- 18 Jun 08, 11:20 AM
Klagenfurt
Sad to say but I think that Euro 2008 is starting to wind down.
Let me explain. It's Tuesday lunchtime in Klagenfurt, the day after the night when the city hosted its final Euro 2008 fixture. I am wandering around the outskirts of the city, not far from the Worthersee Stadium, trying to find a launderette that does not require a minimum of 24 hours to wash half a dozen pairs of socks. Everywhere I look, temporary beer and foods stands are being taken down, likewise flags of the competing nations that had been hung from pillar to post.
Fast forward several hours to the Fan Zone at Neuer Platz in the centre of the city. A band, Route 66, is playing and can be heard several blocks away. Only when I enter the Fan Zone do I realise that there are less than 50 people watching them.
The stallholders look bored and slightly disinterested, sausages remain untouched, lukewarm under the heat lights, the drizzle continues to fall and the atmosphere is ever so slightly depressing, like a festival headlined by a forgotten band nobody cares about anymore.
A shop window full of Austria fussball gear has a 'sale' banner slapped across it. The receptionist at my hotel tells me that the convention centre that hosted the city's second Fan Zone will now close due to lack of interest.
It is all a far cry from the night before when fans of both Poland and Croatia drank their way merrily and peacefully through the evening. Klagenfurt throbbed with life, noise and energy - a carnival of football.
It is the halfway mark of my journey around Euro 2008 and I cannot help but think that, with both host nations eliminated, the party is well and truly over in most of Austria and Switzerland.
No doubt this is in part attributable to the fact that the entire knockout stage of the competition will be hosted in just two cities, Basel and Vienna.
It is easy to see why Uefa has made this decision as they boast the only two venues with a capacity in excess of 32,000, but it doesn't do much to maintain an interest in the tournament amongst two host nations who never really seemed to bitten by the football bug.
A feature piece on an Austria television station on Tuesday evening showed their national team's training ground in Stegersbach being dismantled. As the advertising boards around the side of the pitch were being carried away and the goalposts taken down, "As Tears Go By" by The Rolling Stones could be heard in the background.
"It is the evening of the day,
I sit and watch the children play.
Smiling faces I can see, but not for me,
I sit and watch as tears go by."
It all seemed a little over the top, a touch tongue in cheek, as though the producers knew the Austrians didn't want anything too serious because they aren't really all that bothered.
And in truth, I do wonder whether the people of Klagenfurt ever really embraced being a host city at all.
Several locals in the sleepy, provincial capital of Carinthia said they felt more afraid than anything else, shying away like fishermen down in the hold waiting for the storm to pass.
Trouble certainly followed the Germany versus Poland match, perhaps vindicating their apprehension. But the receptionist at my hotel - yes, her again - felt the city had blown the chance to capitilise on their moment in the spotlight.
Now, with the host nations eliminated and just two venues left after Wednesday's final round of group games, I suspect that Euro 2008 has closed for business in many cities.
From what I've seen so far, that is no bad thing, and, reinvigorated by the sensation of clean clothes and buoyed by some brilliant fussball, I quite fancy dusting off the old boots and having a bit of a kickabout myself.
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In many ways, at this stage of a tournament, World Cup or Euro's, it does often feel like it is drawing to a close. Once the last round of group matches start, and there is only one kick off time per day and the 5 o'clock matches are gone, it feels like the exciting the nature of the previous 24 group games with underdogs like Austria nearly almost (not almost, nearly almost) making it to the knockout round is replaced by tense, teams-too-scared-to-have-a-go-matches that in the end someone will lose on penalties.
I thought this tournament may be different because i normally lose interest after the quarter finals when England get knocked out but it still feels the same.
The group stages were particularly good this year with some exciting matches but i fear it is going down the path of previous finals tournaments. In my eyes anyway...
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This kind of reinforces the argument for those saying both host naions should not have qualified automatically, doesn't it?
I mean, the whole point of guaranteeing Austria and Switzerland a place was to get the countries involved, excitied and create an atmosphere a' la Germany 2006. It overlooked the fact that neither of them were ever going to do well at all. All it's achieved is a tournament lacking as much competition as it could have had.
One host nation (even a poor one) in a World Cup with 32 teams is one thing, but 2 out of 16 is simply not good for the tournament. Maybe the way out of this, if ever 2 nations get to host it togther again (Scotland and Ireland?), would be for them to play a 2-legged pre-tournament tie to pick one of them. Or just get them to qualify like everyone else, except perhaps with a 5-point bonus or something....or even none at all - after all, the benefit of hosting a tournament is primarily economic, not sporting.
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Just hope that the dutch will stay all the way to the final - guaranteed fun! And guaranteed atmosphere....
