No replacement has yet been announced though is expected over the course of the weekend (or at least after the Welsh friendly game in Rotterdam).

Holland find themselves in Group C for this summer’s competition alongside France, Italy and Romania. Babel, however, will have to settle for watching the games from the stands. Here’s to a speedy recovery.

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Not to be hard done by, Hiddink (if still in the Russian hotseat come the start of the Premier League campaign in England in August) has suggested Ivanov and Pavlenko will both be used to their full ability for the 2010 World Cup qualifying campaign at the end of the summer.

Russia’s 23 man squad looks like this…

Akinfeyev, Malafeyev (Zenit St Petersburg), Gabulov (Amkar Perm); Ignashevich, Berezutsky, Berezutsky (CSKA Moscow), Anyukov (Zenit St Petersburg), Kolodin (Dynamo Moscow), Yanbayev (Lokomotiv Moscow); Bilyaletdinov (Lokomotiv Moscow), Zhirkov, Semshov (Dynamo Moscow), Torbinsky (Lokomotiv Moscow), Bystrov (Spartak Moscow), Zyryanov (Zenit St Petersburg), Shirokov (Zenit St Petersburg), Semak (Rubin Kazan); Arshavin, Pogrebnyak (Zenit St Petersburg), Pavlyuchenko (Spartak Moscow), Sychev (Lokomotiv Moscow), Adamov, Saenko (Nurnberg).

While Hiddink is one of the favourites to replace the recently-fired Avram Grant at Chelsea, reports coming from his agent suggest there’s no chance he’ll accept the role at Stamford Bridge. In fairness, I wouldn’t blame him as well. It would be a shame to see a manager of his calibre ditched after just one season in the league if he failed to produce a league title or European glory. We all know that’s what would happen anyway, right?

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Chelsea’s Khalid Boulahrouz misses the cut for the 23-man squad with the likelihood that Mario Melchiot will be well mended by the time the first game kicks off. It’s good to see Liverpool’s Ryan Babel and Dirk Kuyt confirmed in the squad, Kuyt making his way back into the international fold while Babel has had a relatively good debut season for the Reds. Celtic’s Jan Vennegoor of Hesselink should be firing on all cylinders too having lifted the Scottish league title recently.

The Holland boys can look forward to friendlies this week against Denmark (Thursday) and Wales at the weekend.

The Dutch squad in full for Euro 2008 reads as follows…

Goalkeepers: Edwin van der Sar (Manchester United), Maarten Stekelenburg (Ajax), Henk Timmer (Feyenoord)

Defenders: Wilfred Bouma (Aston Villa), Tim de Cler (Feyenoord), John Heitinga (Ajax Amsterdam), Joris Mathijsen (Hamburg), Mario Melchiot (Wigan Athletic), Andre Ooijer (Blackburn Rovers)

Midfielders: Ibrahim Afellay (PSV Eindhoven), Giovanni van Bronckhorst (Feyenoord), Orlando Engelaar (Twente), Nigel de Jong (Hamburg SV), Wesley Sneijder (Real Madrid), Rafael van der Vaart (Hamburg), Demy de Zeeuw (AZ Alkmaar)

Forwards: Ryan Babel (Liverpool), Klaas Jan Huntelaar (Ajax), Dirk Kuyt (Liverpool), Ruud van Nistelrooy (Real Madrid), Robin van Persie (Arsenal), Arjen Robben (Real Madrid), Jan Vennegoor of Hesselink (Celtic).

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Should Germany progress past the group stage, which they are expected to do, each man will receive a bonus of €50,000.

The bonus will rise to 100,000 if Germany reach the semi-final stages of Euro 2008.

Should Germany make the final, players will be guaranteed €150,000 - that payment coming if Germany lose. If Germany win the final in June, the players have been guaranteed €250,000 each.

The bonus payments, though small in comparison to what some of the squad earn in a week playing club football, might be enough to drive Germany past the group stage of the competition, something they’ve failed to two in their past two attempts. That said, they are still being tipped as favourites for the competition outright.

Germany play in Group B along with Poland, Croatia and Austria.

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A “high temperature with a suspicion of an inflammation of the lungs” is keeping the 68-year old at bay, according to Vlastimil Kostal, head of the football federation.

The Czech Republic play two games in quick succession this week, Greece on Tuesday and Poland on Wednesday as part of an international tournament in the run up to their Euro 2008 campaign.

The Czech Republic are drawn in Group A alongside Portugal, Switzerland and Turkey and kick off on June 7th against Switzerland.

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Trezeguet currently leads the Serie A goalscoring charts with 15 goals to his name but Domenech has let his feelings speak through his tactical decisions of late, including the last World Cup where Trezeguet played no more than a bit part.

