If (when?) UEFA confirm that Euro 2016 will have 24 competing teams, they will do well to append an intention to use the format of the 1982 World Cup in Spain, when there was a second group stage involving four pools of three, the winners of which would procede to the semi finals. The 1986-1994 World Cups allowed four of the six 3rd placed teams to remain in the tournament, with hardly any of them deserving to do so. I recall the words of BBC commentator Gerald Sinstadt at the Uruguay v South Korea match at Italia ‘90; “Uruguay have scored the goal which, I’m sorry to say, will take them into the second round.” Uruguay’s Daniel Fonseca had just scored a last minute winner in a turgid match which ended 1-0, ‘earning’ the unwatchable and conservative South Americans a place in Round 2, where they were duly - and thankfully - beaten 2-0 by Italy.

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Ronaldinho will not be joining Manchester City, despite a rumoured £200,000 weekly wage being on offer. He was presumably dissuaded by the prospect of a trip to face a village team from the Faroe Islands as Manchester City begin their labyrinthine campaign in the woefully badly formatted and bloated UEFA Cup. It turns out he wants to join Milan, as he wants Champions League football… oh, hang on…

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There will be virtually no live football on the BBC for a year, before they begin their Championship and Carling Cup contract in August 2009. This means less work for Alan Shearer, a wonderful player in his day but a singularly unilluminating pundit. If only Martin O’Neill didn’t have a proper job, Match of the Day might have a top class studio partnership. Shearer, O’Neill, Hansen and co have now returned from their jolly to Vienna along with an army of ‘roaming reporters’ whose expositions from the fan-mile were as superfluous as they were homogeneous. Happy expenses, lads.

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Another era ending at the Beeb after Euro 2008 is the career - as a live broadcaster, at least - of John Motson, their sheepskin-wearing, stat-wielding principal commentator, who will carry on working with Match of the Day but will not go to the 2010 World Cup in South Africa. We await speculation on who will cover that Final for the BBC, though Jonathan Pearce would be a sound choice. His assured, measured style is far preferable to the big-mouth approach he adopted in the early days of Channel Five in the late 90s and is beginning to echo Barry Davies, who remains criminally wasted doing only the occasional tennis match and Olympic hockey or gymnastics competitions. Davies briefly broke the Motson monopoly at the BBC in the mid-90s, commentating on the 1994 World Cup Final and the FA Cup Finals of 1995 and 1996 and remains the finest sports commentator the country has ever produced.

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Waitakere Utd, the unremarkable champions of New Zealand, will once again compete in the annual FIFA Club World Cup, one of many unwelcome effects of Australia defecting from the OFC to the AFC despite common sense and geography. New Zealand, a country which cares little for football, are consequentially virtually guaranteed qualification to every Confederations Cup, the next edition of which will take place next year in South Africa as a dress rehearsal for the 2010 World Cup. For European champions Manchester Utd, the trip to Japan in mid-December is another distraction from domestic football after they take on Zenit St Petersburg in the UEFA Super Cup in Monaco on Friday 29th August.

Scarcely can a more wrong letter have ever been published in a national British newspaper than one I now recall in last Sunday’s Observer: “For most fans in this country the tournament has been a minor distraction before the serious business for the proper teams in the Premier League begins again.” The correspondent, a fellow Chelsea fan, I regret to say, goes on to describe the Championships in Austria and Switzerland as a ‘pointless European placebo’.

In one sentence, the writer summed up everything about the Premier League that makes me care less about it than the international game. It is serious. Oh dear. It is business. Ho-hum. It has ‘proper teams’; when has anything in sport been anything other than absurd? Simon Barnes of the Times’ ‘golf principle’ is apt - either all sport is ridiculous or none is. What makes Manchester Utd proper and, by implication, Spain improper?

Most English football fans, incidentally, do not support one of the increasingly inelastic Big Four. Most support somebody like Preston North End, or Gillingham, or Portsmouth, or Sheffield Utd. Most care about England. The only ones who are really apathetic towards England are the one-eyed followers of the Champions League teams, for whom Steven Gerrard playing for England is little more than a needless risk of injury just days before that crucial Champions League group match, most of which are now no more challenging than the average league game.

