Euro 2008 blog launched
Today ±«Óãtv Sport launches a new permanent blog for the first time in over a year, as the Euro 2008 blog goes live.
Whilst we did launch a new blog last autumn, for the Rugby World Cup, that was switched off once the tournament finished.
We are not planning to do that with the Euro 2008 blog, but instead are planning to keep it going as a general football blog once has finished.
This makes more sense editorially - I think we found with the Rugby World Cup that if you run a blog just for the duration of a tournament you end up turning it off just at the moment it reaches its maximum audience and impact.
Assuming things go to plan and the blog does become a general football blog, that would make today the first launch of a new permanent sport blog on the ±«Óãtv's blogging network since April 2007 and the launch of Mihir Bose's blog. It would also be the second sport-specific blog we have, joining the cricket blog, aka the TMS blog.
But all of that is in the future - for now this new, one-day-old blog is focusing just on Euro 2008. Phil Gordos, who will be running the blog for us from for the duration of the tournament, and Alex Trickett, who runs ±«Óãtv Sport's blogs from London, have both blogged already about what to expect, and more will follow.
It's worth noting that as well as the impressive castlist of writers on that blog, which Phil has introduced, we will also be running a feed into it - the second time we have done this.
When we ran a Twitter feed into the Rugby World Cup blog, my ±«Óãtv colleague Robin Hamann called it "".
On that occasion our popular writers Tom Fordyce and Ben Dirs twittered their way around France - this time Paul Fletcher, who has some experience of blogging from a major tournament, will be twittering and blogging around Austria and Switzerland, and we expect his Twitter feed to be more popular even than during the RWC.
As for the rest of our Euro 2008 coverage, we will blog nearer the time to outline our coverage plans for online, TV and radio more comprehensively. But I'm excited about the product we'll be offering during the tournament .
Regular users of the site will know that we've made great strides this year in the way we present video, and that will step up again during the Euros as we package the ±«Óãtv's video output on the web in industry-leading ways.
More to follow really soon on that, but for now, enjoy the new blog, and the rest of the , with pages for each country, from past tournaments for those in the UK (and especially for England and Scotland fans who can look back on the years their teams actually qualified!) and all the you could want, so you can plan your 23 days in front of the TV (or computer, or radio).
Comment number 1.
At 28th May 2008, ewpresence wrote:This comment was removed because the moderators found it broke the house rules. Explain.
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Comment number 2.
At 30th May 2008, rambo60 wrote:why whats the point of this blog most british football fans want euro 2008 to pass by WE DONT WANT TO BE CONTINUALLY REMINDED WERE NOT THIER insensitive and out of touch beeb or what
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Comment number 3.
At 30th May 2008, Lurcherman100 wrote:Don't you think we've had enough football?, having Euro 2008 forced down out throats when we're not even going to be there!.
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Comment number 4.
At 30th May 2008, Professor Techno wrote:So what if England are not there it does not really matter there will still be World Class players on show.
As for have we had enough football, i think you must be a bitter Eastenders fan, sez it all really.
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Comment number 5.
At 31st May 2008, rexel123 wrote:rambo60 (post 2),
"Football Fan" means the person is a fan of the sport, not just the british national teams. That is why "football fans" will still want to watch the tournament, because they will get to see great football and some of the world's best players. The ±«Óãtv is hardly rubbing England's failure in your face (I'm presuming your an England supporter), they are giving you a chance to watch the sport's second biggest international event.
So no home nations are in the tournament, I'm sorry to upset you but they most likely wouldn't of won it anyway. TBH every home nation except for England is used to not being in major tournaments and still have an interest come the event . As viewing figures for international matches without the home nations show, people still watch and enjoy them.
Now I'm not saying that the viewing figures won't be down compared to previous years, but they will still be considerably high, particularly after the group stage.
If you are a "football fan" then accept that failure happens and get over your team not qualifying. Then you can enjoy the great football on show.
I am looking forward to the coverage and the blogs and being able to enjoy the event without the usual upset as luckily that has already happened.
