I'm going to be in Lausanne during euro 2008 and I can't believe that there are no threads I can find about it. Is nobody in switzerland bothered about one of the biggest events ever to be held there?

Been so disappointed by England's qualifying efforts that I'm waiting to see if the boys perform a miracle before I get excited.

Yeah, sure am... I'm very excited about renting my lake-side apt for huge amounts of money!

Most of us are still p'off about not getting tickets.

Yeah but a full EM-bar is even better than the real thing, isn't it

It's out of our hands, though, we are relying on others messing up .

Funny that you mention the EM now, garyshaw. There have been some articles about progress and frictions between the UEFA/sponsors and the cities/stadiums in newspaper from Basel and Zurich yesterday and the day before.

Apparently restaurants and bars adjacent to the fan zones have the choice to only serve Carlsberg beer or to face a fence between the locality and the zone... There are also a few disputes caused by local businesses or residents who would like to minimise the traffic impact of the EM, and the UEFA/sponsors desire to sell bottles and nonreturnable cups instead of the more ecological deposit cups that already are in use in some stadiums.

But generally I think the EM is on the right track... It's just a bit too soon to get excited!

I was having one of my wierd-brain moments the other day at HB in Zurich, I'm debating missing the kick off of the opening match in the bar just to see what happens to the countdown clock in the middle of the station after it gets to 00:00:00...

James Bond will stop it with just two seconds to go, just you watch.

If the EM is anything like the world cup I experienced in Germany my best advice is to leave town for the duration. Public transport full of drunken football fans. Streets full of drunken football fans. Pavement pizzas all over the place from, yes, you guessed it drunken football fans.

Really. Go on holiday and watch it on TV.

My World Cup experience in Germany wasn't like that - yes we were a group of 10 lads all over for essentially a "lads holiday" of beer and football, but at the same time we had a grand old time and got on well with fans of whichever team we were supporting - we got no England tickets at all so we cheered on at various times;

Serbia
Saudi Arabia
Iran
Togo
Switzerland
Spain
and Korea.

(We didn't cheer the French, though )

The "Fan Fests" that were set up did a great job of providing somewhere central where those who want that sort of atmosphere can head over and get what they're after - those who don't want that atmosphere can head elsewhere. From what I've seen the plan here is to have a similar set up. I think it worked very well in Germany.

Apart from all the smug FIFA employees

<cough>UEFA</cough>

It is different when you are living in the place where it is held and trying to get on with your daily life. Or it could be just because I'm an old curmudgeon. You can judge for yourself in a few months

Yeah, fu<cough>UEFA</cough>

What makes you think I'm not a curmudgeon as well

I guess it is a different side of the coin that I'll be exposed to this time, but still I don't resent the fact that the place will be stacked with drunken football fans, as in Germany 99% of them were very well behaved, and the 1% who weren't were very well controlled and policed. I'm confident EM 2008 will be the same

Hopefully it's going to be great. It'd be nice if England could qualify. But it's a "festival of football" so should be cracking regardless!

Something to look forward to in these gloomy days.

Now I'll put my book of clichés away!

I'm more of the "it's my ball so I get to say who plays" fraternity.

If England aren't in it there's no interest for me and I'll just sulk for a few weeks.

So glad my thread generated all this response. YEs, it will be different without england and it doesn't look good right now(c'mon Israel). But i just think it will be exciting to be living in the country that's hosting.....and is Lausanne going to be as bad as Geneva for disruption to normal life? I can't wait.....

If England aren't in then I'll be buying a Swiss shirt - might as well cheer on the underdogs