Given that the self proclaimed 'Home of Football' will not be present at the Euro Championship what will be the most tenuous connection to Engerland or the English game?

Referee, linesman, premier league player, ball boy, once stopped over at Heathrow Terminal 5?

Post your best tedious links here............

What a goal, what a free kick, he just bent it like Beckham................................

Germany, who weren't so lucky in 1966, deserved the win

Holland, from the south of the english channel,...........................

France, who were once the arch enemies of the english,............

"......Marius Niculae - who plays for Inverness ... where they speak the most perfect english in the UK ... but will Romania ever be as good as England, who won the world cup in 1966 and whose absence from this tournament devalues it somewhat ....."

Post your best tedious links here............

oops, you wanted real ones ..... will keep an eye out for some  :004:

Probably the Perrotta being "English" link, like they had for the World Cup final  :rolleyes02:

Commentator #1

Welcome to this, the opening game of the European Championships 2008.  As one of the hosts, Switzerland line up against the Czech Republic, how do you see this game spanning out?

Commentator #2

Well, what you've got to remember is the Czech Republic are actually playing England in 2 months time, so they'll have that in the back of their heads.  Tough one to call but I'll go with a draw due to the Czechs wanting to stay fresh for August.

And we can see the Swiss flags flying, the colours of course being the reverse of the English flag...

Good news in The Times, Motson might leave after the Euros. Allah be praised. Maybe we'll get less biased commentaries in future. I did enjoy listening to the FA Cup Final in Welsh though.

clicky

England managed to get a couple of mentions on the Radio 5 commentary of the Switzerland Vs Czech Republic.

The Swiss substitute at the beginning of the 2nd half was introduced as 'the player you might remember from Euro 2004 who lined up against England, a game in which of course we won 3-0!'

and this beauty which may be hard to top...

Apart from Peter Czech which player on the pitch would get in the England team!  :029:

:015:

It only took Motty a few minutes to get a mention in, that Switzerland played against England in the opening game of Euro 96.

Slightly off-topic, but I enjoyed a discussion on Radio 5 this morning which went along the lines of :

"Which team do you think will be this tournament's Greece?"

"Err......Greece."

Colin Kazim-Richards, the English born right winger who plays for Turkey, was also mentioned.

On Tuncay falling over dramatically to try to win a free kick in Turkey v Portugal...

"He didn't learn that at the Riverside"....in the best sneering 'Johnny Foreigner' manner

Well I seen bits of both games yesterday and listened to the commentators and pundits and to be honest I think England's going to win it.

With anyone who's ever played five minutes of football in England being mentioned, I'm looking forward to hours of mentions of ICT tomorrow. Bet there isn't a single one...

Marius Niculae who plays for Inverness in the north of england maybe

how about in the croatia game, Kranjcar was known as the man who plays for Portsmouth in the English Premeir League and not known as the person who scored a goal in the 3-2 defeat of england. :rolleyes02:

With anyone who's ever played five minutes of football in England being mentioned, I'm looking forward to hours of mentions of ICT tomorrow. Bet there isn't a single one...

Very glad to be wrong  :001:

Only problem was the they said he was the first Inverness player to play a major tournament, which is wrong because **** Hastings has played in the Gold Cup  :029:

"and lets go over and have a word with the manager of England....our absent friends"

NEWSFLASH......The commentators are the only people missing England, nobody else in the world gives a feck.

Well it was inevitable but finally someone cracked and during the Spain Vs Russia game on Radio 5 Graham Taylor (the ex-England manager) managed to mention England winning the World Cup in 1966  :clapping03:

I can't remember the game  but the comentator took great delight in telling us " The goal made by Chelsea and scored by Arsenal" ::)

"Miroslav Klose, who joined the illustrious club of players to have scored a hat trick at a world cup finals in 2002. The only englishman to have done so?"

Co-commentator "Geoff Hurst?"

"Yes, quite right, Geoff Hurst famously in 1966."

From the weekend ...

"Of course if England had qualified the Russians wouldn't even be here!"