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Comment number 6.
At 2nd Jun 2008, Harry_Potts wrote:Why are all the blogs about football? Nothing about the exciting weekend in both codes of Rugby, Alastair Hignell, Moto GP or even the rowing!
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Comment number 7.
At 5th Jun 2008, paul scarf wrote:Is it possible to put in the very useful 'day' information on your Euro 08 website group fixture list. It would be most helpful preventing clashes with other priorities.
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Comment number 8.
At 6th Jun 2008, DaveC wrote:Having a new blog on the ±«Óãtv website is hardly forcing football down anyone's throat. And as has been pointed out ... those of us who love football, as a sport, rather than just blindly supporting one team or other, appreciate the exceptional coverage given to the event by the ±«Óãtv.
If you don't want to take any notice, there are plenty of other website (and even plenty of other sections of this website) and hundreds of TV channels to distract you.
Or even, as Russell T Davies used to say, you could always switch of your television set (or PC) and go out and do something less boring instead.
:o)
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Comment number 9.
At 6th Jun 2008, onedayglory wrote:Quite happy for the ±«Óãtv to cover the tournament and we'll no doubt get drawn in if it takes off and there are some good games.
But one think really has irritated me - why on earth have 5 Live contracted Steve McClaren as a pundit for the tournament? He's the last person we want to hear from given his considerable contribution to England's absence. Either bad taste or bad judgement by the ±«Óãtv I'm afraid - I object to my license fee being spent on employing that man.
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Comment number 10.
At 7th Jun 2008, Brekkie wrote:Quick question - what's happened to Manish Bhasin?
He's been the best thing to happen to football on the ±«Óãtv in the last couple of years, but appears to have been sidelined for Jake Humphrey.
Has he left ±«Óãtv Sport or something - and if so I hope it was on his terms.
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Comment number 11.
At 8th Jun 2008, Genfly wrote:The fact that Christiano Ronaldo, possibly the world’s most talented footballer, learnt his skills on the small mountainous island of Madeira which has less (football pitch size) flat areas than most small UK villages, surely disproves our excuse that it is lack of facilities and an abundance of foreign players that is holding us back.
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Comment number 12.
At 8th Jun 2008, spectrum wrote:Can I put in a plea on behalf of 'semi' football fans for three/four minute highlights in addition to the ten minute and the one minute daily summary. Like the previous world cup. Ten minutes is too long for me. I really just want to see the goals.
Yes, your online coverage is fantastic and I am being pernickity but please consider it. I suspect many others will feel the same.
thanks
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Comment number 13.
At 10th Jun 2008, douglaal wrote:This comment was removed because the moderators found it broke the house rules. Explain.
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Comment number 14.
At 10th Jun 2008, David Shield wrote:Sorry if this is the wrong place but why has the ±«Óãtv Sports Editors Blog been so quiet recently.
Nothing previewing the Derby or the PGA Golf Championship, Queens or the Rugby 7's.
I alwasy like to read what coverage is planned by the ±«Óãtv.
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Comment number 15.
At 11th Jun 2008, Brekkie wrote:In addition to what David said, although these separate blogs may seem a good idea, it's easier to have them all in the one place really so we can just browse through one blog to see if something has been added rather than the 4 or 5 there are now.
Can some kind of master blog be set up which includes the latest posts from them all?
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Comment number 16.
At 11th Jun 2008, hackneybloke wrote:This comment was removed because the moderators found it broke the house rules. Explain.
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Comment number 17.
At 11th Jun 2008, englandisshyte wrote:This comment was removed because the moderators found it broke the house rules. Explain.
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Comment number 18.
At 11th Jun 2008, bracciano wrote:RE bbc.co.uk
football site
Why do you never say who the captain is on the team sheets?
At moment you have to go to uefa.com to find out who the captains are in the Euro 2008 matches
However it also applies in the Premier League
You never put it in.....
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Comment number 19.
At 12th Jun 2008, hackneybloke wrote:This comment was removed because the moderators found it broke the house rules. Explain.
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