Euro 2004 - yippee or yawn?

:: Euro yippee

Hooray for Euro 2004, says KIRSTEN GILLIES, York City supporter and elected director of the trust board which owns York City FC.

I CAN'T wait for Euro 2004 to start. I don't like summers without football. I feel lost. Big tournaments like this are great. It's a social thing as much as anything. People meet up with their friends to watch matches, they go to the pub, they have parties in their houses. And it's really bringing together the whole country.

There's this feeling of something shared, we're all here for one team, all supporting England, it gives you this real sense of pride and identity.

People often talk about hooliganism. You're always going to get a small bunch of them - but it is just that, small. I think the problem is easily exaggerated.

At the last tournament, only 200 people were banned - that's not really very many for a country the size of England. For all of us though, there is absolutely nothing wrong with enjoying the football, having a laugh together, going for a few drinks afterwards. That's

all part of the fun.

I love football. It's a great sport. For those who play, obviously it's healthy physical exercise. I have never played in my life, so for me it is more the social side of things.

My dad first took me to see City when I was about eight. I can't remember whether it was a case of "do you want to come?" or "you're coming!", but it

doesn't matter. I loved it. Ever since then I have hardly missed a game.

Supporting a team such as City gives you a real sense of identity. I have made so many friends at City, most of them are now really close friends, and there is just such a fantastic atmosphere at matches.

It is the hope and the expectation of winning - more hope towards the end of last season, I admit! It is really good when you win, but even when you don't, you've had that feeling of everybody rooting for the same thing, everybody enjoying the football.

And then you go for a couple of drinks afterwards.

City didn't have the best of seasons last year, but look at it like this. We've still got a team. Less than 18 months ago we were faced with not having a team or a ground; and now we've got both. That is something worth celebrating. So what does it matter if we're in the Conference? We'll try to go straight back up!

We'll be opening the social club up and getting in a big screen for Euro 2004, so people can come here to watch England matches live.

People go to pubs in town to watch matches; so why not come here and make money for City?

You can watch with your football mates, there will be a sweepstake, raffles, a great atmosphere, and all the profits will go to the club.

We'll show all three England group matches, and all their matches if they go on to the later stages.

So you'll be supporting the national team, and benefiting the local team at the same time.

And who knows, the standard of the football might even be better than we get here at Bootham Crescent!

:: Euro yawn

Down with Euro 2004, says BILL HEARLD, Evening Press columnist, assistant editor and long-time football-phobe.

I DON'T know whether I have a deep, abiding loathing for soccer, or it just bores me rigid - or both. Either way, I have never made a secret of my antipathy to the game. Trouble is, if I wore that particular scarf in a post-match pub, I'd risk being beaten to death by both sides.

Still, live and let live, eh? I quite understand there are legions of supporters who can only find glory - and heartache or joy - through the athletic achievements of others. As long as it does not impinge on me and mine, they can do what they like.

But it does intrude. All the television channels, whether they have the franchise or not, will be full of Euro 2004 for the duration of the tournament. Adverts will take on a football theme; pubs will suddenly sprout huge-screen TVs and be packed with heaving masses of drunken, screaming, hysterical humanity.

Satellite and terrestrial channels will be swollen with pre-match analysis, up-to-the-minute game reports and team selection. Each player's ability, fitness and sex life will be examined under a photon spectrometer. Then, in England's case, there will be pages and pages of post-defeat introspection and calls for the resignation of that good old, typical Englishman, Sven Goran Eriksson.

Football cannot be good for us. All right, it gets the English flag flying like no other event, even if it is misplaced patriotism and the flags in question are those tattered things flapping from the nation's motor vehicles.

A recent survey showed that English men are more afraid of watching England crash out of Euro 2004 on penalties than of losing their wallet, job or even their hair.

Apparently, 85 per cent of men interviewed said they would miss their partner or mum's birthday to watch England play in the month ahead, and 40 per cent have even arranged holidays around this summer's football schedule.

I concede that there are advantages to big football tournaments. While the over-hyped games are on the telly, the roads are clear for normal people to go about their business or recreation, theatres and cinemas are quiet.

Women can go shopping for the next month secure in the knowledge that whatever they spend, they will not be held accountable - as long as England still has a chance.

Football can also mean the welding of the family unit. Mum, dad and kids will all suddenly appear in public in identical, over-priced and nasty nylon England shirts.

Son will at last get the chance to sit down with dad in front of the television. Wearing the same horrid shirt, he will emulate dad's can-swilling, pizza-gobbling pose on the settee, complete with uncouth burps; and might even get away with the odd swear word if Beckham fails to deliver.

A word of warning to the girls. If England crash out in the middle of a spending spree, beware. The taxi turns into a pumpkin, the credit card crumbles and you will get a glass slipper across the backside when you get home.

At least you can't say we are bad losers - we've had far too much practice.

Updated: 10:07 Thursday, June 10, 2004