Another chance to win Euro 2008 tickets..

Euro 2008 sponsors JVC are giving fans the chance to win tickets for the big event with this quirky and quality game that can also help you while away the hours at work. Every fortnight from now until this summers' tournament you can win a pair of tickets, and the more people who play, the more tickets JVC will release as prizes.

You can play a mini version of Euroball here by clicking on the widget above. Please give my ads a few clicks too while you're at it and ad a few pennies to my Yard of Ale fund for the Euros!

Euroball is a take on 'table football' and though frustrating to begin with, once you get the knack you'll be spending far too much time plugging away in the hope of bagging some briefs. So far there's been six winners who have all got their hands on some goldust Euro 2008 tickets, with a Dutch lady holding the highest score so far of 2,568, 450..something I can only dream of...a Dutch lady that is. Anyway, lost my train of thought for a second there so get yourself over to the Euroball website and see if you can get yourself onto the Euroball Champions winners rostrum.

YOYWYW Super League

After Matchday One of the UEFA.com Euro 2008 Fantasy Football warm up competition the YOYWYW Super League players had mixed fortunes. The leader so far is Donald Larmour and his side Euro Warriors who scored a decent 47 points. With the highest scoring side managing 76 points Donald finds himself sitting in 1,148th of the 29,891 total players. Here's the full Yodellers league table so far...

1	Euro warriors	Donald Larmour	47	47
2	LEAPED LIKE A SALMON	walter ferguson	43	43
2	Jagastonia	William Jarvis	43	43
4	Dynamo Thistle	Adam Reid	40	40
5	Yodellers XI	P Black	36	36
6	DEF/MID/ATT - R/L/C	Michael Anderson	35	35
7	Firhill Shed	stuart goldie	34	34
8	FT FC	Greig Forbes	33	33
9	Red Yellow Army	Nick Mathers	32	32
10	Maryhill Magyars	Steven Campbell	30	30
11	banknock thistle	chris paterson	29	29
12	Canucks	Calum Stewart	26	26
13	Lauras Star	Allan Macmillan	24	24
14	Metatarsal XI	Vinny Ferguson	20	20
15	DerryRhumba	Jon Glassey	19	19
16	Scotland Thistle	Scott Grant	18	18
17	Real Portknockie	Willie Milne	15	15

There's still time to get your team entered in time for Matchday Two which will not be starting until May 23rd, and to get practising the art of UEFA.com Fantasy management in time for the big tournament starting in the summer. Register at UEFA.com and enter the code 52-10 in the League tab to join us.

I'd like to also say Wilkommen as the Austrians would say to our new additions, who are primed and ready to go for Matchday Two.

Matchday 1..been and gone...

So Matchday One of the UEFA.com Fantasy Football has been and gone and what an eventful one it turned out to be...

Expected whipping boys Austria scored THREE against the Dutch yet still lost the match 4-3, the Greeks went to a Ronaldo-free Portugal and won 2-1, Germany showed why they're classed as favourites by thumping hosts Switzerland 4-0 and Romania rousted the rusty Russians 3-0.

The top performing players from Matchday One were...

GOALKEEPER
Jens Lehmann (Germany) & Gregory Coupet (France) with 7 pts
DEFENDER
Sebastian Prodl (Austria) with 12 pts
MIDFIELDER
Andreas Ivanschitz (Austria) with 13 pts
STRIKER
Mario Gomez (Germany) with 13 pts

I can't imagine many managers having either Prodl or Ivanschitz in their team but these are the kind of players that will be picked once the money is running dry, so well done if you had either.

The top scoring team so far managed a very impressive 76 pts from Matchday One so congratulations must go to one, Sergio Ramos from Spain. Surely not THE Sergio Ramos? If so there should surely be a stewards enquiry as he picked himself in his team, Acroteam, who lead the way so far. The best possible XI, or the Dream Team as UEFA call them would have got you a massive 103 pts and consisted of Coupet, Prodl, Heitinga, Radoi, Ivanschitz, Karagounis, Kranjcar, Ribery, Gomez, Huntelaar and Tuncay Sanli.

Matchday Two is now a couple of months away so there is plenty of time for you to keep an eye out for injuries and watch for the players who hit form as most domestic seasons near an end. The transfer window is open again and as many changes as possible can be made before the next fixtures are with us on 23rd May when Russia face Borat's Kazakhstan.

Waxing lyrical...

Not many people may know this but one of London's leading ladies and major tourist attractions wouldn't be where it was today if it wasn't for the Swiss. Today's addition to the YOYWYW banner is Madame Tussaud, or Marie Grosholtz as she was known before she married Mr Tussaud.

