EURO 2008 INFO

BIG WHEEL - For a wallet well stocked, a company event to follow the matches of the Euro since the Ferris wheel in Vienna. The screens will be installed in several nacelles. After the meetings, the more affluent diners resume the height for a gala dinner and may also contemplate this time the green, which offer himself to them.

FULL OF VIP - 98% of the VIP seats were sold to two months of the launch of the Euro. The organizers do more than just packages for the two quarters played in Austria, the semis and finals. Interested parties should pay respectively 2,000, 4,000 and 8,000 euros for sesame access to a podium place and a catering service luxurious. A nearly 90 euros a minute for the final, it is hoped that the champagne is of good quality.

REALITY-TV - TV goes back to the age of football. Under the eye of the cameras broadcast "Das Match" (the game), twenty or Austrian suent blood and water in a training camp led by former national coach Hans Krankl. As eliminations, the former Barça and the hero of the historic victory of Austria on Germany in the World 1978 (3-2) made up his team to face the Swiss selection of a program similar early June .

KROCHA - Notice to the Euro supporters who want to go dancing after matches: to be the latest fashion in Austria must be dancing krocha (pronounced crohraah). Under this title, which is akin to a cry of the crow lurks tektonik locale. If the French dance with your hands, Austrians do with your feet: no basis resembles the Charleston with his scissors movements at high speed, almost a movement warm for footballers. Mandatory equipment, failing crampons: fluorescent clothes, hats, sneakers and artificially tanned skin.

PISSOIR - Du foot into the toilet. A Viennese nightclub has installed cages laid on green plastic grids in its pissotières. If no guardian directed the skylight right is a breeze, achieving a Panenka remains, as in the field, a real challenge.

TURF - Points of questions around the turf in Klagenfurt, yet the standards of the Euro. New grass or not, officials will leave by the end of April to make a decision. The installation of a new lawn would cost up to 100,000 euros.

RELICS - Relics Catholics and footballing side-by-side. Maillot sacred and holy chalice players conducive to a eucharist champagnesque after a final cut, an exhibition at the Museum of St. Stephen's Cathedral in Vienna highlights the links between religion and worship the sport.

PRISON CASE - The Austrian authorities are preparing for the worst. 400 detainees will change from prison to make room in the cities hosting matches of the Euro. Meanwhile, the city of Basel will call into service an old prison where inmates may be half a thousand people in the event of serious events. One hundred additional places will also be available in four cells of another collective prison. Experts point to several hundreds of arrests of hooligans daily for the competition.

EXCLUSION ZONE - The private flights are normally not allowed above the Swiss stadiums during matches of the Euro. The Federal Council decided Wednesday to restrict air traffic for safety reasons. The flights and charter will not be affected. The restrictions will come into force two hours before the start of each match and will remain so for six hours, or until approximately two hours after the final whistle. If no threat is detected, the exclusion zone will extend over a radius of 22km from the centre of the stadium and up to an altitude of 3000m. Except in Geneva, where the limit would be set at 3500 m. If there is a risk "critical", the radius of restriction may be extended to 45 km. This will be the case for the opening match on June 7 in Basel, given its great media interest.

PATTERNS OF TOUR - A delegation of the Swiss Football Association has completed his tour of the seven federations that play in Switzerland. Monday, the president Ralph Zloczower and secretary general Peter Gilliéron went to the French Federation in Paris Tuesday before going to The Hague at the headquarters of the Dutch Federation. Previously, the two men had visited politeness like Italy and Romania, as well as countries of opponents of Switzerland in the Euro: Portugal, the Czech Republic and Turkey.

DURING HOOLIGANISME - Some fifty Swiss security specialists who prepare the Euro follow from Monday to Wednesday in Basel (northwestern Switzerland) a course to learn how to defuse conflicts in the zones of supporters and for the projections. They must become familiar with the rituals and behaviour of football fans. Another training Hitzkirch (canton of Lucerne) is designed to about 70 people who accompany specialists hooliganism or care for the safety of the teams.

REINFORCEMENTS - Swiss and German representatives signed Saturday in Basel agreement determining the commitment of German police reinforcements during Euro in Basel and Zurich. A similar document was signed with France in early April in Geneva. These govern the details of the commitment of 500 to 1,000 German police and french Switzerland. They will be directed by law enforcement agencies in Switzerland and will be empowered to act against the hooligans, to stop them and hand them over to the local police. This commitment of foreign police officers is supported financially by the Swiss Confederation.