There is a festive feel as Lucerne gears up for the final draw for UEFA EURO 2008™. Christmas decorations are up around town, sharing pride of place with UEFA EURO 2008™ banners announcing the picturesque Swiss city's place at the centre of European football this weekend.
Benvenuto
Benvenuto signor Donadoni, Dobro došli gospodine Bilić, Bienvenido señor Aragonés read some of the welcome messages outside the Culture and Convention Centre (KKL) where the draw takes place on Sunday at 12.00CET. For the first time the coaches of the 16 competing nations are gathered together on Swiss soil. The next time they meet, UEFA EURO 2008™ will be under way and Greece will have begun the defence of their title.
189 days to go
Kick off may still be 188 days away but it will feel a lot closer for the 16 competing nations this afternoon when they discover who they will meet in the group stage and where they will be playing. Basel, Berne, Zurich and Geneva will be staging games in Switzerland, with co-hosts Austria holding matches in Innsbruck, Klagenfurt, Salzburg and Vienna between 7 and 29 June.
Stunning
The convention centre is on the shore of Lake Lucerne, framed by a stunning mountain backdrop. Lucerne, famed for its 14th century wooden Chapel Bridge and historic old quarter, is one of Switzerland's prime tourist destinations and the city of 60,000 inhabitants is well accustomed to the flood of visitors already arriving for Sunday's main event. Seven hundred and fifty journalists will be descending on Lucerne as well as a host of footballing luminaries and dignatories, not least tenor José Carreras, who along with the Vienna Boys' Choir will be performing prior to the draw.
'Scene is set'
"It's a lovely setting, a terrific city and a beautiful scene," UEFA general secretary David Taylor told uefa.com. "For me it brings home what Austria and Switzerland mean, looking at the mountains, the lakes, the ambiance of the place. It's terrific, so the scene is now set. You look at the teams that have qualified for the final round, you think who are the likely challengers, who might win the trophy, but of course the draw is out of everyone's control. This is where pure chance comes into play and I love that in football. The unpredictability of the draw is something we must always retain."
Compelling viewing
It is also what makes it such compelling viewing for fans around the world. Fifty broadcasters covering 140 countries will be screening the event live. These may be the European championships, but the interest is global and after 306 qualifying games 27,630 minutes and 836 goals, the 16 participants are finally in a position to know their fate. Some of the coaches involved may have slept easier than others, but nerves or no nerves Slaven Bilić summed up the prevailing mood most succinctly when asked who he would like Croatia to be drawn against.
'Hope'
"Maybe I am wrong, but I don't really care," the Croatia coach said. "There's 16 teams in this and you can't have an easy group. It's all about the level of difficulty. The 14 teams that qualified did it the tough way and on merit. That gives them every hope and reason to beat every team. I am going to see how it goes."
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