Marie learned the art of wax modelling at a very early age in Berne when her mother went to work for physician Phillipe Curtius, who was the foremost modeller of his time. Marie, who was French but took Swiss citizenship, followed Curtius to Paris when King Louis XVI invited him to France to make models of the rich and famous and she inherited his business when he died.

After marrying into the Tussaud clan, Marie emigrated to London in 1802 and started touring Britain with her wax models before setting up shop in London in 1833. Today Madame Tussauds can be found in London, New York, Las Vegas, Washington, Amsterdam, Shanghai, Hong Kong and Berlin.

If you've ever done the touristy bit and parted with the ridiculous £22.50 then just think, you'd never have been there if it wasn't for the Swiss.

Last chance saloon...

Tomorrow is the start of the UEFA.com Fantasy Football and if you want to be in with a chance of winning tickets to Austria and Switzerland then you better get moving. The competition will run over the next three international friendly matches so to have a real chance you need to get entered before the opening fixtures tomorrow night.

Anyone who already has a team entered has until 7pm tomorrow to get substitutions made so get checking the team news as many players have already withdrawn from their respective squads including, Ronaldo, Nani, Thierry Henry, Patrick Vieria, Karim Benzema, Ruud Van Nistelrooy, Robert Huth and many more.

Get selecting your team, enter it into the YOYWYW Super League by using the code on the right and good luck!

Austria's most capped...

Today's addition to the YOYWYW banner sees Austria's most capped footballer ANDREAS HERZOG being added to our Hall of Fame.

Herzog played 103 times for his country scoring 27 goals in the process. The midfielder was renowned for his ability to strike a dead ball and scored some stunning free kicks throughout a lengthy career that ended in 2004 when he retired from playing at his final club and David Beckham's current side, Los Angeles Galaxy.

Herzog started out at Rapid Vienna, where he spent seven years of his career before moving to Germany to star for Bayern Munich and then Werder Bremen, where he spent five years.

Herzog also had a spell as caretaker coach of the Austrian national side during qualifying for the 2006 World Cup and is now the assistant manager of the side who will be led by coach Josef Hickersberger into this summers European Championships.

Euro 2008 Prediction League

Aswell as providing the Euro 2008 Fantasy Football competition, the UEFA.com website is also running a Prediction League in conjunction with JVC for the forthcoming international friendly fixtures.

You can win a fantastic JVC Audio Theatre System by winning this competition that covers the three friendly fixtures the Euro 2008 finalists will be playing in the build-up to this summer's big tournament.

Get your entries in to the Prediction League by registering here and you can then join the YOYWYW Predictor by going to the League tab and entering the code 8844-365

International Friendlies...

The UEFA.com Fantasy Football competition gets into full swing this midweek when the first phase of international friendlies before Euro 2008 commences get underway. To be in with a chance of winning tickets to the big tournament now is the time to get your entries in and pick up points right from the start.

Here is a list of this midweek's friendlies, with the Euro 2008 finalists in bold and links to the news pages of the Euro 2008 website for all the latest team news...

Belarus v Turkey
Romania v Russia
Denmark v Czech Republic
Austria v Holland
Poland v USA
Portugal v Greece
Sweden v Brazil
Switzerland v Germany
France v England
Scotland v Croatia
Spain v Italy

Looking at these fixtures and with ten of the sixteen Euro 2008 finalists facing each other it could pay to pick your line-up from the likes of Turkey and Czech Republic who will be facing sides who aren't planning for the summer and may well be building towards the upcoming World Cup qualifiers. The other side who should come out on top, and where I will be finding the backbone of my team is from Holland, who face Euro hosts and expected, quite rightly so, whipping boys of the tournament.

Get picking your team and don't forget to get them entered into the YOYWTW Super League by using the code 52-10...GOOD LUCK!

Swiss GOAL...

Today sees Kubilay Turkilmaz, Switzerland's joint top all-time goalscorer being the first football-related addition to the YOYWYW banner.

With a name that's more at home in Istanbul, Turkilmaz scored 34 goals for the Swiss during his international career between 1988 and 2001 and still jointly holds this record with Max Abegglen, a player from the 1920's.

Born to Turkish parents in Bellinzona, Switzerland, Turkilmaz became a hero with Turkish side Galatasaray and Swiss side Grasshoppers during his career and entered the footballing record books when he became the only player to score a hat-trick of penalty kicks in a World Cup qualifier against the Faroe Islands in 2000. This record was later equalled by Brazilian legend Ronaldo against bitter rivals Argentina in 2004.

