Euro 2008 Fantasy Football and Betting

Still don't know who to support?

2008-06-11T16:47:00.000-07:00

If you're still struggling to decide which team to follow in Euro 2008 then here's a great way of helping you make that important decision. Whether you wish to follow an underdog or simply can't decide between the quality of Spain, Holland and Portugal that has shone through in the opening stages then why not let Monkey Magazine's Katie help you decide.

Give it a go, you know you wanna...

Click here and let Katie help you decide

Over 18s only

UEFA.com Fantasy Football, Matchday 1 over...

2008-06-11T04:18:00.000-07:00

Matchday One of the UEFA.com Fantasy Football is over and the results are in.

It's a big well done to Paul Mathieson's Hulkamania Thistle, from that quality site that is PTFC.net, as he leads the charge on 71 points. David Villa, and Ricardo Carvalho provided most of the points for Hulkamania, but every player in the team did their bit by putting points on the board. Paul's team sit in 14,717 in the overall competition, 46 points behind the leader.

Matchday Two starts tonight so make sure and get your team sorted out and ready to go before the 4pm deadline or you mat find yoursel stuck with some of the under-performing diddies you had in the previous round.... here is the full table after Matchday One

YOYWYW Super League

1	Hulkamania Thistle	Paul Mathieson	71	71
2	Doonhamer's	Stuart McKie	70	70
3	Real Soze Canada	Paul Kaiser	65	65
3	seven-nation army	Robbie Coull	65	65
5	The Real Saints	Sean Skelly	63	63
6	WE WUR ROBBED	Chris McQuarrie	59	59
7	Inter Yer-maw	Calum Sinclair	56	56
7	Welshys Warriors	Stuart Welsh	56	56
9	Lundie's Supa 11	Andy Lundie	55	55
9	myleftpeg71	Andy Bowers	55	55
11	Liverpaul73	Paul Lucey	53	53
12	Jagastonia	William Jarvis	51	51
12	DundeeDerryBoys	Jon Glassey	51	51
12	Kretinga Dragons	Dean Mason	51	51
15	Sausage F.C.	Gavin Thomas	50	50
16	Yodellers XI	P Black	49	49
17	FIRHILL FOR THRILLS	Walter Ferguson	48	48
18	N.S Galaxy ©	Enes Alili	47	47
19	Dave's Dudds	dave Mackay	46	46
19	Wuck Fits XI	tony cassidy	46	46
19	Athene Allstars	Donald Ross	46	46
22	norgethistle	stuart goldie	45	45
23	Red Yellow Army	Nick Mathers	44	44
24	RealRattray	Paul Scott	42	42
24	Real Pish	Graham Macaulay	42	42
26	pheonix	terry wright	41	41
26	texazzurri	g a	41	41
28	lulus wanderers	mark rustigini	40	40
28	Spam Valley Jags	Frazer McLachlan	40	40
30	The Bad Losers	robert warrington	39	39
31	xavis giants	Richard Phillips	37	37
32	Macs Marvels	Allan Macmillan	35	35
33	Calderwood Stars	Callum Maclean	34	34
34	Euro Jagsman	Douglas MacKay	33	33
35	Chelsea Thistle	William Coutts	30	30
36	Boudiche Boink Boink	Brian Welsh	27	27

Please give my Google ads to the right a quick click and help stick some pennies in the pot for a new pair of Lederhosen in time for the final.

Stan James- Goalscorer betting offer

2008-06-09T16:40:00.000-07:00

Trusted bookie Stan James is offering any punter who enjoys a bet on the 1st goalscorer market of any of the Euro 2008 games a second bite at the cherry, should your man not hit the onion bag first.
If you place a bet on the first player to score, and he fails but scores at any other time in the match you'll get your stake returned. Decent offer from Stan the Man, and one worth taking advantage of if you play the 1st scorer markets!!

Not only that, but if you don't have an account with SJ (and it really is one you should have in your portfolio) then get one now. Open an account and place an initial bet up to the value of £50 and you will receive a free bet to a similar value.

Stan James £50 matched bet offer

Oranje-BOOOOOM!

2008-06-09T16:09:00.000-07:00

As you've probably guessed, I've been so engrossed in the tournament now that it has finally arrived that I completely forgot about the old bloggin caper.

We've had six games so far and tonight's was undoubtedly the best of the bunch with Holland magnificent in trouncing a very poor Italian side. I'd only just woken up in time to catch the game after being bored to tears watching Jim's dad from American Pie's team struggle to excite against Romania. For a squad brimming with experienced pros, France were merde, to say the least and will be heading home before you can say 'Ooh-la-la' from what I watched

Holland on the other hand were excellent. They worked their socks off and managed to make a decent Italian side look decidedly average with their work ethic and counter-attacking play. OK, the linesman gave Holland a helping hand in the Wankdorf stadium by not disallowing Ruud's effort but I honestly don't think it would've made any difference anyway as the Dutch fully deserved their win.

Tomorrow's games are intriguing. I'm really looking forward to seeing how the Senors of Spain perform and reckon this tournament could be the one where they shed the bottle-merchants tag that has stuck with them for so long. Russia will give Torres and Co a tough opening test though and it could well be these two sides who head through to the knockout stages.

The Greece v Sweden game is a funny one. That match could go either way, but I don't expect excitement like we all witnessed tonight as the holders will undoubtedly use the tactics that won them Euro 2004 and try to bore the Swedes to tears. May be the best time in this tourney to make that trip to Ikea folks.

