Germans but reckoned without the come back powers of Turkey while Holland, who were magnificent in the group stages, were simply outplayed by Russia who progressed to the semis after extra time. All of the above lends a lot to the argument that you should play your best team all the time. No exceptions.

Spain on the spot

Congratulations have to go to Cesc Fabregas as he put an end to Spain’s appalling run of penalty shoot out defeats at major championships. The always seemingly underachieving Spaniards lost out on pens in the quarter finals of the World Cups of 1986 and 2002 and at Euro 96. Astonishingly, all 3 of those losses came on June 22nd, the same day as their game against Italy in Vienna. Perhaps that’s why the Italians seemed intent on playing for spot kicks from the first minute of a desperately disappointing match, ending up with exactly what they deserved. Zilch.

My mistake

Referee’s rarely hold up their hands and admit mistakes but hats off to Lubos Michel who did the unthinkable the other day and gave a player a rare reprieve. As the clock ticked close to injury time in the Holland v Russia game, referee Michel gave Russian defender Denis Kolodin his marching orders after he picked up a second yellow for fouling Wesley Sjneider. But before the cards were back in his pocket, he raced over to assistant who confirmed that Sneijder had previously failed to keep the ball in play and therefore, the foul, and subsequest booking, should be overlooked. Without turning a hair, Michel awarded Russia a goal kick, rescinded the yellow card and allowed Kolodin to stay on the pitch. The entire episode took a matter of seconds and based on the assistant referee’s viewpoint, the correct decision was taken and common sense prevailed. No surprise then that Uefa has overlookd Michel for the final and given it to Roberto Rosetti ? without doubt, the best performing Italian by a mile at the competition, players and managers included.

Blue Scolari

No sooner had the dust settled on Portugal’s quarter final defeat by Germany before the Portuguese authorities laid the blame at Chelsea’s door for announcing that Luiz Felipe Scolari would be the new manager at Stamford Bridge whilst Big Phil’s national team was still involved in the tournament. To be fair to FPF chief Gilberto Madail, he’s got a point, the timing stank. But it’s hard to see how it could have affected Scolari’s ability to do his job properly. In fact, he should be thanking Chelsea for taking Scolari off his hands as his record at major championships has been on a downwards spiral since he won the World Cup with Brazil. Over the past 4 years, he’s taken Portugal to the final of Euro 2004 (which they lost) the semi finals of the 2006 World Cup (which they lost) and now the quarter finals of Euro 2008 (I take it you’ve caught on by now). Chelsea to lose in the 3rd round of the League Cup to (insert name of lowly ranked League One side here) anyone?

Question. What do you do if you are an England player, you’ve had your summer holiday and you are looking for something to do?

Answer. Well if you happen to be Steve Gerrard or Shaun Wright Phillips, you get yourself a modelling job, showing off the new Adidas away strips for Liverpool and Chelsea respectively.

Order the Liverpool Away Shirt here?

Both kits, which will retail at around £40, make use of the latest Adidas technology.

ForMotion(tm) allows complete freedom of movement. Radical cuts and 3D designs follow the shape of your body to increase comfort and improve performance.

ClimaCool(tm) ensures body vapour is pushed out so the sweat, as moisture, doesn’t form. So you stay dry, comfortable and performing at your peak.

The Chelsea kit is launched on 10th July with the Liverpool strip following one week later.

Order the Chelsea away shirt here

If you want to see the kits being worn first hand, Liverpool will wear theirs on the opening day of the Premier League season at Sunderland while Chelsea fans will have to wait a week longer and the Blues trip to Wigan on 23rd August.

Stalemate for 120 minutes between the big guns, but Spain progress via penalties.

Spain v Italy

Once again Footy Boots is here to bring you up to date with the latest developments in the football boot market.

This time around it’s a heads up on what to expect from Adidas in the coming 12 months.

As stated in our previous article, ADIDAS SALES 50% UP ON WORLD CUP 2006 , Adidas is looking to capitalise on the major interest that the Euro’s have sparked and continue their advance on the global football market. Germany’s quarter final win over Portugal won’t have done them any harm and they’re backing that up with some spanking new designs which are bound to cause a stir amongst players, watchers and geeks alike. Here’s what you can expect.

Adidas Predator Power Swerve

According to Adidas representatives, David Beckham will have a white/blue ClimaCool^® Predator produced for him to wear while doing his stuff in the MLS with the Los Angeles Galaxy. This could be due to him wanting more of a flexible fit than his current synthetic leather after having had to quit k-leather products, more of which you can learn about via a previous Footy Boots article, ingeniously entitled: kangaroo leather football boot ban.

There will be 2 more additions to the Champions League edition Predator’s next season. It is an odd concept, but a White/Indigo/Rave Green colourway is due to be released at the beginning of the competition with a Black/Red colourway being released towards the latter stages of the tournament.

View the New Adidas Predator PowerSwerve

Adidas F50.9 TUNiT

The adidas F50.9 will debut in a black/electric yellow colourway and have a new design for the three stripes. At last, Adidas have finally given a player worthy of his own line a colourway. The man in question is Argentina and Barcelona’s Lionel Messi. However, plans for an Adidas / Messi razor were abandoned when someone remembered that he’s not old enough to shave. A new Champions League F50.9 will be produced in a colourway to match its counterpart, the Predator Power Swerve’s. Check back here at Footy Boots soon for a look at the specially produced F50’s currently being worn in Austria and Switzerland.

View the F50.9 article -

View the Messi F50.9 article

Suggested Release Date: October 15, 2008

Adidas adiPURE II

The new adiPURE II are very reminiscent of the current model with just a few minor touch ups. Expect another great classic boot from adidas. These are the current versions being worn at Euro 2008.

Suggested Release Date: January 2009

View the adiPure II article

SOURCE: Big Soccer

Russia deservedly overcome the Dutch in extra time.

Holland 1-3 Russia AET

Euro 2008 Schedule & TV Listings

Semi Finals

Wednesday, 25th June - BBC1 -19:45 Germany v Turkey

Thursday, 26th June - ITV - 19:45 Russia v Spain

Final

Sunday, 29th June - BBC1 - 19:45 Germany v Spain