Things about Euro 2008 you're already annoyed by

[Guest]

Things about Euro 2008 you're already annoyed by

Thanks GVB.

It's even worse when you're actually at a match, happily celebrating your own team's goal, and it occurs.

[Ant van Oviedo]

Things about Euro 2008 you're already annoyed by

Has anyone yet mentioned the playing of loud music over the tannoy after anyone scores?

*Coughs politely* Yes. But I agree with you that it's an abomination, especially considering all the stadiums are full and pretty noisy anyway.

We used to have it at Oviedo - as soon as the ball crossed the line, (and I mean within half a second) the bloke on the tannoy would bellow "NNNNNNNGGGGGOOOOOOOOOLLLLLLLL DEL OVIEDOOOOOOOO!!!!!", and everyone in the ground would sit down and shut up, unable to compete with such a racket. Then, peculiarly, we'd get a bit of "Funiculi Funicula". This ridiculous charade would be played out even when the goal was toally meaningless, e.g. a consolation tap-in in a 1-4 defeat.

Anyway, all this is nothing compared to the playing of "We Are The Champions" at the end of a final. Now that really is worth getting upset about.

[Gerontophile]

Things about Euro 2008 you're already annoyed by

Ant, sorry. I couldnt be arsed to check 13 pages worth.

Wait for it, only another 8 days, then Freddie will screech: WEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE are the oh what fucking ever. (Unless its Holland, then I will possibly exude a small drop of wee)

[Ant van Oviedo]

Things about Euro 2008 you're already annoyed by

Tsk, thread-skimmers...

[Gerontophile]

Things about Euro 2008 you're already annoyed by

dont go there!

[Guest]

Things about Euro 2008 you're already annoyed by

gerontofiel van Basten wrote:

I couldnt be arsed to check 13 pages worth.

Yes, sorry, as a newww member and having not followed the thread previously, neither could I. I guessed it might have been been mentioned (hence the question) but wanted to record my vexation nevertheless.

Going off topic slightly (but in response to your Oviedo story Ant), apparently at Arsenal when they score the tannoy guy goes "And the goalscorer was, ALEXANDER...." at which point the crowd is obliged to exclaim "HLEB!" I'm not sure I can imagine anything worse.

[Gerontophile]

Things about Euro 2008 you're already annoyed by

unless they did it at Celtic for the 4 moments when a certain Mr Rafael scored... then it would be 60,000 people shouting 'shite'

[Gerontophile]

Things about Euro 2008 you're already annoyed by

that fucking advert exorting you to bet... that is beginning to bug me.

And John Hannah looking like shit... who paid you, and what the fuck do you think you are doing?

*and Judi, what are YOU fucking doing (althugh that one has been going for ages)

[Moonlight Shadow]

Things about Euro 2008 you're already annoyed by

Shouting the surname of the player after the announcer said it's first name is perfectly normal practice on the continent, particularly in the German speaking bits.

[Guest]

Things about Euro 2008 you're already annoyed by

Rafael Scheidt never scored for Celtic. Indeed, he barely got four games for Celtic.

Heh, I've just checked his page on Soccerbase and they have him down as being in goal for a UEFA Cup game against Jeunesse d'Esch.

[ericcantona]

Things about Euro 2008 you're already annoyed by

It's been bugging me all tournament and I hope someone can help but why are all of the advertising boards at the grounds that have Coca-Cola on them too small for the logo? Every single one!!

So all of the advertising boards wind up looking like this:

[ad hoc]

Things about Euro 2008 you're already annoyed by

Mr O'Neill was sanity personified by saying, well Alan (s, plural) you would make a good manager, why not have a go?

Don't say that to Shearer, please. Rumour has it that he may be about to try his hand at it, and I would much rather he didn't.

[Spearmint Rhino]

Things about Euro 2008 you're already annoyed by

gerontofiel van Basten wrote:

And John Hannah looking like shit... who paid you, and what the fuck do you think you are doing?

Every time I see him, I start shouting "I'd rather see Dave Lee Travis play Macbeth".

Nobody knows what I'm on about, but I don't care.

[Etienne]

Things about Euro 2008 you're already annoyed by

I know it's been mentioned before, but the fact that every bloody team seems to have decided to have the same colour shorts as shirts. It's shit.