How strong the Juventus man’s opinion is was highlighted recently when he turned down two callups for France, first against the Congo and against Spain, both fixtures due this coming week as he felt he would be used on the ‘A’ team against Congo instead of the full team against Spain.

There are plenty of players who would give their left leg to represent their country at the European Championships, so why Trezeguet is carrying on in this manner is beyond me. Sure enough, it can be hard to change Domenech’s mind, if you’ve had a falling out with him you’re a marked man, but one would have to question Trezeguet’s overall drive to play any part of the French lineup.

Quoted on Saturday he said he “would have gone to the end of the world 10 years ago, but not now at 30, after everything I have done and continue to do.”

Such a pity too…

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Out of international action and contention since last March, Ballack has been plagued by injury in recent months. While he hasn’t exactly starred for Chelsea either, he did make the field last night scoring against Reading.

His goal too helped Chelsea to extend their unbeaten league run at Stamford Bridge to a massive 75 games.

German coach Joachim Loew insists that Ballack is a key part of Germany’s plans for success in Euro 2008, though I still feel he needs to up his game a notch in England, especially with Germany tipped for first place in this summer’s competition.

Germany’s regular back four are all out of action for next week’s friendly and as a result, Loew is set to hand debuts to both Jermaine Jones and Heiko Westermann.

Germany are drawn in group B alongside Austria, Poland and Croatia.

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The packaged outlined earlier in the week will see clubs paid €4,000 for each day a player is involved in the latter stages of the tournament. The same rule will also apply to the World Cup in 2010 and beyond.

The cash is to be shared between any club a player has been with in the two years prior to the tournament. E.g. in the case of Fernando Torres, compensation would be due to both Liverpool and Atletico Madrid, whereby come the World Cup compensation would be due strictly to Liverpool.

The package was revealed at the launch of the European Club Association (which replaces the fabled G14) and sees UEFA putting aside an estimated €43.5m for Euro 2008 and a further €55m for Euro 2012 while FIFA have set aside €76m to cover the 2010 and 2014 World Cups.

In the same announcement it was also revealed that the African Cup Of Nations will move closer to a summer date when the tournament (on at the moment) comes around in 2016.

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Mexes would be a starter in almost any European side but he’s only played international football for France on eight occasions, largely due to his controversial move to Roma.

If France are to make a claim for the trophy I genuinely think that Domenech should be considering Mexes for his squad for the summer tournament, if not, it will likely take a change of manager to get Mexes back in the fold for France at a major tournament.

Controversies aside (if you can say that), Mexes thinks that Italy “are going to do the double, like France did in 1998 and 2000″, Italy looking as strong as ever after they beat France in the World Cup final in Germany in 2006. Of course, all that depends on what France and Holland have to say, both of whom can stop Italy coming out of the group stage.

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It was reported in the last few weeks that the Arsenal stopper, who has lost his place in the first team to Almunia, would consider leaving London and returning to Germany in search of first team football.

But he need not worry with German coach Joachim Loew quoted as saying “he has proven his worth. He can handle pressure in an excellent manner and is a leading player within the squad.” While he would rather Lehmann to be seeing more first-team action, Loew has virtually assured both Lehmann and Timo Hildebrand of their places in Austria and Switzerland.

Whatever happens in the run up to Euro 2008 it looks ever more likely that Lehmann will leave the Gunners at the end of the summer, despite showing no major signs of slowing down in his performance. If anything, the move is as much for his family as it is for his playing career with the hope of settling down somewhere long term.

Lehmann will hopefully be joined by Torten Frings who is set for a Bundesliga comeback in February.

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Scans following the game showed Magnin had torn ankle ligaments but the full extent of the injury will only come to the light in the next day or so.

If the damage to his ankle is bad he could be looking at missing the bulk of the remainder of the season, if not the season altogether, effectively ruling him out of the selection process for the one of the host nations. The 28 year old defender made it to Euro 2004 in Portugal and again to the World Cup in Germany in 2006. He’s been capped 47 times and scored 3 goals for Switzerland.

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With Spain and Greece providing the likely tougher opposition that Greece it isn’t clear whether Arshavin will now make Euro 2008 at all after have the suspension handed down for a sending off against Andorra.

Guus Hiddink has already revealed he would have left Arshavin out of his summer squad had the ban been issued at three games instead of two. This might put a little dent in Ruud Gullit’s earlier claim that Russia may make the quarter final if not beyond.

I can’t see Arshavin NOT making the Euro 2008 trip in the summer but losing their captain for the vital games of the group stage, particularly against Spain, is bound to be a massive blow - both to the team and to Arshavin himself.

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If Gullit is to be believed and as suggested, the players maintain the immense sense of belief that Hiddink has instilled in them, we could be looking at Russia in the quarter finals, or even beyond.