Blue Square.. £1m Challenge

2008-06-05T15:59:00.000-07:00

Bookies Blue Square have come up with a novel competition for Euro 2008 where you could win the princely sum of £1million!!

OK, to do this you have to predict the correct score of every game in the tournament, but there's plenty of other prizes on offer if you are good at plucking correct scores out of the air or simply have stood in dog shit and received the luck that goes with it. If you get two correct scores from the opening eight group stage matches then you win a £5 free bet, three correct a £25 free bet and all eight you win £250,000 in CASH!

Get yourself along to the Blue Square website, make your score predictions and place a £5 bet on any Euro 2008 market to get your entry in.

Free £25 Bet with Blue Square

Seeing Red... with Paddy Power

2008-06-04T16:13:00.000-07:00

Bookies Paddy Power are renowned for their great special offers and they've came up trumps again for Euro 2008 if you like a punt on 1st/Last Goalscorer, Correct Score or the Scorecast markets.

For ALL the Group Stage games Paddy will refund any singles on the above markets if a player receives a red card during the game. This refund is up to a maximum of £200 per customer and also applies to the win part of an each-way goalscorer bet for those who like to play that market.

No doubt Paddy boy will come up with some other great specials during the tournament so I'll keep you posted. There is also a £30 worth of free bets up for grabs by placing an initial bet of £30 and you will receive three £10 bets for the next three weeks.

Just over 2 days to get your entries in...

2008-06-04T15:33:00.000-07:00

With 2 days 17 hours and 16 minutes to go as I write this to the kick-off of Euro 2008 time is running out for you to get your entries in for the Fantasy Football competitions that I found so far. Here is a quick rundown on the five competitions that have YOYWYW Leagues set up and how to get yourself in on the action...

McDonalds Fantasy Football at UEFA.com
Having run a warm up competition with the recent international friendly matches the UEFA.com competition made the bizarre decision that everyone had to register again for the main event. With over 100,000 players playing in the friendly game it would've made much more sense to allow players to simply pick their final team and get on with it, but hey ho, it's their ball and this is the way they're playing with it.
The prizes for this competition have been announced and include a JVC home theatre system, adidas Europass match balls, official strips from the participating teams and more.
Enter the YOYWYW Super League by signing up here, going to the LEAGUE section and entering the code...3153-808

Daily Telegraph Euro 2008 Fantasy Football
With over £25,000 in prizes, the Daily Telegraph competition, one of the most popular Fantasy Football competitions around is one of the few newspapers to show an interest in Euro 2008 by running a competition. Surprisingly, the red-tops have chosen to give this tourney a miss, leaving a lot of regular players searching for another game to get stuck into and though the high-brow Telegraph may not provide the tits and reading that some of the red-top readers might require, the Fantasy game may well fill the void.
Join the YOYWYW Super League now by signing up here going to the SUPER LEAGUE section and in 'Join existing Super League' type Yodeller's XI in for the league name and yodeller for the password.

Metro FREE Euro 2008 Fantasy Football
Newspaper the Metro has come up with a visually, not the prettiest competition, but one that provides a £15,000 prize pool with a £10,000 cheque for the winner. There's not much too this competition and transfers are limited, so choose wisely, but there's a decent prize pool on offer and with this game being FREE it's well worth an entry.
Join the YOYWYW Mini League now by signing up here going to the LEAGUE section and in 'Join existing League' type You Only Yodel When You're Winning in for the league name and yodeller for the password.

Fantasy League- Classic Euro 2008
Innovators of the Fantasy Football game, Fantasy League, continue their sterling work with a £10,000 competition aimed at this summer's main event. Regular players of the FL games will know the set-up, new players will find it easy to navigate and full of fun features.
Join the Yodeller's Friends & Enemies League by registering here, pick your team then go to your team managers page. Once there go to the F&E section on the left hand side and enter the pin number 62 in the 'join existing league' section.

Yahoo/Eurosport Fantasy Football
One of the late entries to the FF stakes was the joint effort between Yahoo and Eurosport which is FREE to enter and gives players the chance to win unknown prizes. With a pretty complex scoring system this is a competition for the real boffins, but it's FREE, so give it a go anyway, especially if you already have a Yahoo account as it makes registering nice and easy.
Join the Yodeller's Super League by registering here, pick your team then go to your 'Join League' page and scroll down to Yodellers Super League

Good luck with whatever competition(s) you decide to join and roll on the big kick off.

Euro 2008 Hero Shirts...

2008-05-30T09:32:00.000-07:00

With the squads having been announced now and the squad numbers set in stone it's time for you to nail your colours to the mast and get out and get your Euro 2008 team shirts.

Kitbag Ltd and SubsideSports.com are two of the top online retailers and both are now selling extensive ranges of teamwear for whatever country you'll be supporting. Whether you're after the official team shirt with your favourite players name on the back, retro shirts, t-shirts, silly hats, caps and even football boot slippers there's something there for everyone.

Check out the SubsideSports.com special Euro 2008 website. It's a well designed piece of web-work and well worth a visit. Also don't forget the great FREE shirt offer being run by bookmakers PartyBets, where you can get a £40 voucher for a shirt from any team competing at Euro 2008 to use at Subside by opening an account and placing a £40 bet on the outright winner of the tournament.

Yahoo / Eurosport Fantasy Football..

2008-05-29T16:18:00.000-07:00

Another day and yet ANOTHER Fantasy Football competition for you to get involved in.
Yahoo and Eurosport have teamed up to bring you a free to enter competition, which offers exciting prizes that I seem to be having trouble locating through their site. If you already have a Yahoo account then you just need to log-in at the competition homepage to register.