Rock me Amadeus...

No montage of all things Austrian and Swiss would be complete without one of the most influential music composers of all time... Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart or Joannes Chrysostomus Woflgangus Theophilus Mozart to give him his christened, and positively ridiculous title.

Mozart was born in 1756 in Salzburg, and in the days before the city was part of Austria and when it was part of the Holy Roman Empire. Being part of a musical family the young Wolfgang started slapping away on a keyboard (not like this one right enough) at about the age of three and this led to him going on to produce over 600 compositions of symphonic, concertante, chamber, piano, operatic and choral music.

While churning out classical tunes and music that would stand the test of time, Mozart had a love of vulgarity and sexual-oriented humour. This was noted in some of his surviving memoirs to his cousin of all people, something more akin to the trailer parks of the USA rather than a good upbringing in the Alps. Mozart even penned a musical score called 'Lech mich im Arsch', catchingly interpreted as ' Lick my arse'...lovely eh?

Undoubtedly one of Austrias most famous sons and now a welcome addition to the YOYWYW banner.

UEFA Euro 2008 Fantasy Football

With the UEFA Fantasy Footy competition being the first one to get going now is the time to get involved and give yourself a chance of actually being in Austria and Switzerland for the big tourney.

So far Cristiano Ronaldo is the most picked player with just short of 5000 players picking him in their side. The other most popular picks in the top ten at this early stage are...

Cristiano Ronaldo		Portugal	4,734
Torres		Spain	3,529
Fabregas		Spain	2,337
Lahm		Germany	2,007
Puyol		Spain	1,870
Ibrahimović		Sweden	1,674
Buffon		Italy	1,600
Pirlo		Italy	1,578
Klose		Germany	1,540
Ribéry		France	1,519

Get your entry in ASAP and get your team entered into the YOYWYW Super League by going to the leagues section and entering the code... 52-10

Cuckoo..Cuckoo

After a few days off from this blog due to..well, lazyitis, I return with today's addition to the YOYWYW banner and a suggestion from a subscriber to this blog...THE CUCKOO CLOCK.

Now OK, I'm sure a lot of you are saying 'Cuckoo Clock' what's that got to do with Switzerland an Austria, that's a German thing and well, you'd be right. But what you may not know is that for whatever reason or other if you ask someone 'Where does the Cuckoo Clock originate?' they're highly likely to say Switzerland.

One person who takes a good bit of the blame for this misconception is Mark Twain. In his story 'A Tramp Abroad' one chapter is entitled 'The Nest of the Cuckoo-Clock' and describes how Lucerne is the home of this style of clock...which, as you now know is a load of Cuckpoo!

Switzerland did have a big influence on this style of clock and one of the most common, and the kind I have chosen to add to the banner, the 'Chalet' style originated in Switzerland in the nineteenth century and were regarded as higly valuable souvenirs from the country.

You must think I'm 'Cuckoo' sitting writing this in relation to Euro 2008..you'd be right.

The Chocolatiers...

Ask any woman to name something Swiss and they'll give you an instant response of chocloate. One of the most recognised and tastiest of these has to be... TOBLERONE ...today's addition to the YOYWYW banner.

This tasty triangular goodie has been produced since it's invention in 1908 by Jean Tobler, a Swiss confectioner who opened his first shop in 1867 in Berne. The Toblerone packaging is instantly recognisable throughout the world and is believed to be designed to symbolise one of the most familar mountains in the Alps, the Matterhorn. The other theory is that Tobler enjoyed many business trips to Paris and enjoyed watching the dancers at the Folies Bergere. After watching them perform their routine they would end the show by forming a human pyramid, which is said may have inspired Tobler to create the classic Toblerone shape.

The Toblerone packaging is instantly recognisable. It used to have an image of a bear, the heraldic symbol of Berne and an eagle carrying the Toblerone 'T' on it, but these had to be removed due to products not being allowed to display Swiss national symbols and so the Matterhorn was all that was left.

The unique taste of Toblerone comes from the ingredients of Cocoa, Almond-Nougat, Milk and Honey and bars are now available in dark chocolate, white chocolate as well as milk chocolate.

Undoubtedly one of the world's most recognisable brands and one of the most delicious chocloates around, no duty free would be the same without it!

UEFA.com Euro 2008 Fantasy Football..game on..

The official UEFA Euro 2008 Fantasy Football game is now all systems go!

