UEFA.com Fantasy Football..join our league...

Matchday 2 of the UEFA.com Euro 2008 Fantasy Football is only a couple of weeks away now so if you've not already joined the YOYWYW Super League the get your entries in.

The Russia v Kazakhstan match on the 23rd May is the start of the next phase so if you are in the league it may be an idea to start thinking about some substitutions.

Getting your teams entered now means you're in and ready for when the tournament gets going proper and also allows you a bit of practice time to work out how the site works. C'mon you know you want to...

Sign up here and when registered go to the 'Leagues' tab and enter the code 52-10 to join the YOYWYW Super League...

First squad named...

Croatia have become the first country to name their chosen 23-man squad for Euro 2008.

Coach Slaven Bilic, who has just signed a new two-year extension to his contract, produced no real surprises when he named the men he hopes will take the Henri Delaunay trophy back to Zagreb in July. The Croats have also named two youngsters who they will be taking to the tournament as reserves, players Bilic believes are future stars. The squad is...

Goalkeepers
Stipe Pletikosa Spartak Moscow
Vedran Runje Lens
Mario Galinović Panathinaikos

Defenders
Dario Šimić AC Milan
Robert Kovač Borussia Dortmund
Josip Šimunić Hertha Berlin
Vedran Ćorluka Manchester City
Dario Knežević Livorno
Hrvoje Vejić FC Tom Tomsk

Midfielders
Niko Kovač FC Salzburg
Jerko Leko AS Monaco
Darijo Srna Shakhtar Donetsk
Niko Kranjčar Portsmouth
Luka Modrić Tottenham Hotspur
Danijel Pranjić Heerenveen
Ivan Rakitić Schalke 04
Ognjen Vukojević Dinamo Zagreb
Nikola Pokrivač AS Monaco

Forwards
Mladen Petrić Borussia Dortmund
Ivica Olić Hamburg
Ivan Klasnić Werder Bremen
Igor Budan Parma
Nikola Kalinić Hajduk Split

Reserves
Manuel Pamić FC Salzburg
Anas Sharbini HNK Rijeka

Bilic said, "We chose 23 players and we are also taking two youngsters. Not because we want to give them a chance to fit in or to thank them, but because they are young, talented and playing in the positions we need."

Croatia face Moldova in friendly matches later this month before their opening Euro 2008 fixture against Austria and Bilic will be hoping his players come through the next couple of games unscathed.

You better...you Euro 2008 BET...

With the domestic football season coming to an end it is only going to be a matter of time before the bookies start bombarding us all with their range of bets for Euro 2008. If you're thinking of having a punt on this, and haven't done so already then now is the time to get your bet on before the action starts to really hot up, the money starts to flow and the odds get cut.

Today we take our first look at some of the prices available for the big tournament and where better to start than the outright betting for the winner of Euro 2008. Here is a list of the best prices available at present and where to find them...

Germany 4-1 SkyBet
Spain 13-2 BlueSq
Italy 7-1 SkyBet
Portugal 15-2 Bet365
France 9-1 Partybets
Holland 14-1 Totesport
Croatia 14-1 Totesport
Czech Rep 16-1 SkyBet
Greece 25-1 SkyBet
Switzerland 25-1 Totesport
Sweden 33-1 Betfred
Russia 33-1 Bet365
Romania 50-1 SkyBet
Poland 50-1 StanJames
Turkey 50-1 BlueSq
Austria 125-1 Totesport

There's no real surprises at the top of the market with Germany being the outright favourites for the tournament and Austria easily being the whipping boys and quoted at a huge price of 125-1 (add a few zeros onto that and you still wouldn't go near it!)

One thing that is apparent from an early first look at the prices is that it pays to shop around. Holland are a best price of 14-1 with Totesport. Were you to hold an account with Partybets and were to just lump your money on there without shopping around you'd be only get a measly 9-1. Croatia are similar, with again Totesport offering 14-1 but the majority of the others only pricing up at 12s or even 10s.