The Yahoo/Eurosport competition gives you £200m to spend on a squad of at least 14 players and more should you want it. With players like Ronaldo going to set you back about £35m of your budget you have to spend wisely to allow yourself money for your substitutes, which will come in handy as the tournament progresses.

Point scoring is extensive in this competition, with defenders being awarded points for intercepted passes(1pt), blocked shots(2pts) and last-man tackles(2pts) to name just a few of the options. Attackers also receive points for things like winning a foul(1pt), successful crosses(1pt) and set piece goals(3pts). It's well worth studying the scoring methods for this one as there are so many ways to get the points on the board. Choosing your captain is also vitally important. Captain's points are doubled and he can be changed at any time... act wisely!

As with every competition I've found so far there is a Yodeller's Super League set-up for you to join. Just go to the 'Join League' section and scroll down and you should find us near the bottom of the alphabetically organised list. See you there.

Click here to join the Yahoo/Eurosport Fantasy Football competition

Euro 2008 Predictor...

2008-05-29T16:09:00.000-07:00

The boys at top footie site The Onion Bag have had their brains in overdrive to come up with a novel, or should that be navel, way of helping you predict the winner of Euro 2008.

Get yourself over to The Onion Bag website and let the lovely Mavie help you work out who will romp away with their respective gropes, I mean groups, stroll through the quarters, reach a semi and frolic in the final to take away the trophy. It's worth a click...trust me

Click here for Mavie's Euro 2008 predictor

Euro 2008- The Chosen Ones...

2008-05-28T16:03:00.000-07:00

The deadline has passed for the sixteen countries getting set for Euro 2008 to submit their final squads. Each coach has made some tough decisions and the disappointed players weep into their pillows all over Europe. The 23 man squad for the competing countries are as follows...

Austria (Coach: Josef Hickersberger)
1 Alex Manninger, 2 Joachim Standfest, 3 Martin Stranzl, 4 Emanuel Pogatetz, 5 Christian Fuchs, 6 René Aufhauser, 7 Ivica Vastic, 8 Christoph Leitgeb, 9 Roland Linz, 10 Andreas Ivanschitz, 11 Ümit Korkmaz, 12 Ronald Gercaliu, 13 Markus Katzer, 14 György Garics, 15 Sebastian Prödl, 16 Jürgen Patocka, 17 Martin Hiden, 18 Roman Kienast, 19 Jürgen Säumel, 20 Martin Harnik, 21 Jürgen Macho, 22 Erwin Hoffer, 23 Ramazan Özcan

Croatia (Coach: Slaven Bilić)
1 Stipe Pletikosa, 2 Dario Šimić, 3 Josip Šimunić, 4 Robert Kovač, 5 Vedran Ćorluka, 6 Hrvoje Vejić, 7 Ivan Rakitić, 8 Ognjen Vukojević, 9 Nikola Kalinić, 10 Niko Kovač, 11 Darijo Srna, 12 Mario Galinović13 Nikola Pokrivač, 14 Luka Modrić, 15 Dario Knežević, 16 Jerko Leko, 17 Ivan Klasnić, 18 Ivica Olić, 19 Niko Kranjčar, 20 Igor Budan, 21 Mladen Petrić 22 Danijel Pranjić, 23 Vedran Runje

Czech Republic (Coach: Karel Brückner)
1 Petr Čech, 2 Zdeněk Grygera, 3 Jan Polák, 4 Tomáš Galásek, 5 Radoslav Kováč, 6 Marek Jankulovski, 7 Libor Sionko, 8 Martin Fenin, 9 Jan Koller, 10 Václav Svěrkoš, 11 Stanislav Vlček, 12 Zdeněk Pospěch, 13 Michal Kadlec, 14 David Jarolím, 15 Milan Baroš, 16 Jaromír Blažek, 17 Marek Matějovský, 18 Tomáš Sivok, 19 Rudolf Skácel, 20 Jaroslav Plašil 21 Tomáš Ujfaluši, 22 David Rozehnal, 23 Daniel Zítka

France (Coach: Raymond Domenech)
1 Steve Mandanda, 2 Jean-Alain Boumsong, 3 Eric Abidal, 4 Patrick Vieira, 5 William Gallas, 6 Claude Makelele, 7 Florent Malouda, 8 Nicolas Anelka, 9 Karim Benzema, 10 Sidney Govou, 11 Samir Nasri, 12 Thierry Henry, 13 Patrice Evra, 14 François Clerc, 15 Lilian Thuram, 16 Sébastien Frey, 17 Sébastien Squillaci, 18 Bafétimbi Gomis, 19 Willy Sagnol, 20 Jérémy Toulalan, 21 Lassana Diarra, 22 Franck Ribéry, 23 Grégory Coupet

Germany (Coach: Joachim Löw)
1 Jens Lehmann, 2 Marcell Jansen, 3 Arne Friedrich, 4 Clemens Fritz, 5 Heiko Westermann, 6 Simon Rolfes, 7 Bastian Schweinsteiger, 8 Torsten Frings, 9 Mario Gómez, 10 Oliver Neuville, 11 Miroslav Klose, 12 Robert Enke, 13 Michael Ballack, 14 Piotr Trochowski 15 Thomas Hitzlsperger, 16 Philipp Lahm, 17 Per Mertesacker, 18 Tim Borowski 19 David Odonkor, 20 Lukas Podolski, 21 Christoph Metzelder, 22 Kevin Kuranyi, 23 René Adler