Launched today, you can now get prepared for the big summer tournament and give yourself a chance of winning tickets to Euro 2008 by competing in the upcoming international friendly matches before this summers premier tourney gets underway.

To get started and be in with a chance of winning tickets go to UEFA.com register with the site and you're ready to pick your team. If you're already registered with UEFA.com just log-in and head to the Fantasy Football page.

You can then make the experience even more enjoyable by signing up to the YOYWYW Super League by going to the League section and using the code 52-10. This will see your team entered into the league I have set up and we can battle it out during the friendly section of the game and when the tournament starts proper. There's a messageboard there where the banter can flourish and you can share your team line-up, tactics and any team news you may have that could help out other players.

C'mon, let's be one step ahead here and ready for this summer's fun. Get yourself entered into the first Euro 2008 Fantasy Football around and be prepared for the big kick off on 26th March when the friendly action begins.

The Klammer for success...

Today's Alps add-on sees Austrian skiing legend and all round good guy...FRANZ KLAMMER joining our YOYWYW banner.

Franz dominated the slopes during the seventies and was Ski Sunday's favourite son when I was growing up back in the day. Klammer won a gold medal at the 1976 Winter Olympics in his homeland when he pipped former champion Bernhard Russi by 0.33 seconds in Innsbruck.

The 'Kaiser' as Klammer was known was never a silky skier but he certainly wasn't afraid to take risks and was the undoubted Downhill master. Klammer retired at 30 but will long be remembered as that mad Austrian man in the yellow suit who just went for it. Long live The 'Klammer Express'...

24 hours and ticking...

There's only one day to go before the launch of the first Fantasy Football for Euro 2008.
The competition at the official UEFA website launches tomorrow and I will be getting my team entered and a Super League set-up as soon as possible so get yourself over to the Official Euro 2008 website give them your enail address and await the signal to get started.

The names Andress..Ursula Andress...

Another day another addition to the YOYWYW banner.

Today sees Swiss sexbomb and one of the finest Bond Girls to ever grace the screens join our hall of fame... URSULA ANDRESS shot to fame as Honey Ryder in the 1962 Bond classic Dr No alongside Sir Sean Connery. The Swiss beauty famously made her entrance to the film by surfacing from the ocean after shell diving in a swimsuit that left not a lot to the imagination, while providing a quality cameltoe, and still has men all over the world dribbling. The scene was voted as No1 in the '100 Greatest Sexy Moments'
for a Channel 4 show in 2003 and won Andress a Golden Globe in 1964 for 'New Star of the Year'

Undoubtedly one of her finest moments and one I never tire watching every Christmas when the Bond series gets it's annual re-run.

A sign of the times...

Today's addition to the YOYWYW banner brings one of the most famous and most blagged things in Austrian history.

The small village of FUCKING lies near Salzburg in the Tarsdorf municipality and is a place that tourists flock to in their droves to have their picture taken next to the sign at the entrance to the village. Not only has the signpost become a pictorial must-have, but it has also been stolen so many times that the Local authorities have tried every possible means of attaching the Fucking signposts to the ground. Current projects involve embedding the signs in concrete and welding several poles together. But this has done little to dissuade raggamuffins from trying to loot the items.

The problem has caused so much trouble that in 2004 matters came to a head and a referendum was taken on whether the village's name should be changed. Thankfully the 104 Fucking inhabitants decided against this and it Fucking remains.

Amazingly the residents even refuse to capitalise on their village's fame. One resident produced T Shirts which were frowned upon by the locals and he was forced to stop trying to sell his 'I like Fucking in Austria' garments....genius.

And then there was two...

It seems it's not only UEFA who are quick off the mark in setting up their Fantasy Footie for this summer's tournament. While have a good peruse through the world wide web I found this competition powered by FSports which like the UEFA one isn't ready for playing but is taking email addresses and will keep you posted when the game is up and running.

Register your interest for FantasyEuro2008 using the link provided and they will keep you posted.

So far the prize for this competition is a football shirt of your choice provided by online sports store Subside Sports, more prizes may follow.

Today's banner addition..

Following on from yesterday's Austrian, our Arnie, today we see the addition of Swiss legend and tennis genius... ROGER FEDERER and one of his many cows, Juliette!

Federer has dominated world tennis for years now and during his reign has managed to gain himself a herd of cattle that was given to him by his homeland for winning major titles like Wimbledon. Unfortunately for Fed, our pictured cow Juliette didn't last long and was slaughtered due to not being able to produce enough milk. You could kind of say it was a Deuce (or lack of it) point!!

The host nations..