There's going to be a fortune bet on this summer's tournament, maybe not so much because England, Scotland and the rest of the home nations aren't there but there will still be millions and millions of wagers placed. make sure you keep coming back to YOYWYW to keep up-to-date on the best offers the bookies bring out to try to tempt you to bet with them.

HAPPY PUNTING and don't forget to give a click to some of the ads on this site to help the YOYWYW team have a small punt on the tournament ;)

Canon can...

There's a lack of action on the Fantasy Football front just now but it doesn't mean there isn't a lack of Euro 2008 prizes on offer. Tournament sponsor Canon have set up a nice wee feature on the official Euro 2008 website that gives football fans the chance to win Canon cameras and tickets for the big tournament itself.

The Canon Fan Foto competiton allows you to upload your footie-related pics to their website for other fans to browse and with the potential for you to win a Canon EOS 450D camera every week. Being an owner of the excellent EOS 400D I'd highly recommend getting involved in this is if you are a budding snapper and have some good shots from games you've been to. The chance to win an EOS 450D continues until the 6th June so check out the Fan Foto site to see how to enter.

From the 28th May the prizes change and every day you will be able to to win a pair of tickets to a Group stage match at the big tournament along with the opportunity to be the overall winner of this phase and get the opportunity to be an official photographer for the Austria v Germany game.

Even if you're not a photographer and have no plans to enter this great competition get yourself over to the Canon Fan Foto section of the UEFA Euro 2008 website and check out some of the quality images on show.

Who's the chosen ones in the Black?

With the Home Nations all failing miserably to make the Euro 2008 tournament the only Brits on the park this time around will be the referees and linesman/assistant referees or whatever they're called these days who have been chosen for this tournament.

English ref Howard Webb is one of the chosen twelve whistlers and will be assisted by flag-waving fellow Englishmen Darren Cann and Michael Mullarkey. Scottish ref Craig Thomson has been chosen as a fourth official and if the standard of refereeing displays I've seen in Scotland this season are anything to go by he's lucky to even have been awarded that honour.

Here's a list of the twelve BITB who will infuriate fans at this summer's tournament...

Konrad Plautz- Austria
Kyros Vassaras- Greece
Lubos Michel- Czech Republic
Frank De Bleeckere- Belgium
Roberto Rosetti- Italy
Manuel Mejuto Gonzalez- Spain
Howard Webb- England
Pieter Vink- Holland
Peter Frojdfeldt- Sweden
Herbert Fandel- Germany
Tom Henning Ovrebo- Norway
Massimo Busacca- Switzerland

Be interesting to see which one of this dirty dozen causes the biggest controversy at the tournament. I go for the fella Michel...who's your bets on?

Euro Millions...

It's not just club football that is consumed by greed and the millionaires lifestyle these days but International football aswell.

This summer's Euro 2008 tournament sees the biggest prize fund ever on offer with a whopping £144m (184m euros) being offered to the sixteen competing teams. This prize fund sees an increase of £43m (55m euros) from what was on offer for the Euro 2004 competitors.

The breakdown of the prize money is as follows, and you can now see why the FA were so gutted at Stevie-boy's failure to get England to the tournament...

Participation fee= £5.87m (7.5m euros)

Group stages (per match)
Win= £782,000 (1m euros)
Draw= £391,000 ( 500,000 euros)

Quarter Finals
Win= £1.56m (2m euros)

Semi Finals
Win= £2.34m (3m euros)

Runner Up
Win= £3.51m (4.5m euros)

Winner
Win= £5.87m (7.5m euros)

Not bad eh? If the eventual winner wins all their Group stage matches they will receive a total prize fund of just over £18m (23m euros). Not bad for a month's work in anyone's books...

Making it snappy...

I have recently added a great little widget called Snapshots to this blog to hopefully improve the experience of YOYWYW.

Snapshots allows readers to click on the small icon next to a link and see a screengrab of where the link takes you or read the copy that the link relates to if it is hosted on a site like Wikipedia.

Let me know what you think of this and whether it is a worthy addition or not by leaving a comment.