The Humourisms Guide To: Euro 2012

The 2012 UEFA European Football Championship kicks off today so David Reilly and Conor O’Toole decided to provide the good readers of Humourisms.com with a list of fun facts for you to impress your friends with. Think of it as a guide to the competition for the more Donkey Kong orientated demographic.

• Euro 2012 is being held in Poland and Ukraine, which are in fact two separate countries.

• There are 16 teams taking part in this years competition, with 23 players in each squad. Of these 16 teams, only Germany and France can afford a full set of jerseys.

• The first match of the tournament sees Poland face Greece. However, due to financial problems, the Greeks have only been able to fly their best eight players to the competition in time for the first game. The rest of the squad is travelling by coach and will arrive in time for their second group game against Czech Republic.

• Due to the current economic crisis in the Eurozone, cutbacks have caused the tournament to be renamed from The Euros to The Euro.

• At the 2010 World Cup, a long plastic horn known as a vuvuzela became popular with fans. This tournament will see the Zozulica litter the terraces. Zozulicas are like vuvuzelas, excepted they are small and higher pitched, much like Nepalese national team. (Nepal did not manage to qualify for this year’s competition on account of being Asian.)

• The tournament favourites are Spain, who employ a pressing, short passing style of play called Tiki-Taka. The English team use a far more ineffective technique called Fisherman-Friend.

• After their recent Eurovision success, Sweden have decided to partner star forward Zlatan Ibrahimović with singer Loreen in an attempt to boost home support.

• A recent survey revealed that over 30% of those who voted “yes” in Ireland’s Fiscal Treaty referendum only did so for fear that a “no” vote would lead to Ireland being disqualified from the Euros.

Both David and Conor are performing at the 10 Days In Dublin festival. For information you can click here, here and/or here.