This sunday, at noon (CET), the groups for the European Soccer-Championship 2008 are defined by drawing lots. There are 16 nations in the field, 14 of them had to pass the qualification round (sorry England... ), 2 countries, Switzerland and Austria, are the hosts of the spectacle, so they are qualified automatically. In the list below, I want to show you the single nations with their FIFA-ranking, where you can see, which advantage the hosting nations have:

3. Italy
4. France
5. Germany
6. Spain
7. Netherlands
8. Portugal
9. Czech Republic
10. Croatia
12. Romania
14. Greece (last champion in 2004)
16. Russia
20. Poland
24. Sweden
28. Turkey
41. Switzerland
88. Austria

Further I want to announce, that I will create an EURO-2008-TOTO like I did during World-Championship in 2006. The prize will be the title "SOCCER-ORACLE", that makes you the owner of the absolute truth in all questions around soccer. Signup will be as soon as the groups are defined.

too soon man......just too soon...

Go Spain Go!!! .We finally started playing football in the last three games to qualify first in our group.Austria 88th .Well at least they have home field advantage.Hey Johannes I missed out on the 2006 World Championships thing.Can you explain how this EURO-2008-TOTO thing work?Sounds like fun.Oh and sorry Andy a bit of a bummer that England didn't qualify .They'll be missed.I like their style of playing.Maybe they should have gotten Raffa Benitez or Juan de Ramos to coach the team .Or even someone from Ferrari like Michael Schumacher.McClaren was a bad omen to begin with... hehe!Although I think it's all Victoria Beckham's fault.They should never have let her into the dressing room before the Croatia game .

yea we french are sooo sorry for Brits (YAY, we have a smaller bigger chance now)...

( )...no seriously...: i mean it!!! ( )

btw Johannes...i missed that 2006 comp in forum...i wont this time!

Update on the FIFA ranking for the UEFA confederation as of November,from FIFA.com
http://es.fifa.com/worldfootball/ranking/lastranking/gender=m/fullranking.html#confederation=27275&rank=163
Hey,Spain moved up 2 slots to overtake France (sorry Naiko )and Germany .But as always, when it comes down to the tournament and reality sets in we never get past the quarter rounds .Maybe this year playing in Austia and Switzerland (we always win there ) will give us the luck to win.With Italy,Germany and France's ,oh and Greece (last winner) and Austria and Switzerland's (as hosts) permission of course .

There was a list of games, where you could bet by 1-2-X, the one with the most matches became the oracle ... and it was me...

Congratulations "Your Oracleness" .Sounds great! Will you be doing a list of all the games or just the final rounds?It should be fun,I'll get a research team together and into action.

I am thinking of a list for the first round, and a separat tip for the champion... we will see...