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Well, I can confirm (judging by the number of cars beeping their horns last night) that Italy are still in it.
I watched the game at an indoor fanzone in Luzern and it was a great atmosphere.
Maybe part of the problem to some of the outdoor fanzones has been the weather....
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Fletch - rest easy - you're not the only soul at Euro 2008 with laundry woe - http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/euro2008/article-1027107/MATT-LAWTONS-EURO-BLOG-It-hurts-Scots-charged-3-pair-pants-washed-I-believe-tolerance-shown-suspected-Nazi-war-criminal-watching-Croatia-Euro-2008.html
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eff the football... ur finally not stinkin?
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John S - thanks for those reassuring words. After a while you realise it is the little things that matter.
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I don't understand why the Euro's can't have 32 teams, there are so many countries in Europe now (45+) what with the break up of many former soviet states. We also have countries that aren't even in Europe, Israel for example.
It's once every 4 years, make it more exciting by increasing the number of teams competing and if it's jointly hosted it won't affect the amount of qualifiers. It would also mean more teams get to the finals from nations that would normally fail to qualify because they are in a hard group (take Scotland for example as they had a tough group for Euro qualifiers). Yet they are a decent side and would add something to the tournament.
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re: no. 8 I believe that UEFA are already looking at expanding the number of teams at the Euros finals, as it may affect whether Scotland would be able to host a future tournament (i.e. like Euro2008 Scots have enough stadia for 16 teams, but not for 24 or 32).
I think this would be a good idea, but with more teams participating the seeding system would need to be reviewed otherwise we'd get the same 8 teams winning the groups each year, no "group of death" like this year, and the stronger seeds increasing their chances of progressing so we end up with the big teams only meeting in the knockout stages where they're more afraid of losing and go all out catenaccio...
One possible way around this would to scrap the seeding system at the group stage, but instead give all semi (or possibly quarter) finalists automatic qualification to the next tournament, and instead of qualifying games, these teams play each other in semi competitive friendlies. This would benefit england as well, as providing they made it to the auto-qualifying stage, they would be guaranteed regular games against high class opposition, home and AWAY, and an opportunity to evaluate against the better teams. Plus with the bigger teams out of the qualifying groups, teams such as wales, scots, finland, hungary etc have real chances at playing at the big stage.
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The idea of expanding the tournament is an interesting one but part of its appeal is that with 16 just teams there is a higher quality threshold. I just wonder whether more teams would dilute the quality of the product.
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On behalf of the Dutchies I'd like to thank and compliment Bern for it's hospitality !
We're sorry that we have to move on, if it was up to us we'd play every match in the wonderful Wankdorf stadium.
We've had three awesome parties in your lovely city : from now on "the wonder of Bern" will have a different meaning to Dutchies ;-)
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Expanding the tournament would be ridiculous, the tournament is supposed to be the cream of the continent, not half of it, or even 3-quarters. With so many teams you might as well just forget about qualifying and let everyone in.
The trouble with larger tournaments like the World Cup is that only the largest nations have the infrastructure to cope with the tournament. The Euros let smaller nations have their chance to host a tournament.
The comments about barring the hosts are ludicrous too.
Imagine this: your friend is hosting a dinner party, and you're invited. However, you ban them from eating with you.
It's common courtesy to let the hosts take part too you know!
Also, every time the host goes out of a tournament, it loses most of the atmosphere and 'x factor', Fletch has noticed this, everyone does.
Can you imagine a tournament without the hosts taking part at all? It would be a joke.
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So you think that Switzerland and Austria are the cream of the continent? Christ Austrian fans were protesting about wanting them to even be in the tournament. With more teams in the tournament like i said it would allow decent teams that failed to qualify to be involved ie Scotland, Republic of Ireland, N Ireland and England.
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There is quite a simple way of ensuring the hosts are competitive. When deciding the host, make a short list of 5. Then make everybody play in the qualifiers regardless. If the first option for hosts has not secured a spot, choose the second one and so on.
I actually think that even the host countries dislike not playing competitive games for two years straight in the current format.
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Host countries and qualifying - touchy subject.
If there is two of them in a 16 team tournament and they would not overwise be there then 1/8th of the places are taken up by unworthy sides.
But can you imagine a major finals without the hosts being in it?
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Count_G hit the nail on the head as regards infrastructure. We've had lots of people complaining about the size of Stadia in this event. Imagine it went to Scotland. We only have 4 Stadia on the other side of 50,000, and all within 2 cities (which in itself leads to problems with hotels etc). No other stadia comes anywhere near that.
Outwith the big 5/6 in Europe, no other country has a look in.
