On the ball? Five years after the successful bid to stage the 2008 EuroPean football championships with neighbouring Austria, Switzerland is finally waking up to the fact that one of the world's biggest sporting events is just around the corner. So how ready are the Swiss to put on a memorable soccer party, and what challenges still remain?
| Auteur | Ledsom, Mark |
| Fonction | SPORTS FEATURE |
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Two recent events have helped focus the public's attention on the immediacy of Euro 2008, one requiring plenty of planning and the other none at all. The first event was the smoothly-organised and suitably dramatic tournament draw, held in Lucerne on December 2. The second was the arrival of the new year itself, reminding those Swiss who still needed telling that Euro 2008 is about to hit town.
To be precise, the event is about to hit the country's four main cities with Zurich, Geneva, Bern and Basel all set to host group stage matches. Basel, home to the Swiss national teams during the group stage, will also stage two quarter-finals and a semi-final before attention switches to Austria for the final in Vienna.
December's draw proved generally kind to the Swiss who were handed a reasonably tough but by no means impossible group for their own national side. As well as Switzerland, Group A comprises two former European championship runners-up, Portugal and the Czech Republic (who also won the tournament in 1976 as Czechoslovakia), as well as Turkey. All three opponents are ranked higher than Switzerland in football's world rankings and are known for a passionate, attacking style of football.
Still, things could have been a lot worse for Switzerland. Austria, for example, would appear to have a much tougher challenge after being drawn in the same group as the ever-tricky Poland, the Croatians who ended England's chances of reaching Euro 2008, and Germany, three-time winners of the World Cup and European Championships.
Group of champions
By far the hardest group though is surely the one pitting World Cup holders Italy against World Cup runners-up France, former European Champions Holland, and unlucky underdogs Romania. The real winners from that group are likely to be the Swiss cities of Zurich and Bern which are due to stage all six games between the four teams.
Jumping up from his seat in excitement during a draw that saw Italy's rematch against France heading for Zurich, city mayor Elmar Ledergerber later told reporters it was "a super draw ... an explosive draw.., a great story ... a football festival!"
Zurich's large Italian community, numbering nearly 14,000 at the last count in 2006 (not including the many Swiss nationals of Italian origin), will no doubt agree with that assessment, even if they might have chosen easier opponents to welcome to their second home.
Geneva's large Portuguese community should also...
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