The teams have qualified, the draw has been made, and after five long years, Football4Mates returns to reignite the passion which only a tipping competition of this calibre can ignite; better believe that a first-round match between Wales and Switzerland can be as exciting as a Final. As the Optus Sport promo says;
"51 games, 30 days, 24 teams"
This is not the World Cup, a tournament that creates heroes and undoes reputations, the European Championships are much, much more personal, for after all, there is no place on earth where historical snobbery, useless wars, cultural rivalry, and let's face it, pure dislike for the other mob reins more than any other place on earth than the European continent; sorry GB but you are an island after all. National but also regional rivalry, northerners versus southerners, those Baltic tribes amongst themselves, and just about everyone against the English.
Sorry, but can someone explain to me how Scotland qualified? Of course, to make our competition more exciting, UEFA has expanded the tournament to allow just about every European country in, a bit like the European Union, but including the English and Turks, the latter are technically not European anyway. Unfortunately, even with this expansion, both the Greeks and Cypriots failed to pull it together during qualification; the former is no doubt basking in that brief golden moment back in 2004, heading to the cinemas for the King Otto documentary, while the latter are...who cares. Instead, we have other minnows such as Scotland, Finland and a Belgium team without Kevin De Bruyne. Hungry is excused as they produced the Magical Magyars (1950s), the Poles simply qualify for the food, and since they have lured Zlatan out of international retirement, we'll forgive the Swedes. England are currently favourites, perhaps for the fact that Europeans were not too keen on having some of their shithead supporters arriving at their respective countries; Gareth Southgate's talented squad will instead play all their group games on home soil. The French lost some of their appeal after pulling Germany and Christiano Ronaldo in their group, while the Virgil Van Dijk Dutch side together with Roberto Manchini's Italians could be a dark horse.
Predict the outcome of every game, and watch for the correct score. Stay in touch with the leaders through the Group stages and march onto where others have failed, Wembly, and the title of Football4Mates Archon. All games have a purpose and every minute, bar the penalty shootout, counts. Extra time will add further anxiety, and failure leads to another two-year wait to ponder what could have been. The Kudos which come with victory brings the reward of bragging rights, and one's name on the honours roll. For the losers, it's derision and ignominy and the pondering of 'oh, if only'.
Defending Euro Archon, Aramis will be looking at repeating his exploits from 2016, while Si W, who is favourite, and gutted that the organiser headed off to Cyprus for Russia 2018, is no doubt hoping to finish the season on a high following another second place in the Fantasy EPL. Former Archons, Niko, Yianni, Stylianos and Nestor also return.
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