One other fact that hasn't been mentioned is hotels and transport links. Austria and Switzerland are miles better than most when it comes to these(especially transport).I actually believe it was these 2 factors that won them the right to host the event. Does anyone think Poland/Ukraine will have better transport links? Not me.
Making the tourni bigger sounds great, but at what cost to smaller nations?
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Spain, France and Italy haven't hosted the tournament in the last 24 years between them. Should be one of those for 2016, especially as it will probably be expanded to 24 teams.
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Having lived in Klagenfurt, I can only confirm it is the most dour place in a spectacularly beautiful setting. I could never get my head around how a general populace could be so dull and fundamentally narrow-minded. About everything. It is no surprise Joerg Haider is the local governor, they follow him like sheep down there. I know it is a gross generalisation of an entire city, but there is only a tiny minority of people who know how to smile, let alone get into the spirit of things. Even so, even the Klagenfurters have outdone my lowly expectations of them. They have really shown themselves up as the sullen moaners they are.
Fast forward to Graz, not a host city. Last Thursday in the freezing rain it was impossible to get a seat at the many tables and benches laid on for public viewing. As the night got colder, fans - French, Dutch, Austrian, Croatian and Czech(!) huddled together and partied into the night
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"Closed for business" is about it; in many places that's all it ever was, a business. This is a little like the atmosphere at the WC in '94 in the USA when most locals didn't even know it was going on, they were more interested in boring baseball. They're greatest concern then, before the mantra mania for R-E-S-P-E-C-T was containing the dreaded English hooligans. Fortunately for the local authorities, Engaland didn't qualify for that tournament either, which may also have something to do with why it's so quiet in Klagenfurt now, too. Anyway, it's only a lull, when the next round starts it'll pick up again, Part II is always the most exciting - everywhere but in the USA, they never did get into it back then!
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Hi Fletch
Glad to hear at last the sun is out. Hope you have at last found the launderette.
Here, we are suporting Italy and Holland.
Last nights match at last saw Italy play as though they were in a world tournament instead of a run around on the park.
I have to say in France defence they were a little bit unlucky at times, losing Franck Ribery after only 7 minutes sent them spiralling downwards and they never recovered..
As for Holland well they have played brilliant since they first walked on the pitch last night was no exception.
Keep up the good work Fletch enjoy reading the blogs
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20 teams would be an ideal number, 4 groups of 5. The lowest ranked team would not play in the last round of matches.
There should only be one host nation qualify though.
That's not to say that joint bids should be stopped, but each bid should have a primary nation, they would host at least the final, semis, 2 quarters and 2 of the 4 groups. The other games could be passed out to surrounding nations as per the bid. This would guarentee that at least one of the countries has a number of decent facilities, while it would allow lesser nations to host some matches as well.
The Czechs for instance could host a games with a group and quarter final based in Slovakia and another of each in Hungary.
24 or more teams is too many first because it would become too easy to quality and second because 6 team groups are too big for the finals and 6 groups of 4 was a confusing disaster at the world cup.
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I think there should only ever be one host, who would then qualify automatically. It shouldn't stop two (or more) countries joint hosting the event though. The 'host' nation should be the country were the final and semi-finals are held.
This is what happened for the Rugby World Cup in France 2007 with some games played in Wales and Scotland, and Wales '99 some games were played in Scotland, England, Ireland and France.
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How about having the quarter finals replaced with a second league round, but with the teams going through carrying the results from the first round?
Eg instead of the current knockouts this would create two mouth watering leagues
Portugal, Germany, Croatia and Turkey with the four games of: Portugal v Germany, Portugal v Croatia, Turkey v Germany, Turkey v Croatia.
Netherlands, Italy, Russia and Spain with the four games of: Netherlands v Russia, Netherlands v Spain, Italy v Spain, Italy v Russia.
Then the top two teams from each league would make it to the last four knockouts?
I think it has the room to significantly increase the excitement of the quarter finals!
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Yes, of course Klagenfurt is removing it's Euro 2008 dressing. It had its eight days of madness and now is getting back to normal. I was there for the last five days, English married to a Croat and living in Croatia, and thought it was a fantastic venue that really exceeded expectations.
The stadium - 30,000 seater football arena. Far better than a 60,000+ athletics stadium.
The fan zones were brilliant - glad I never got tickets for the matches because I think the atmosphere was incredible in the town.
Organisation - Austrian - down to the last detail was perfect - accommodation (we camped by the lake), transportation and security.
The Austrian fans - I was amazed at how many turned up in the fan zones and how enthusiastic they were. On the evening of the Croatia-Germany, Austria-Poland games there were three sets of fans (Poles were in Vienna) in huge numbers in the town, all mingling and having a great time.
Well done Klagenfurt.
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