Sorry it's going to have to be very brief this morning as I'm rushing out soon to travel to Stuttgart. Have been in contact with a local fan there who has suggested some good places for pre-match beers so it should be an enjoyable and warm evening. I'll hopefully have some pictures from the game up later this week.

Interest in Basel is all about the upcoming Champions League qualifier against Gothenburg tonight & next week. Hopefully they get a good result tonight in the away leg and a decent draw on Friday morning (come on Arsenal, come on!) and I'll be at the return leg next week at St Jakob.

Bis Morgen

As many people who live far away from home know, it's relatively easy to catch up with football matches and news through a variety of different media. So living in Switzerland doesn't stop me getting coverage of the Premiership, for example, along with a lot of other football coverage from the various European TV broadcasters. International & Champions League games can be found on Swiss, French, German, Austrian and Italian TV here in Basel though you need to pay for PL games (either with the exported Sky box - no good for me due to a f##king huge tree behind my apartment, or cable/phone line services). However, one of the things I really miss is radio coverage - the BBC decree that their 5 live coverage of football (and many other sports) is limited to a UK audience only. The only exception is the TMS (Test Match Special for you non cricket lovers) broadcast which is still available world wide.

As a result of living abroad and loving radio broadcasts you get to search around for podcasts that give you a daily fix (and hopefully keep you amused) during the season. So here are my top 5 football related podcasts (not in a 1-5 order as I just can distinguish between them).....

• Fighting Talk - quiz show/comedy from 5 Live on a Saturday morning for most of the football season. 60 minutes of enjoyable fun each week.
• Arsecast - one from the distinguished Arseblogger, amusing features ("I Am Eboueeeeeee") and strong language (you may hear the c-word rather more than a sensitice soul would like) all about Arsenal.
• Guardian Football Weekly - if you are of the generation that remembers Channel 4's coverage of Italian football and can only think of James Richardson sitting outside a cafe with coffee and ice cream, this is for you
• 5 Live Football Daily - more newsy but gives a synopsis of the day's football news in a light 15-20 minute podcast...
• The Week in Football - another oleole podcast but with a broader European feel

Of course, there are countless other podcasts, some last a few weeks, some a few years and some, like Baker & Kelly, are excellent but disappear....

Make your own minds up and tell me of any others worth listening too...

Apparently after really enjoyable experiences you have to face the fact that there is "come back down to Earth" moment when you have to face reality again. So after 5 weeks of the volunteer work at Euro 2008 today was the day when I felt this rather depressing chasm hit me. Nope it's not all gloom and doom but it's just not as fun as it was last week, or the week before, or the week before that - oh god  it really is true!!

Sorry, you haven't arrived at this page intending to hear my whining so here's some news from the centre of Europe reagrding major footie stories.

So 20Minuten says, "Schweinsteiger to England?" and I say, "wibble, wibble" as it probably has as much sense. You see this internet thing seems to ensure that any story in one country is regurgitated in most other countries over the next few days. However, without these snippets I suppose all the blogs in the world would fall over through lack of information - maybe that's not such a bad idea. If anyone has any real idea of how you stop continual rumour mongering by Agents, Players & Journalists, I'd love to hear.

On a more enjoyable front, 20 Minuten also shows some of the strangest fans from Euro 2008 in this set of pictures. More like these....

FC Basel now know their potential Champions League Qualification Opponents, they will play either Murata (San Marino) or IFK Göteborg. You would expect them to play Göteborg and the games will take place on 29/30 July & 5/6 August.

Starting from today Basel plays host to 3 big games in Euro2008 in the next 6 days. Today the crowds will be huge with Germany on our doorstep and there being a huge Portuguese population in Switzerland (though I think the press underestimate the numbers here). However, most of the focus has been on the expected 100,000+ Dutch fans expected for the game on Saturday. The 3 existing fan zones will be augmented by a further zone in Marktplatz but the belief is that this week will be even bigger than Basel's annual festival, Fasnacht. Certainly the Fan Camp at Pratteln might actually see some customers this week! Hopefully, I can get some photos up of events as they take place over the next few days.

In other news it seems the BBC are reporting a slight cock-up on Swiss TV with the wrong German subtitles being shown during the National Anthem. I didn't see the game on Swiss TV so have no idea but it doesn't seem to have registered much here in Basel. L'Equipe mentions the new UEFA quota system for next season's Champions League game, which is a European Law friendly version based on a player having started his development at a club rather than nationality. Basically 8 of the 25 squad must have spent 3 years between 15-21 in the country of the club but do not have to be born in that country. Anyway Platini likes it!

Oh well off to town today as finally some warm and sunny weather has arrived at EURO2008 so we're expecting a party in Basel today.

Yesterday evening like many Arsenal fans I wasn't at all bothered too much about watching a contest between two evil entities. However, when you're part of the old expat community (which is made of many nationalities here in Basel) I was required to have a few drinks and share the pain of two good friends out here who both happen to be mad Chelsea fans.

There are 3 Irish/English type bars in Basel and my regular haunt McGuinnesses' was packed with the ManU supporting swiss types as well as the expats. It's very odd how many of the locals really seem to have a poor understanding of the game - I'm sure at one point they cheered a clearing header over the bar thinking the team were attacking the other way!

In other swiss news the press over here are pleased that one of their players (Phillip Degen) has joined Liverpool. Much of the other news seems to focus on the CL final with a particular emphasis on Michael Ballack for some reason.

Anyway tomorrow I start my Euro2008 work with a training day at the accreditation centre and I get my volunteer uniform - maybe I'll show it off on here sometime soon. I'll also try and find some pictures of the work going in Basel as it gets ready for the European Championships.