Euro 2008 football matches

With the final sixteen teams secure for Euro 2008, teams are already starting practices for the championship games to be played in Switzerland and Austria in June of 2008. The first round will kick off on June 7th, 2008, at the St. Jakob Stadium in Basel Switzerland, and the entire tournament is expected to generate international revenues. This final tournament will consist of thirty-one matches in eight different football stadiums. The final game will be played in Vienna, Austria.

The UEFA as we know it started in 1960. It was known as the European Nations Cup back then, but received its current name eight years later. Knock-out matched was once played and the winners of those would duke it out in the semi- and final rounds. When the name changed, teams began to be seeded and regrouped in order to go on to the quarter final matches.

In 1980, the road to the championship was changed yet again, this time by having the semi-final rounds eliminated. Eight teams were divided into two groups of four and they battled it out to the final round, but in 1984, the semi-final was re-established and remains part of the overall tournaments today. It stayed this way until 1996 when a total of forty-eight nations competed for the final sixteen slots to claim the championship. Euro 2004 was a large media event, as 2008 is expected to be. The host countries for Euro 2012 have already been picked: Poland and Ukraine.

Fans of Denmark and Sweden should be aware that Christian Poulsen, a Danish player, was kicked out of the qualifying game on June 2, 2007, for punching Swedish player Markus Rosenberg in the stomach. To add insult to injury, a Danish fan assaulted one of the referees, causing the Danish Football Association to award a victory to Sweden. Denmark was fined, Poulsen had been barred for three matches and the team from Denmark is not allowed within one hundred forty kilometres of Copenhagen.

Interested fans should know that the first eight rounds will be played across Austria and Switzerland. The quarter and semi final games will be played in St. Jakob Stadium in Basel, Switzerland, and the Ernest Happel Stadium in Vienna, where the final match will also take place. Unfortunately, unless fans have already applied and received their tickets for these last few games, it is highly unlikely that they will be able to secure any from the stadiums or qualified sales agents.