So, if you didn't know already and hadn't guessed with my references to yodelling, big Arnie and busty beer wenches the host nations for Euro 2008 are Austria and Switzerland. Here's some interestingly boring facts on the hosts with the most...

AUSTRIA
WHO?- The father of modern psychoanalysis, Sigmund Freud, was Austrian, with his theories on the conscious and unconscious mind developed in the late 19th and early 20th centuries continuing to be enormously influential.
HOW MUCH?- A vibrant market economy has seen Austria boast an extraordinarily high standard of living since the second world war and regarded as being fourth in the list of the most wealthy nations in the European Union and in the top ten in the world.
WHERE?- Austria is a federal republic and parliamentary democracy. The nation consists of nine independent federal states - Burgenland, Carinthia, Lower Austria, Upper Austria, Salzburg, Styria, Tyrol, Vorarlberg and Vienna - which all have their own provincial governments.
EH?- The candy PEZ, with it's unique and much-loved by kids dispenser was invented in Austria.


SWITZERLAND
WHO?-Notable Swiss alumni include computer scientist Niklaus Wirth and architect Jacques Herzog, who devised London's Tate Modern gallery and the Fußball Arena München.
WHERE?-Switzerland has a population of about 7.4 million with foreigners accounting for around 20 per cent of the resident population - a sizeable proportion come from Italy, Turkey and the former Yugoslav repubics.
HOW MUCH?- Switzerland has long been associated with finance and banking and the world's money has always been safe in Swiss hands. Some famous Swiss companies that have found international success include Nestlé, Swatch, Swarovski, Bally Shoes, UBS AG, Tag Heuer, Rolex, Credit Suisse and Adecco.
EH?- Switzerland is heavily active in recycling and anti-littering regulations and is one of the top recyclers in the world with 66% to 96% of the different recyclable materials being recycled.

YOYWYW banner

Every day we'll be adding to the YOYWYW banner at the top of this blog to bring you an insight into the host nations Austria and Switzerland.

As you can see so far the 'Hills are alive with the sound of music' as the YOYWYW yodellers Helmut and Heinrich belt out some traditional Austrian tunes while our beautiful barmaid Gretel shows off some of her lovely jugs...of ale that is!

Today's addition is Austria's most famous son, no, not Adolf Hitler but the one they call Arnie...

Arnold Alois Schwarzenegger

Keep your eyes peeled for our banner changing and if you have any suggestions as to what we could be adding to our Alps then please leave a comment and we'll see what we can do.

Let the games commence...

The first of the Euro 2008 Fantasy Footie competitions to appear on the scene is unsurprisingly the official UEFA tournament sponsored by good ol' MaccieD's.

The competition will be open for entries on 14th March but you can register your interest right now at the official Euro 2008 website and be kept fully informed of when it's time to get your managerial thinking caps on and what prizes are on offer.

I've already registered my interest in this so as soon as the competition is up and running I will get a Super League sorted out and we can LET BATTLE COMMENCE...

Click here to sign up to UEFA.com and register your interest in this competition.

89 days and counting...

The countdown clock is ticking to this summer's big Euro 2008 football tournament.
With the Home Nations all having failed to qualify it's going to be a long summer for British and Irish footie fans as we sit watching the cream of Europe battle it out in Switzerland and Austria.

The opportunity to be served a jug of ale by busty Austrian beauties has passed us all by and there will be no yodelling 'Engerland..Engerland' in the Alps or bagpipes blowing in Berne this time round. It is a undoubted disaster for no Home Nations to be represented at a tournament of this stature and we'll all have to make do with watching from afar this time round...a crying shame!

With this void in all our lives for Euro 2008 and to keep the interest in the tournament up I've decided that the way forward is to be involved in as many Fantasy Football competitions as I can. This blog is designed to keep you informed of any new Euro 2008 Fantasy competions that appear (and there will be plenty) and to keep you abreast of the numerous betting opportunities that will be on offer up to the tournaments big kick off in 89 days.

Over the next couple of months we'll be looking at the countries involved in Euro 2008, the tournament itself, the players, the managers, the venues, the fixtures... but mainly the many Fantasy competions that will be on offer. I will also be setting up Super Leagues in tournaments so we can all battle it out and also keeping you abreast of odds and offers available from the many online bookies as the battle commences to get your 2008 betting stakes.

England, Scotland, Ireland, Northern Ireland and Wales may not be there and we're all at a loss because of this no matter what nationality we are. But I tell you what, we're gonna have a damn good time watching this tournament even without our own teams to follow so keep coming back to 'You only Yodel when you're winning' and let battle commence...