[NHH]

Things about Euro 2008 you're already annoyed by

Yeah, pisses me off too. Only seems to be the Nike or Puma teams though. I liked the Dutch strip with the sky blue socks, which they decided never to wear again. That'll learn em.

[erwin]

Things about Euro 2008 you're already annoyed by

.

Players looking up at the giant screen to admire themselves whenever they boot a shot into row Z.

And fans seeing themselves on the giant screen and waving (even if their team has just lost, fer Chrissakes) ... only they're too stoopid to know where the camera is.

What did we do before we had giant screens? Watched the bloody game, if I remember rightly.

.

[Ray de Galles]

Things about Euro 2008 you're already annoyed by

Further to the discussions earlier in this thread regarding TV ratings for the tournament ;

Terry who? We only had eyes for Torres

Ben Dowell

The Guardian, Monday June 30, 2008

It was supposed to be the ratings disaster of the year: a crippling commitment to hours of primetime football but with no home nation teams qualifying for the Euro 2008 football championship. The England v France game on the opening weekend of Euro 2004 which drew 17.6 million viewers was unlikely to be repeated. But rather than the ratings bloodbath many had expected, the tournament has proved a bonanza.

Thanks to legislation which reserves major international football tournaments for broadcast on free-to-air television, between them BBC1 and ITV1 were committed to showing 27 live games, plus a further four on the digital channels BBC3 and ITV4. Worse, 23 of those kicked off at 7.45pm - the middle of primetime, creating a rescheduling headache for soaps and other shows.

Prior to the tournament, there were rumours that the two broadcasters had reached a tacit deal not to schedule big dramas and entertainments against matches in order to alleviate some of the shared ratings misery. And, yes, many of the games had suspiciously weak-looking drama repeats or factual programmes against them.

But, as the figures show, Euro 2008 was the competition where, after an admittedly slow start, non-home nations football really came home. Not that the first game, shown on BBC1 on June 7, augured fantastically well. The Czech Republic's 1-0 victory over the host nation Switzerland pulled in an average of 3.5 million viewers, albeit with 27% share for the coverage between 4.30pm and 7pm. But this game was only competing with ITV's pre-peak line-up of news plus a repeat of clips of global variety acts in The World's Got Talent.

The first game of the 2004 tournament attracted 6.2 million viewers when Greece gained a surprise 2-1 victory over the hosts (and eventual England opponents) Portugal, while Spain v Russia and Croatia v Switzerland were watched by 6.4 million and 4.3 million respectively.

This time round, despite heavy marketing from both ITV and BBC1, things did not pick up immediately. On the second day of the tournament, Austria v Croatia on BBC1 attracted 3 million viewers and a 23% share, while the Germany v Poland match, also on BBC1, averaged 4.5 million and a 21% share later in the evening.

Then came the fightback. A thrilling Holland v Italy game on June 9 drew more than 6 million viewers to ITV1's live match coverage. The scheduling of the Holland v France game was good news for ITV1, which got a higher than expected audience for a Tonight documentary about food sell-by dates - a year best for the series of 4.1 million.

Less glamorous group games also benefited from the growing enthusiasm for the tournament. Turkey's thrilling 3-2 victory over the Czech Republic on June 15 was watched by an average of nearly 5 million viewers from 7.45pm on ITV1.

Ratings continued to grow, with 8 million tuning into the Russia v Holland quarterfinal on ITV1 on Saturday June 21. The following day, BBC1 got a 7.5 million average audience and a 31% share for the Italy v Spain game (including extra time and penalties) - with a peak of 9.3 million viewers. Both semi-final games boasted impressive audience figures. Spain's defeat of Russia drew 7.1 million viewers (32% audience share) and the earlier semifinal match, Germany v Turkey attracted an average of 7.5 million viewers, despite a blackout for some of the match. The average audience for last night's final was expected to exceed 10 million.

So why the success? Expanded coverage of the Champions League is thought to have helped, along with the fact that Premier League stars such as Ronaldo, Torres and Fabregas have featured in the tournament. Other commentators point to the absence of British teams as a good thing - UK viewers can enjoy the football without the heartache.

"I have heard these explanations and they may be partly true but I think people are enjoying the football," says Roger Mosey, the BBC's director of sport. "The usual pattern is getting a big audience for home nations' games in tournaments like these, but then of it going flat and having an anticlimax when they get knocked out. This time it didn't start big but it has built though, which is really pleasing."

