I had spent Friday in Rotterdam and witnessed an orange migration heading out of town to Basel for the Netherlands-Russia Euro 08 quarter final. The Dutch have made a huge impact here - more than any other nation - both with their attractive football and festive enthusiasm. I should have gone to Basel to capture some of the excitement live, because now, unfortunately, they are going home. Actually the Russians are worthy successors for the "attractive football" mantle, and I now have them installed as my tournament favourites.

As noted elsewhere, I still have two of my favourite national anthems in the running. Russia will potentially meet Italy in the semi final, so one of them will have to go. Germany are favorites in the other semi final, so we are probably going to have a nice musical confrontation. The earnest, but still quite stirring music of Haydn up against either the panache of the Italian, or the soulful slavic emotion of Russian.

In another post I inaccurately attributed the Italian anthem to Verdi, whereas the music was composed by Marmelli, a little known student. Verdi did however use the theme in his contribution for the London International Exhibition of 1862

Like everything else in Italy, the history and status of the "official" national anthem is anything but clear cut.

A bit short on new material, so here's another couple of views of the Adidas Huddle in Zurich Hauptbahnhof

So, Switzerland are out of Euro 08 which is a shame for the atmosphere here, but actually they played quite well only lacking the firepower up front.

Who do I support now? All the teams are full of cheating diving chancers, so it's tough. The French are pretty honest players, as are the Germans, but.... In the long run though I've decided that it makes more sense to model it on the Eurovision Song contest, and I'm going to back my teams based on the national anthems.

1) Russia

2) France

3) Italy

A Russia France final would be ideal, but it's not possible because of the draw, and improbable given their showing so far. Might have to settle for the strains of Verdi wafting over Vienna on the 29th June but Italy didn't look too clever either in the first game

I guess this view will seen around the world today - well in Europe anyway. Putting the finishing touches to a huge display to mark the start of Euro 2008 in Switzerland and Austria in Hauptbahnhof Zurich.

The design shows surprisingly lifelike giant statues of members of the participating nations engaging in an idealistic but unlikely show of bonding. Wait till the action starts. We will then be treated to the spectacle of grown men crying for their mothers at the slightest bump, and in the process trying to cheat or otherwise put one over on their opposite numbers. The most prized activity appears to be managing to get a blameless opponent red-carded.

I must confess I watch my fair share of football (along with a lot of other sports). It always surprises me how successful and pervasive the hype and marketing is at convincing us we are about to observe a sporting exhibition the like of which has never been witnessed before. And how the event itself, except on very rare occasions serves us up 90 mins of tedium and frustration at the on-pitch antics. Oh well, now where am I going to sit...

Taken during the Rugby World Cup 2007

Inline, roller, skateboard - all are popular here in Zurich where the pavements are nice and flat. At Burkliplatz there seems to be regular gatherings - there are even little marks on the tarmac where they can set out those lttle cone things. This was taken with my old Leica, so you don't always need modern autofocus lenses to catch the action,

Leica M3 50mm Summicron Tri-X

The Swiss are proud of Roger Federer, rightly so, and he's now been stuck on the 1 CHF stamp as a consequence. First living legend to be accorded this accolade. In fact so proud are the Swiss of his world fame, that they haven't even bothered to put his name on the stamp. Instead the name of the graphic artist appears. 20mins sees the fun in this, noticing as others might that maybe there are some people who actually haven't heard of Roger Federer - and so Roland Hirter finds himself suddenly promoted to the position of 4 times Wimbledon champion etc etc

Or maybe it should be Victoria goes to Hollywood...... Only in America I guess could a fading footballer with middling talents become the world's highest paid sportsman. Call me old fashioned, but I think this says a lot about modern values.

At one million dollars a week playing for Los Angeles Galaxy, it will be interesting to calculate the price per goal at the end of the season. You're going to say but he's more than just a free kick wizard isn't he? Well no, he isn't, at least not on the football field. Maybe better to add up how much extra merchandise they sell - that's really what it's about