The UEFA Champions League has many fine qualities but it assumes an importance far out of proportion to its actual emotional connection with the population. A glance at ITV’s ratings history confirms as much. Manchester Utd v Chelsea in Moscow: 14.6 million. England v Argentina, 1998 World Cup: 25 million. The Champions League merely massages the egos of a self-perpetuating elite while being little more than a chance for most fans to watch some football without the shortcomings of partiality. If anything is a footballing placebo, then it is the Champions League. It kids us that if the Big Four are alright, Jack, then all club football must be in fine shape. As any Leeds fan will tell you, it isn’t.

I am grateful to José Mourinho for many reasons but none more than the fact that Chelsea finally winning the league in 2005 makes me obsess less about their results. We’ve done it. Twice. Before Abramovich’s arrival in 2003, I would have not expected two titles in my lifetime. Now, it is not the end of the world if Aston Villa get a late equalizer. Life, as Nick Hornby wrote in “Fever Pitch”, is no longer shit because my club is shit. So football is now enjoyable again.

It helps that international football is the ultimate sporting meritocracy. It is often argued that England’s players under-perform for their country; it might have something to do that when Gerrard, Rooney, Ferdinand and friends play against Croatia or Russia, they are facing greatly superior opponents than on most Premier League matchdays.

Hands up those of you who thought that Euro 2008 would have been improved by any of the trappings of the Premier League? Agents? Interminable, pointless transfer speculation? No thanks. Mercifully, Andrei Arshavin does not play for Russia because it is his contractual duty; he does so because he is proud to do so. Now the Euros are over, we are set to be ‘treated’ to weeks of bitter-tasting contract details, transfer fees and media bullshitting as Chelsea, Arsenal and Barcelona squabble for his services. Please wake me up in August.

I love the Premier League but only the bits between kick-off and full-time. This is because I love football. The game of football, where 22 players agitate a bag of wind for 90 minutes. That is enjoyable. The endless transfer rumour mill that happens ever July isn’t. It is like the long snaking queues that must be endured to board a roller-coaster at Alton Towers. European Championships and World Cups are about football and the enjoyment of it. What will we remember about this year’s tournament in years to come? The fabulous skills, the great games, the colour and the atmosphere. We will have forgotten the media’s self-satisfying pontification on Cristiano Ronaldo’s future, Martin O’Neill’s negotiating of Gareth Barry’s transfer fee while with the BBC’s team in Vienna or Luiz Felipe Scolari’s defection from Portugal to Chelsea.

No shirt sponsors by law, no player transfers, no takeover rumours. International tournaments are as close as the game gets to perfection because they are football at its purest. In other words, they are sport. Real sport. And if England’s absence from one competition has helped us realize that we like football - that is, like watching football matches, not following our club sides with such parochial fervour that reason and fair appreciation become alien concepts - then it might just have been worth it.

It is a system that fans sentimentally cling on to and remains the default formation in the lower leagues but at the top level the Herbert Chapman inspired system hasn’t been successful for a number of years. All of the ‘top four’ clubs in England and almost every other top club side in Europe have now settled for a style based on two deep-lying midfield players and either a lone striker or a front three.

Indeed, in the case of many teams the fluency of the system means we could interpret them as occupying both categories. At international level, England have clung rigidly to the 4-4-2 and allowed rival nations to evolve beyond them. Fabio Capello signalled his intentions immediately to radically alter the system.

The constant debate over whether to fit the players into a winning system or find the winning system for your star players will never find a resolution but the evolution of a new fluent 4-3-3 and the effective renaissance of the ‘Inside Forward’ at such clubs as Manchester United and Barcelona should offer inspiration and direction for Fabio Capello.

The Italian has seized the opportunity to experiment in his opening two matches with a 4-4-1-1 but has been unable thus far to effectively imbed his cultured philosophy. The players seemed uncomfortable and the Wembley fans unimpressed. In the France game in particular, Wayne Rooney as a lone front man seemed isolated with Steven Gerrard too deep to support him. England looked solid but created little.