For Mosey, football has just "got bigger", as with all big sporting spectacles. "The last time there were no home nations in the Euros, in France in 1984, only two games were shown live on UK television," he says. "Now you have familiar players and the best from France and Germany and Italy, so people want to watch."

And what about this pact between the BBC and ITV not to schedule big shows against football? Mosey says he is unaware of any agreement - and that such programmes are not planned for the summer, especially not during major sports events. But he is pleased British viewers are showing that they are fans of good football. He notes wryly that the English, Welsh and Scottish teams did their bit in helping both channels prepare their strategies. "I was at England's qualifier with Macedonia in autumn 2006, and England could only draw 0-0. We were fully prepared for England and the other home nations not qualifying, so we had a long time to plan."

[Gerontophile]

Things about Euro 2008 you're already annoyed by

if it matters, then is should be audience percentage share that counts, rather than millions.

And if its any consolation to ITV, everybody taped Coronation Street, so fuck off. How dare you think so little of us? (Not that we would watch your coverage, because as ever, BBC shit all over you... pundits notwithstanding)

[Gerontophile]

Things about Euro 2008 you're already annoyed by

Hieronymus of Hesselink wrote:

Rafael Scheidt never scored for Celtic. Indeed, he barely got four games for Celtic.

Heh, I've just checked his page on Soccerbase and they have him down as being in goal for a UEFA Cup game against Jeunesse d'Esch.

HoH, sorry, I know he didnt score for us, the idea was if he ever got off his lugubrious arse long enough to do so, THEN, my point would have worked. (Sorry, feeling a little tetchy due to sunburn, see alternative thread in World)

[beak]

Things about Euro 2008 you're already annoyed by

There were many really terrible adverts during the Euros, and some not so bad. I was disgusted by the player escort sponsorship, entertained by the first-person Nike effort and amused by the Nationale-Nederlanden effort, which was based on the premise that after the Oranje spazz everyone and win the thing, there'd be a rush of kids named after whomever the hero of the show turned out to be. This was illustrated by thirty-something Johans, twenty year-old Marcos, and another one I can't remember (because really). Okay, it doesn't sound that great, but you got to watch these people being really fucking terrible at football - something I've missed since the league season ended - and amuse yourself with the prospect of the respectable middle-class Jans, Johans and Jeroens of the Netherlands deciding en masse to name their sons Khalid.

Anyway, I digress.

The worst was the Mastercard ad with the two balls with their hot dogs (steady now).

For those of you with a microscopic memory, it's about a red football and an orange football watching the, uhh, football on television. They each have a hot dog, but what's this? The red ball has mustard on his, and the orange ball has ketchup. Their snacks are uncoordinated, a situation said footballs find quite distasteful - a feeling manifested in the unearthly quivering groan they both let out

So they swap their hot dogs. Makes sense.

Then they hurl themselves bodily into one another and hang in the air, as one. This coalescence piled on top of the unearthly moaning and quaking adds up in my mind to something out of a sanitised The Ticket That Exploded. This is probably the kind of thing Bosch would be doing now if he were alive and working in advertising.

Weird fuckers, advertising folk.

[Cavalry Trouser Tips]

Things about Euro 2008 you're already annoyed by

Weird fuckers, advertising folk.

[Uncle Ethan]

Things about Euro 2008 you're already annoyed by

I hate Setanta. I wqas already gaining a loathing for Foxtel anyway, with their ever growing hordes of ads played at VERY LOUD VOLUMES and not showing the best tournament for ages really, really, pisses me off.

[erwin]

Things about Euro 2008 you're already annoyed by

.

A very good series of ads, I thought, was the Coca Cola one ... with the guy in the bar having to hug all sorts of unhuggable people (or was that just in Portugal?).

.

[beak]

Things about Euro 2008 you're already annoyed by

Ha yeah, I enjoyed those ones too. I can only remember the man covered in bees, though.

Did anyone get the Coke ones about the life and times of RvN? Nothing spectacular, though they did do a good job of finding perfect lookalikes of Ruud as small child, Ruud as adolescent, Ruud as younger man etc., then cocked it all up by having him scoring a goal at the end whilst wearing what must have been the cheapest Sunday league looking shirt you'll ever see.