Greece (Coach: Otto Rehhagel)
1 Antonios Nikopolidis, 2 Giourkas Seitaridis, 3 Christos Patsatzoglou, 4 Nikolaos Spyropoulos, 5 Traianos Dellas, 6 Angelos Basinas, 7 Georgios Samaras, 8 Stylianos Giannakopoulos 9 Angelos Charisteas, 10 Georgios Karagounis, 11 Loukas Vintra, 12 Konstantinos Chalkias, 13 Alexandros Tzorvas, 14 Dimitrios Salpingidis, 15 Vassilios Torosidis, 16 Sotirios Kyrgiakos, 17 Theofanis Gekas, 18 Ioannis Goumas, 19 Paraskevas Antzas, 20 Ioannis Amanatidis 21 Konstantinos Katsouranis, 22 Alexandros Tziolis, 23 Nikolaos Liberopoulos

Italy (Coach: Roberto Donadoni)
1 Gianluigi Buffon, 2 Christian Panucci, 3 Fabio Grosso, 4 Giorgio Chiellini, 5 Fabio Cannavaro, 6 Andrea Barzagli, 7 Alessandro Del Piero, 8 Gennaro Gattuso, 9 Luca Toni, 10 Daniele De Rossi, 11 Antonio Di Natale, 12 Marco Borriello, 13 Massimo Ambrosini, 14 Marco Amelia, 15 Fabio Quagliarella, 16 Mauro Camoranesi, 17 Morgan De Sanctis, 18 Antonio Cassano, 19 Gianluca Zambrotta, 20 Simone Perrotta, 21 Andrea Pirlo, 22 Alberto Aquilani, 23 Marco Materazzi

Holland (Coach: Marco van Basten)
1 Edwin van der Sar, 2 André Ooijer, 3 John Heitinga, 4 Joris Mathijsen, 5 Giovanni van Bronckhorst, 6 Demy de Zeeuw, 7 Robin van Persie, 8 Orlando Engelaar, 9 Ruud van Nistelrooy, 10 Wesley Sneijder, 11 Arjen Robben, 12 Mario Melchiot, 13 Henk Timmer, 14 Wilfred Bouma, 15 Tim de Cler, 16 Maarten Stekelenburg, 17 Nigel de Jong, 18 Dirk Kuyt, 19 Klaas Jan Huntelaar, 20 Ibrahim Afellay, 21 Ryan Babel, 22 Jan Vennegoor of Hesselink, 23 Rafael van der Vaart

Poland (Coach: Leo Beenhakker)
1 Artur Boruc, 2 Mariusz Jop, 3 Jakub Wawrzyniak, 4 Pawel Golański, 5 Dariusz Dudka, 6 Jacek Bąk, 7 Euzebiusz Smolarek8 Jacek Krzynówek, 9 Maciej Żurawski, 10 Łukasz Garguła, 11 Marek Saganowski, 12 Tomasz Kuszczak, 13 Marcin Wasilewski, 14 Michał Żewłakow, 15 Michał Pazdan, 16 Jakub Błaszczykowski, 17 Wojciech Łobodziński, 18 Mariusz Lewandowski, 19 Rafał Murawski, 20 Roger Guerreiro, 21 Tomasz Zahorski, 22 Łukasz Fabiański, 23 Adam Kokoszka

Portugal (Coach: Luiz Felipe Scolari)
1 Ricardo, 2 Paulo Ferreira, 3 Bruno Alves, 4 Bosingwa, 5 Fernando Meira, 6 Raul Meireles, 7 Cristiano Ronaldo, 8 Petit, 9 Hugo Almeida, 10 João Moutinho, 11 Simão, 12 Quim, 13 Miguel, 14 Jorge Ribeiro, 15 Pepe, 16 Ricardo Carvalho, 17 Ricardo Quaresma, 18 Miguel Veloso, 19 Nani, 20 Deco, 21 Nuno Gomes, 22 Rui Patrício, 23 Hélder Postiga

Romania (Coach: Victor Piţurcă)
1 Bogdan Lobonţ, 2 Cosmin Contra, 3 Răzvan Raţ, 4 Gabriel Tamaş, 5 Cristian Chivu, 6 Mirel Rădoi, 7 Florentin Petre, 8 Paul Codrea, 9 Ciprian Marica, 10 Adrian Mutu 11 Răzvan Cociş, 12 Marius Cornel Popa, 13 Cristian Sapunaru, 14 Sorin Ghionea, 15 Dorin Goian, 16 Bănel Nicoliţă, 17 Cosmin Moti, 18 Marius Niculae, 19 Adrian Cristea, 20 Nicolae Dică, 21 Daniel Niculae, 22 Ştefan Radu, 23 Eduard Stăncioiu

Russia (Coach: Guus Hiddink)
1 Igor Akinfeev, 2 Vasili Berezutski, 3 Renat Yanbaev, 4 Sergei Ignashevich, 5 Aleksei Berezutski, 6 Roman Adamov, 7 Dmitri Torbinskiy, 8 Denis Kolodin, 9 Ivan Saenko, 10 Andrei Arshavin, 11 Sergei Semak, 12 Vladimir Gabulov, 13 Pavel Pogrebnyak, 14 Roman Shirokov, 15 Diniyar Bilyaletdinov, 16 Vyacheslav Malafeev, 17 Konstantin Zyrianov, 18 Yuri Zhirkov, 19 Roman Pavlyuchenko, 20 Igor Semshov, 21 Dmitri Sychev, 22 Aleksandr Anyukov, 23 Vladimir Bystrov