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Daniele De Rossi was in terrific form for Roma last season

Formation
This being the season for goals, 4-3-3 seems the ideal one for Serie A’s Team of the Year.

Goalkeeper

Realistically, there were only three choices; Gigi Buffon, Julio Cesar and Seb Frey. Of the three, Frey has been the best consistently, largely because Fiorentina’s game plan almost invites others to attack them. Frey doesn’t have the same defence in front of him as Cesar or Buffon so his job is much harder. But it is key saves that win you matches, and titles. Despite not winning anything, Juve had a renaissance season, whereas Inter won a third successive Scudetto, and for that reason, Cesar is the top keeper. He has kept Inter in matches they were struggling to win, and won them matches with point blank saves against the top teams.

Defence

Inter’s captain Javier Zanetti must surely take up the right-back berth as the attacking full back/midfielder combines attack and defence so well. Zanetti has performed in an odd season for Inter, and after 12 years at the club is still regarded as one of the best. On the left, Juventus‘ Giorgio Chiellini has shown his versatility at either centre-back or left-back, and has been described as the new Cannavaro with his last-ditch tackles.

Selecting the centre-backs is a tough job, considering that the art of defending has been almost non-existent this season.

Roma’s Phillipe Mexes has grown in stature this season, and no longer is he viewed as a weak link. His technical skill and ability to play with the ball from out of defence gives him the first centre-back position. If we have one technically gifted centre-back, the other must surely be the rugged, last ditch defender who is willing to break every bone in his body to prevent the ball from going in. With that being the case, only one player fits the bill - Paolo Cannavaro - the younger brother of Fabio. Although not as famous as his World Cup-winning brother, Paolo’s performances in defence have guided Napoli into the dizzy heights of the top end of the table, bringing back the memories of Napoli’s glory days under Maradona. The Intertoto Cup awaits.

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Samir Nasri is heading to Arsenal for 12 million pounds

Arsenal are on the verge of capturing Samir Nasri, the Marseille starlet who has been in terrific form.

Amongst the best young players in Ligue 1 - in the same bracket as Karim Benzema and Hatem Ben Arfa, both of whom are at Lyons - Nasri’s contract has a release clause of around 15 million euros, or 12 million pounds, and Arsène Wenger is keen to counter the anticipated loss of Alexander Hleb by signing the 20-year-old.

Nasri is also being targeted by Lyons, with a swap deal involving Ben Arfa mooted, but Arsenal are in pole position especially with Wenger’s French connection. The Marseille-born attacking midfielder is also thought to want to test himself in the Premier League having been part of the senior set-up in Ligue 1 for four years.

Like Benzema, Nasri has been compared with Zinedine Zidane. Both sons of Algerian immigrants and raised in a tough Marseille suburb, their creative talents on the field mean they have similarly commanded an instant starting place.

At the hub of a Marseille side that took third place on the last day of the season to earn a Champions League spot, his playmaking abilities came to the fore as the club recovered from a poor start to the campaign and a premature exit from Europe’s premier competition to finish behind only Lyons and Bordeaux.

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If the hype surrounding the Champions League Final is already intense, this is surely still the quiet before the storm.

Because in two short days we will be well and truly within the bounds of the match build up and, by then, most of the front pages will mirror their rears in speculating about the first all English European Cup Final in football history. If you love English football it’s big. If you support either side it’s seminal and if you support both teams, well you’re Ray Wilkins.

Carlos Tevez will play an integral role for Man Utd

And what a great leveller the Champions League final is. Even a month ago, United fans were licking their lips at the prospect of facing a stuttering Chelsea in Moscow. Most would have preferred to play the under-performing Blues than face a resurgent and more coherent Liverpool team with a Torres at the helm. But now it doesn’t seem quite such a simple equation. Indeed, many now have Chelsea down as favourites.

As the season entered its final furlong, it was Chelsea who were improving and United who started to show a slight dip in form and energy levels. And whilst Avram Grant’s detractors haven’t been completely silenced by his recent management, a lot more respect is now being shown.

