Analysts at Switzerland’s largest bank, UBS are predicting that the Czech Republic will win the Euro 2008 Football Championships. They are basing this on financial models that correctly tipped Italy to win the World Cup.

Dr Daniel Kalt, head of economic research at UBS wealth management research and one of the authors of the report says:

“We used the ranking of the national teams, not the official FIFA ranking, but another better suited one called ELO ranking, how many times a a team has qualified, how many times they reached the semis, the home team advantage and another series of factors that contributed to this outcome”

While the Czech fans are enthusiastic about the prediction, many people seem reluctant as UBS also says Switzerland will beat Germany to reach the semifinals.

Euro 2008 Fixtures 07-29 June 2008

Euro 2008 Group Stage - Match Schedule

1 07/06 A Switzerland 18:00 Czech Republic Basel St. Jakob-Park
2 07/06 A Portugal 20:45 Turkey Geneva Stade de Geneve
3 08/06 B Austria 18:00 Croatia Vienna Ernst Happel Stadion
4 08/06 B Germany 20:45 Poland KlagenfurtHypo-Arena
5 09/06 C Romania 18:00 France Zurich Letzigrund
6 09/06 C Netherlands 20:45 Italy BerneStade de Suisse
7 10/06 D Spain 18:00 Russia InnsbruckTivoli-Neu
8 10/06 D Greece 20:45 Sweden SalzburgWals Siezenheim
9 11/06 A Czech Republic 18:00 Portugal Geneva Stade de Geneve
10 11/06 A Switzerland 20:45 Turkey Basel St. Jakob-Park
11 12/06 B Croatia 18:00 Germany Klagenfurt Hypo-Arena
12 12/06 B Austria 20:45 Poland Vienna Ernst Happel Stadion
13 13/06 C Italy 18:00 Romania ZurichLetzigrund
14 13/06 C Netherlands 20:45 France BerneStade de Suisse
15 14/06 D Sweden 18:00 Spain InnsbruckTivoli-Neu
16 14/06 D Greece 20:45 Russia SalzburgWals Siezenheim
17 15/06 A Switzerland 20:45 Portugal Basel St. Jakob-Park
18 15/06 A Turkey 20:45 Czech Republic Geneva Stade de Geneve
19 16/06 B Poland 20:45 Croatia KlagenfurtHypo-Arena
20 16/06 B Austria 20:45 Germany Vienna Ernst Happel Stadion
21 17/06 C Netherlands 20:45 Romania BerneStade de Suisse
22 17/06 C France 20:45 Italy ZurichLetzigrund
23 18/06 D Greece 20:45 Spain SalzburgWals Siezenheim
24 18/06 D Russia 20:45 Sweden InnsbruckTivoli-Neu

Euro 2008 QuarterFinal - Match Schedule

25 19/06 QF 1 Winner A 20:45 Runner-up B Basel St. Jakob-Park
26 20/06 QF 2 Winner B 20:45 Runner-up A Vienna Ernst Happel Stadion
27 21/06 QF 3 Winner C 20:45 Runner-up D Basel St. Jakob-Park
28 22/06 QF 4 Winner D 20:45 Runner-up C Vienna Ernst Happel Stadion

Euro 2008 SemiFinal - Match Schedule

29 25/06 SF 1 Winner #25 20:45 Winner #26 Basel St. Jakob-Park
30 26/06 SF 2 Winner #27 20:45 Winner #28 Vienna Ernst Happel Stadion

Euro 2008 Final - Match Schedule

31 29/06 Final Winner #29 20:45 Winner #30 Vienna Ernst Happel Stadion

On December the 2nd the final draw for Euro 2008 took place in Lucerne, gathering Europe’s finest football breath. The 16 qualified teams were divided into 4 pots, the first group, the seeded teams’ one, including the two hosts, Switzerland and Austria, the last Champions, Greece, and the Netherlands. At the and of the draw session, the four groups were decided:

Now all 16 teams can make their schedule intro a good plan for the final tournament. The draws placed the last World Cup finalists, Italy and France, the Netherlands and Romania into a group of death, were all can happen. Greece, Spain and Russia all met four years ago in Portugal, so they’ll play again against each other, along Sweden. An interesting group is Group B, where we have three historical rivals, Austria, Germany and Poland, and the strong Croatians. In Group A, Portugal and the Czech Republic will try to prove their superiority, but they’ll have hard work to do against the Swiss hosts and the Turks.

With only few days left before the draw for Euro 2008, let’s make a quick review of all 16 competitors, which will offer us an unforgettable show next year. Here are the 16 teams, divided in 4 pots:

Click Here To Read More About “Euro 2008 Qualified Teams.”

The Kick Off

196 days until the first whistle of European Championships 2008 is blown. But ‘til we’ll get to eat some Swiss emmental or Austrian sausages watching these unforgettable matches, there are lots of things to be done, concerning the last qualifying stages for the final tournament and its self organization. Anyway, the only thing that remains to us is dream we’ll be there. From the 7th to the 29th of June there will only be time to celebrate.

Within the opening match on June, the 7th, alongside 5 other matches, including a semifinal among them, Basel will be the main venue of the displaying events in Switzerland. Therefore the organizers chose a claim for showing the involvement of the city and the whole region for a good organization of the final tournament: “Basel. Beyond the 90 minutes”.

But what do we know at this point about the starting point of Euro 2008? Well, here’s some useful data which will certainly help us in better knowing our future summer hosts.

Click Here To Read More About “St. Jakob Park – Basel.”