Spain (Coach: Luis Aragonés)
1 Iker Casillas, 2 Raúl Albiol, 3 Fernando Navarro, 4 Carlos Marchena, 5 Carles Puyol, 6 Andrés Iniesta, 7 David Villa, 8 Xavi Hernández, 9 Fernando Torres, 10 Cesc Fábregas, 11 Joan Capdevila, 12 Santi Cazorla, 13 Andrés Palop, 14 Xabi Alonso, 15 Sergio Ramos, 16 Sergio García, 17 Daniel Güiza, 18 Álvaro Arbeloa, 19 Marcos Senna, 20 Juanito Gutiérrez, 21 David Silva, 22 Rubén De La Red, 23 Pepe Reina

Sweden (Coach: Lars Lagerbäck)
1 Andreas Isaksson, 2 Mikael Nilsson, 3 Olof Mellberg, 4 Petter Hansson, 5 Fredrik Stoor, 6 Tobias Linderoth, 7 Niclas Alexandersson, 8 Anders Svensson, 9 Fredrik Ljungberg, 10 Zlatan Ibrahimović, 11 Johan Elmander, 12 Rami Shaaban, 13 Johan Wiland, 14 Daniel Majstorovic, 15 Andreas Granqvist, 16 Kim Källström, 17 Henrik Larsson, 18 Sebastian Larsson, 19 Daniel Andersson, 20 Marcus Allbäck, 21 Christian Wilhelmsson, 22 Markus Rosenberg, 23 Mikael Dorsin

Switzerland (Coach: Jakob Kuhn)
1 Diego Benaglio, 2 Johan Djourou, 3 Ludovic Magnin, 4 Philippe Senderos, 5 Stephan Lichtsteiner, 6 Benjamin Huggel, 7 Ricardo Cabanas, 8 Gökhan Inler, 9 Alexander Frei, 10 Hakan Yakin, 11 Marco Streller, 12 Eren Derdiyok, 13 Stéphane Grichting, 14 Daniel Gygax, 15 Gelson Fernandes, 16 Tranquillo Barnetta, 17 Christoph Spycher, 18 Pascal Zuberbühler, 19 Valon Behrami, 20 Patrick Müller, 21 Eldin Jakupovic, 22 Johan Vonlanthen, 23 Philipp Degen

Turkey (Coach: Fatih Terim)
1 Rüştü Reçber, 2 Servet Çetin, 3 Hakan Balta, 4 Gökhan Zan, 5 Emre Belözoğlu, 6 Mehmet Topal, 7 Mehmet Aurélio, 8 Nihat Kahveci, 9 Semih Şentürk, 10 Gökdeniz Karadeniz, 11 Tümer Metin, 12 Tolga Zengin, 13 Emre Güngör, 14 Arda Turan, 15 Emre Aşık, 16 Uğur Boral, 17 Tuncay Şanlı, 18 Kazım Kazım, 19 Ayhan Akman, 20 Sabri Sarıoğlu, 21 Mevlüt Erdinç, 22 Hamit Altıntop, 23 Volkan Demirel

UEFA.com Fantasy Football, Matchday 2...

2008-05-28T04:47:00.000-07:00

Matchday 2 of the UEFA.com Fantasy Football is over and there was some great scoring yet again by the YOYWYW managers.

Ian King's Celtic FC remain at the top of the table and sit in 167th position for the overall competition which is a tremendous feat. Jagastonia, managed by ptfc.net's very own William Jarvis managed to make up a small bit of ground on the league leader and sits in 423rd position overall. One big final phase is needed by both these managers if they are to have any chance of winning the Euro 2008 tickets. Good Luck guys.

Another interesting stat is that the YOYWYW Super League sits in 23rd place overall in the League of Leagues, which has 3,426 leagues on the go, not bad at all lads.

Here is how the table stands after Matchday 2, heading into the final Matchday.

1	Celtic FC	Ian King	42	100
2	Jagastonia	William Jarvis	47	93
3	Yodellers XI	P Black	46	88
4	Euro warriors	Donald Larmour	23	73
5	DEF/MID/ATT - R/L/C	Michael Anderson	31	63
6	Black Mapleleafs	t saadiq kamali	42	60
7	banknock thistle	chris paterson	23	55
7	Dynamo Thistle	Adam Reid	12	55
9	FT FC	Greig Forbes	18	51
10	Maryhill Magyars	Steven Campbell	19	49
11	LEAPED LIKE A SALMON	Walter Ferguson	13	47
12	Metatarsal XI	Vinny Ferguson	24	44
13	Scotland Thistle	Scott Grant	25	43
14	Firhill Shed	stuart goldie	6	43
15	the dopes	mark rustigini	19	43
16	LiverPaul73	Paul Lucey	41	41
17	Wuck Fits XI	tony cassidy	40	40
18	Lauras Star	Allan Macmillan	13	37
19	Real Pish	Graham Macaulay	35	35
20	Canucks	Calum Stewart	7	33
21	DerryRhumba	Jon Glassey	7	29
22	Red Yellow Army	Nick Mathers	3	29
23	Fluid_Football	Daniel Smart	24	24
23	Real Portknockie	Willie Milne	9	24
25	OB1 Kenobi0	Ken Rawlinson	23	23
25	Hulkamania Thistle	Paul Mathieson	23	23
27	Guns n Thistle	Kenneth Hughes	21	21
27	Jagtastic	Alan McMillan	21	21
29	TheBloodBeastTerror	Kendo Nagazaki	19	19
29	The Fortunate Sons	Michael Law	19	19
31	Inter Yermaw	dave Mackay	17	17
32	Vanderreal	Lewis Dalgarno	11	11
33	StreetTuneFC	Zarul Hafis	10	10
33	Nordo´s Jags	Iain Norris	10	10
35	Portucal	callum mcconnell	8	8
36	Spam Valley Jags	Frazer McLachlan	7	7
36	baBOON!	Stu McDougall	7	7
38	FC Jaggy Thistle	Alan Abraham	6	6

Matchday 3 gets started tonight when Russia take on Serbia and the transfer deadline is 6pm. If you want to make some substitutions in time for thelast phase then now is the time to do it, don't forget or you'll be stuck with the players you had for Matchday 2.