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Sometimes I hate the English media. They always tend to depict Italy’s Serie A as the most boring, most dire, most uneventful league in Europe, if not the world. But let me say this; this season the Serie A title race is as exciting as the English Premier League finale, if not spicier.

Probably about half of the footballing fans around the world watched in anticipation as Chelsea and Manchester United slugged out their title finale on Sunday. It was not as exciting as I anticipated, but all the same, it was fun to watch and ended a thoroughly good season.

Compared to Europe’s other leagues, Serie A has not had an exciting finale like this in a long time. Last season, Real Madrid won the La Liga title through their head-to-head matches with rivals Barcelona after finishing with the same number of points. In the Premier League this year, both Chelsea and Manchester United went to the wire with United being crowned Champions on Sunday. Both exciting endings to those respective seasons. But the third best league in Europe is surely now having the last laugh.

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The Barcelona squad of 2006 was by no means a one-man-team. Samuel Eto’o and Deco were in terrific form, Lionel Messi was the breakthrough star of the season and Dutch manager Frank Rijkaard had changed the course of the final with his introduction of Henrik Larsson and Juliano Belletti from the bench. They were a team who could score through sustained pressure, a counter-attack, a set-piece or simply just a moment of magic. And that inspiration could come from one of several players in the famous red and blue jersey. But it was apparent to all that Ronaldinho was the standout performer of the team.

He was irresistible all season in the team which also strode to the La Liga crown to seal the double. He captivated the world by playing as if he were no longer bound by the laws of gravity and his change of pace, vast array of passing, flicks and back-heels bamboozled the greatest defences Europe had to offer. Barcelona that season were the embodiment of what Roman Abramovich aspires Chelsea to be - that rare but spectacular harmony between entertainment and trophies. Ronaldinho being acclaimed as the best player in the world became a flagrant statement, and he was on his way to the World Cup in Germany to prove just that.

It was the previous World Cup in 2002 when the dentally challenged Brazilian ‘arrived’ on the international stage with the goal that eliminated England. From then on ‘R10’ as he was dubbed by the Nike marketing department seemed scintillatingly unstoppable. His nation went on to win the 2002 World Cup in Tokyo and he returned to find Manchester United and Barcelona vying for his signature. He became a regular on Soccer AM’s showboat whilst accumulating further winners’ medals as he entered the golden phase of his career at the Camp Nou. 

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On the surface, the Premier League has never been more bullish, never so possessed of skillful footballers. Where once, players such as Torres, Ronaldo, Gerrard, Drogba et al would be compelled to move to Italy (or, latterly, Spain) to compete at the highest level, now the general preference is England. A dozen years ago the Premier League could only hope to attract top players in the twilight of their careers, but today, many of the world’s leading talents spend their best years in Blighty.

So great is the pull of the Premer League pound that even the inferior weather can’t keep them away. And because of its global attraction, English football has become seriously big business.

But what price, if any, are we paying for this cosmetic and commercial success? Is the Premier League at risk of becoming the plaything of a ‘scoreumvirate’ of business tycoons who might down tools and move on as abruptly as they entered the fray, leaving vast debt in their wake?

The sports pages have been dominated this season by the ‘business’ of football. Comment on the beautiful game has made way in part for boardroom battles that wouldn’t be out of place in the script of ‘Dynasty’.

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With the visitors having pulled the score back to 3-1, Nani’s dismissal might have proved significant and both manager Sir Alex Ferguson and assistant Carlos Queiroz lamented the Portuguese for his impetuousness at such a vital time in the season.

The midfielder’s red card has been the culmination of weeks of poor form, however. His final ball has frequently been misplaced or not forthcoming at all - like at Stamford Bridge in the crunch encounter with Chelsea - and the 21-year-old has demonstrated his immaturity during United’s most crucial games of the entire campaign. In fact, his performances are reminiscent of compatriot Cristiano Ronaldo’s during his first season at the club - the desire to impress is clear, but there is often no end product and a lack of selflessness.

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