While Group C has been dubbed the group of death, all four teams in Group D are as much of a threat to each other with Russia having to overcome early favourites Spain, current holders Greece and Sweden to advance to the quarter finals. Gullit was speaking to Reuters in Moscow when he added “the Russians have always had good players, so they can very well be a surprise team next year in Austria and Switzerland. Besides, Hiddink is an extremely lucky coach and that makes Russia even more dangerous.”

If you’re a betting man, UNIBET
are offering odds of 36/1 on Russia to lift the trophy in June. Not too bad. They’re also 6/1 to top their own group (Group D), could be worth a punt.

While Hiddink might have made the Russians more dangerous, they’ll be put to task against Spain and Greece and I can’t honestly see them going on to win the competition, let alone make the quarter final stages. Can you?

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For their troubles, they’ll be taking on co-hosts Austria, Croatia and non-qualifers Ukraine, Wales and Denmark.

Netherlands will play Croatia first on February 6th, followed by Austria on March 29th. The remaining three fixtures will be played over the week May 24th to June 1st 2008 with Wales being the final match. They’ll be kicking off their actual Group campaign for Euro 2008 on June 9th when they take on Italy in Berne before meeting France on the 13th and Romania on the 17th.

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The 26 year old Romanian moved to Inverness from FSV Mainz over the summer and but hadn’t managed to score in fourteen league games until now. He’s hoping the change of scoring fortune will put himself in line for a call up for Romania’s Euro 2008 squad. One thing going against him is his failure to play any part in Romania’s qualifying campaign, last lining out against Colombia before the World Cup.

His failure to appear for Romania also limited his chances of a work permit in the summer, Inverness fans signing a petition to aid the striker’s arrival. Yet despite only now scoring for Caley, Niculae has scored almost a goal every second game for Romania.

Quoted in the Inverness Courier, Niculae suggests “I fight to give good performances for Inverness and to score some goals and I’m sure the manager of Romania will call me“.

If he hasn’t featured for Romania since last May, I reckon it will take more than just two goals this weekend to assure him a place in Romania’s squad for their Group C encounters with France, Italy and Netherlands. Lord knows they’ll need their strongest squad possible.

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Denmark’s Michael Gravgaard had to jump in to try stop the attacker from further lashing out at the referee after Christian Poulsen had been dismissed and Sweden awarded a vital penalty in the dying moments of the game back at the start of June.

With the game tied at 3-3, Fandel decided to abandon the game, UEFA later award Sweden a 3-0 victory due to the pitch invasion. Denmark were forced to play their following games away from the national stadium and are since suing the attacker (unnamed) for losses estimated in the region of €250,000. In September, he was given a 30-day suspended sentence along with 40 hours of community service but this has now been increased to a 20-day prison term.

Denmark failed to qualify for Euro 2008, Sweden winding up in Group D alongside Greece, Russia and Spain.

There’s only one word to sum him up - idiot.

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He’s already retired from the international game twice (first after Euro 2004, then again after the World Cup last year) but true to the spirit that you can’t keep a good man down, Nedved looks to be coming out of international retirement for the third time if Juventus team mate Nicola Legrottaglie is to be believed.

You will see - Nedved, like me, will return to his national team and play in the European Championships next June

Legrottaglie himself has been on some recent form of late and is laying claim to a place in the Italian squad for the summer. Nothing official has been said from Nedved or the Czech camp about his possible return. If he can build on the form that saw him smash a 25 yard winner against Atalanta at the weekend then there’s no reason he couldn’t be in for a final swan song with the Czech Republic, possibly wrapping up his playing career altogether next summer.

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Frings has hardly featured for Bremen this season having picked up a knee injury during the summer but has at least resumed light training and barring a second setback, he should be back on the pitch by early Spring.

Germany will need to be at full strength if they’re going to secure their fourth European Championship. This summer will see Germany enter the competition for the tenth time, will we see a double figure appearance marked with a tournament win? Admittedly they’ll be one of the favourites but Group B will be tricky enough - both Poland and Croatia coming through their qualifying quite strongly and hosts Austria with no intention of failing to advance from the group stage on home soil.

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His name has been linked once again with the now vacant English job though with the English FA anxious to appoint a big name and Portugal having qualified for this coming summer’s tournament Scolari has already insisted he’s not interested in replacing Steve McClaren.

If anything I don’t see why the Portuguese FA wouldn’t re-appoint him until 2010. The only other person I would imagine them putting in the job would be Jose Mourinho and at that he’ll be snapped up early in the new year if not before, also quite possibly for the English job.

As is the case with Marco Van Basten, Scolari’s contract expires after the Euro 2008 final but where Van Basten has opted to quit Holland after the Championships, Scolari is very eager to stay on in the Portuguese job claiming that he loves Portugal “even more than Brazil”. Having taken Portugal to the semi final of the World Cup last year, and all the way to the final on home soil in Euro 2004 I don’t see any reason he’ll not be offered a contract extension in the summer.

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