There's still plenty of time to get your team entered for the main event. Register at uefa.com, go to the league section and use the code 52-10 to enter your team into the YOYWYW Super League.

Hiddink names Russian Tsars...

2008-05-27T13:46:00.000-07:00

Gus Hiddink has shown he is concentrating on the job in hand and not getting to caught up in the speculation that he is Chelsea bound by naming the 23 players who will make up Russia's squad who head to Switzerland.

Having previously announced a 25 man preliminary squad The Goose has chosen to leave at Spartak Moscow's Aleksandr Pavlenko and Krylya Sovetov Samara's Oleg Ivanov. The midfielders will obviously be gutted at missing out but Hiddink, who had always looked like getting rid of players from the midfield area of the preliminary squad has made his mind up, and we all know what that means, that is that!

Interestingly, only one player plays outside Russia, Nürnberg's Ivan Saenko.

Here are the 23 Russian players who will head to Euro 2008...

Goalkeepers
Igor Akinfeev CSKA Moscow
Vladimir Gabulov Amkar Perm
Vyacheslav Malafeev Zenit St. Petersburg

Defenders
Aleksandr Anyukov Zenit St. Petersburg
Aleksei Berezutski CSKA Moscow
Vasili Berezutski CSKA Moscow
Sergei Ignashevich CSKA Moscow
Denis Kolodin Dinamo Moscow
Roman Shirokov Zenit St. Petersburg
Renat Yanbaev Lokomotiv Moscow

Midfielders
Diniyar Bilyaletdinov Lokomotiv Moscow
Dmitri Torbinskiy Lokomotiv Moscow
Vladimir Bystrov Spartak Moscow
Yuri Zhirkov CSKA Moscow
Konstantin Zyrianov Zenit St. Petersburg
Igor Semshov Dinamo Moscow
Sergei Semak Rubin Kazan

Forwards
Roman Adamov FC Moscow
Roman Pavlyuchenko Spartak Moskcow
Dmitri Sychev Lokomotiv Moscow
Pavel Pogrebnyak Zenit St. Petersburg
Andrei Arshavin Zenit St. Petersburg
Ivan Saenko Nürnberg

After announcing the two players who would miss out Hiddink said "I want to point out that we have no complaints about Pavlenko and Ivanov. They worked well in training and left a good impression. We want them to stay with us until the end of the EURO."

Euro 2008 FREE Shirt Offer...

2008-05-26T15:39:00.000-07:00

As I said yesterday the bookies are starting the clamour to have your bets for Euro 2008 placed with them and PartyBets have come up with what I believe will undoubtedly be THE BEST OFFER around. If you fancy nailing your colours to the mast for this tournament then before you head out and spend your hard-earned on that new shirt take a look at this. Not only could you win hundreds of pounds but even if your bet goes down you've got the shirt to show for it. You could say it's a 'Don't lose the shirt off your back' special from one of the most competitively-priced bookies around.

Any customer who opens a new account with PartyBets up until 6th June and places a £40 bet on the outright winner of Euro 2008 will receive a voucher for a brand, spanking new FREE replica shirt of the team of your choice from the tournament. It really is as simple as that. Once your bet is placed, PartyBets will send you a code within 48 hours, you head along to the Subside Sports website, choose the shirt you want, enter the code and voila..it's yours, FREE GRATIS!

This kind of free shirt offer has been done before by bookies like Gamebookers and Canbet, and proved to be massive. I've no doubt this one will be the same and if you don't already have a PartyBets account then now is the time to get one.

Click here to head to PartyBets, click the Euro 2008 banner at the top of the right hand menu, open your account and claim your free shirt...EASY!

Canbet Euro 2008 Promotion...

2008-05-25T17:28:00.000-07:00

The bookies are going into overdrive for Euro 2008 now in an attempt to get your stakes into their satchels. Over the next 12 days there will be plenty of enticing promotions on offer to try and prise open your wallet and Aussie giants Canbet.com have set the ball rolling with not one, but two cracking Euro 2008 offers.

Join Canbet today and make your first deposit of £30 or more and they will match it with a 100% deposit bonus up to £30. For the bigger players they are also offering a 20% deposit bonus up to the value of £200 if you make an initial deposit of £600 or more. Promotional codes are required for both of these offers and can be found, along with the terms and conditions by clicking on this text or any other Canbet link on this page.

If you're having a bet on Euro 2008 be it on the outright betting, top scorer or any other market then it pays to open an account with Canbet.com, place your initial bet and get yourself a FREE one at the same time.

Once you've opened your Canbet.com account you also still have the chance to enter their Euro 2008 competition where you can win a £1500 travel voucher. The competition ends on June 15th so get in there quick.

Who will be Rome alone?

2008-05-25T16:45:00.000-07:00

Italian coach Roberto Donadoni has named a preliminary 24 man pool leaving one poor sod with the embarrassment of being the player to be miss out of the upcoming big one when he announces his final 23 man sqaud.

Donadoni, who has just signed a new contract with the Italian FA surprised a lot of people with his inclusion of Real Madrid striker Antonio Cassano, who has had a decent season while on at Sampdoria. Donadoni also named veteran Alessandro Del Piero, who finished the season as Serie A's top scorer.

AC Milan's veteran forward Filippo Inzaghi, Massimo Oddo and Vincenzo Iaquinta were all omitted from the Italian squad due to injuries. The pool of 24 chosen by Donadoni are...

Goalkeepers
Marco Amelia Livorno
Gianluigi Buffon Juventus
Morgan De Sanctis Sevilla

Defenders
Andrea Barzagli Palermo
Fabio Cannavaro Real Madrid
Giorgio Chiellini Juventus
Fabio Grosso Lyon
Marco Materazzi Intern Milan
Christian Panucci Roma
Gianluca Zambrotta Barcelona

Midfielders
Massimo Ambrosini AC Milan
Alberto Aquilani Roma
Mauro Camoranesi Juventus
Daniele De Rossi Roma
Gennaro Gattuso AC Milan
Riccardo Montolivo Fiorentina
Simone Perrotta Roma
Andrea Pirlo AC Milan

Forwards
Marco Borriello Genoa
Antonio Cassano Sampdoria
Alessandro Del Piero Juventus
Antonio Di Natale Udinese
Fabio Quagliarella Udinese Calcio
Luca Toni Bayern Münich

Talking about his new contract, Donadoni said "I'm delighted with the new contract because I consider it a show of faith from the federation. I'll be the first to step down if we don't get good results."

UEFA.com Fantasy Football..

2008-05-25T16:28:00.000-07:00

Just a quick heads up to all those playing the UEFA.com Euro 2008 Fantasy Football competition.

Matchday 2 is currently on the go and ends with the Czech Republic v Lithuania match on Tuesday night.

BE WARNED...there's no time whatsoever to get your transfers made for Matchday 3 which starts the follwing day with the Russia v Serbia game the following day. If you're planning on making any changes I'd get the thinking caps on now and be ready to act quick on Tuesday night. You have been warned...

You still have plenty of time to get your teams in for the main event. There's 12 days to go, so get your team selected and get it entered into the ever-increasing YOYWYW Super League. The password is 52-10. Further details can be found in previous blog posts.

Fantasy League, Classic Euro 2008 ...

2008-05-23T14:17:00.000-07:00

They're like buses these Fantasy Football competitions. You wait an eternity for one and then they all come along at the one time! I'm not surprised by this to be fair as everyone was probably waiting for the Champions League Final to be out the way to give themselves a chance of as much exposure as possible.

On the back of the Daily Telegraph and Metro getting going, Fantasy Football inovators, Fantasy League, have their game up and running and ready for you all to get involved. With £10,000 worth of prizes on offer this game is another great one to have in your portfolio and if you already play the Fantasy League games you'll know how they work and how good they really are.

To sign up to the Fantasy League competition click here

Entry to this competition costs £5 per team and you can have as many teams involved as you want. You have a budget of €100 million to pick a squad of 15 players. Teams can be in a 4-4-2 or 4-3-3 formation and you are restricted to only two players from the same country in the group phases and three during the knockout phase. Each manager has 12 transfers to use during the tournament and unlimited substitutions so pick your squad wisely.

A YOYWYW Friends League has been set up, to join simple use the link below to register your team. Once you've picked your squad, go to your team page and click on the link to 'F & E League'. Once there enter the pin number 62 into the 'Join existing League' box and click go. See you there...

To sign up to the Fantasy League competition click here

Euro 2008, The Mascots...

2008-05-23T13:53:00.001-07:00

Every tournament has those cuddly little characters they call mascots and this one is no different. Switzerland and Austria have chosen theirs and after consulting the people a name was chosen for this pair of spikey-headed cartoon characters.

After being given the choice of Zagi and Zigi, Flitz and Bitz and Trix and Flix the people spoke and the winner, with 36.3% was Trix and Flix™!

There's been some legendary mascots over the years for the European Championships. Click here to see some of the past characters and first prize of a strudel to anyone who can tell me what the Italia 1980 mascot is all about?

Metro FREE Euro 2008 Fantasy Football

2008-05-21T16:04:00.000-07:00

As expected, it never rains but it pours in Fantasy Football land. On the back of the Daily Telegraph launching their game the Metro, the daily free newspaper, has today launched their free to enter competition.

With £15,000 in prize money and it being FREE to enter the Metro competition is bound to be a popular one. £10,000 is up for grabs for the highest points scorer with the highest scoring manager of each round of group games winning £1,000 each. The group stage prizes will be contested as follows:

Round 1: Saturday 7th June – Tuesday 10th June
Round 2: Wednesday 11th June – Saturday 14th June
Round 3: Sunday 15th June – Wednesday 18th June
Quarter Final: Thursday 19th June - Sunday 22nd June
Semi Final & Final: Wednesday 25th June - Sunday 29th June

You have 75 stars to use to buy your team, with the top players like Cristiano Ronaldo costing 10 stars so you really do have to pick wisely in the competition and make sure you get the main men you want in your team and some good cheap options to compliment them. Managers are restricted to only 3 transfers during the group stages, 10 for the quarter finals matches and 5 for the semi finals and final.

There is a YOYWYW Mini League set-up for this competition and everyone is welcome to join in. Let all your friends know and get your team in there and have a bit of banter as the tournament progresses via the messageboard. To join our mini league, register your team on the Metro website, then go to League section and click 'Join a League'. You then need to enter the following:

League Name: You Only Yodel When You're Winning
League Password: yodeller

Click here to sign up to the FREE Metro European Championship Fantasy Football

Euro 2008 Desktop Widget...

2008-05-20T16:04:00.000-07:00

No, not midget...widget!

Yahoo and some boffin-like fella or company called Interwall have come up with a great wee gizmo to keep you posted on the goings on at Euro 2008. The Widget can be downloaded to your desktop and will give you live updates on every game, every goal, team news, fixtures and tables.

Dowload the Euro 2008 Desktop Widget here

Daily Telegraph Fantasy Football...

2008-05-20T01:36:00.000-07:00

Finally, after a very long wait another Euro 2008 Fantasy Football game has arrived! This could very well be the start of the deluge of new competitions and keep me on my toes over the next few weeks.

The Daily Telegraph does one of my favourite Fantasy Footy games and one of the most popular.They have today launched their competition for the European Championships in association with electrical store Comet.

The Telegraph competition regularly attracts over 200,000 entries during the regular season and though their is an undoubted apathy to this summer's tournament due to the lack of home nations involved, this competition will be sure to be a busy one.

With £25,000 up for grabs overall there are prizes for the top ten managers as well as a £1000 prize to the leader after the group stages. Entries cost £6 or you can pick three teams for £14 saving yourself a whopping £4. Each manager gets 20 transfers to be used at any time during the tournament so there's no need to buy the paper for transfer passwords like during the regular season competition. Scores and league tables will be updated every day.

Just like the UEFA.com competition we have set up a YOYWYW Super League for this competition. Register your team at the TFF site, go to the Super League tab and in the 'Join existing Super League' section type in 'Yodeller's Super League' for the league name and 'yodeller' for the password. See you there.

Sign up for the Daily Telegraph European Championship competition here

Sons and Daughters...

2008-05-19T17:01:00.000-07:00

How proud would you be to see your son or daughter being the Official Match Ball Carrier at a Euro 2008 match?

One of the many tournament sponsors, Kia Motors, are offering the chance of winning this 'lifetime priceless experience' as they so eloquently put it, to one lucky child at the Quarter-Final match to be played in Vienna on Sunday 22nd June.

To be in with giving your child the chance of this 'lifetime priceless experience' then simply follow this link, answer one question (with the answer being Cee'd and Sportage) and fill in the bizarre tie-breaker which asks you to suggest what might be happening in football in the year 2015. The example they give is 'Gary Lineker resigns as England Manager'. Get your crazy thinking caps on and you could be in with a shout.

GOOD LUCK

Continental Video Quiz...

2008-05-18T15:56:00.000-07:00

Another one of the Euro 2008 official sponsors has come up with a competition that gives you achance to win tickets and other prizes related to the big tournament. There's a Grand Prize, Champions Prizes, Daily Prizes but unfortunately for me, no booby prizes!

Continental, the German tyre company, has developed a video quiz where you challenge German goalie Timo Hildebrand, who ironically has been left out of Joachim Löw's squad for the big tournament.

The quiz consists of a questions and picture questions relating to previous tournaments and can be played on easy, amateur or pro level. You have to answer three questions in a row correctly to score a goal and if you get three wrong in a row Timo scores. Don't really know the point of this but let's put it this way, Timo was regularly kicking my arse when I gave it a go.

Get yourself over to the UEFA.com Euro 2008 website and give it a go or to make life simple just click this Video Quiz link. Good Luck, I've given up already.

They think it's Raul over...

2008-05-18T15:20:00.000-07:00

Spanish coach Luis Aragonés has decided on the 23 players who will attempt to turn his country from being the perpetual under-achievers of the past into European Champions and shocked many in the country by leaving out Real Madrid's Raul Gonzalez.

Raul, who has 102 caps and 44 goals for his country, scored 18 goals in Real Madrid's championship winning side and has been ceremoniously dumped and replaced by Real Zaragoza striker Sergio García (no, not the golfer), who's side were ironically relegated on the final day of the La Liga season. Aragonés, who has proven he is not afraid of controversy in the past, has also chosen not to take Valencia pair David Albelda and Joaquín Sánchez, while has included uncapped midfielder Santiago Cazorla of Villarreal. Aragonés also became the only manager who will pick a player with a woman's name when he chose Villarreal's Capdevilla, first name...JOAN!

The 23 players chosen to finally turn the Spaniards from zeroes to heroes are...

Goalkeepers
Iker Casillas Real Madrid
Pepe Reina Liverpool
Andrés Palop Sevilla

Defenders
Sergio Ramos Real Madrid
Álvaro Arbeloa Liverpool
Carles Puyol Barcelona
Carlos Marchena Valencia
Raúl Albiol Valencia
Juanito Real Betis
Joan Capdevilla Villarreal
Fernando Navarro Mallorca

Midfielders
Marcos Senna Villarreal
Xabi Alonso Liverpool
Xavi Hernández Barcelona
Cesc Fábregas Arsenal
Andrés Iniesta Barcelona
Rubén De la Red Getafe
David Silva Valencia
Santiago Cazorla Villarreal

Forwards
David Villa Valencia
Daniel Güiza Mallorca
Sergio García Real Zaragoza
Fernando Torres Liverpool

On his surprise decision to leave out Raul coach Aragonés said, "I have chosen the players in relation to how they have performed over many games. I'm the one, for better or worse, who has to choose and I have chosen."