As 2007 nears its end, the leadership of the German national team is working flat out on preparations for the UEFA European Football Championship™ 2008. Swiss Urs Siegenthaler, head scout with the German Football Association, DFB, has compiled the dates when he will watch Germany’s group opponents -- Croatia, Poland and Austria. The first 2008 date, which will allow some respite the Swiss, will bring together hosts Austria and Germany in a friendly international match on Wednesday, February 6, in Vienna. Both associations decided to retain this long planned fixture despite the fact they will now meet again in the third Group B of UEFA EURO 2008™ at the same ground on June 16.

“This is an opportunity for our players to get to know the atmosphere at the new Ernst Happel Stadium”, said DFB General Secretary Wolfgang Niersbach, who is meticulously plotting the national team’s planning strategy. DFB have contracted the Duesseldorf-based company MasterCoach to evaluate the friendly matches involving their known opponents, as well of those of all other possible opponents at the UEFA European Football Championship™. The company’s experts will dissect the video pictures from matches, concentrating mainly on tactics employed.

It is somewhat unusual that teams drawn into the same group for a major tournament play each other in a friendly beforehand. The Netherlands and Italy, who will meet in Group C, cancelled their already scheduled friendly. Switzerland and Germany will play each other, however, on March 26. This will be seen as a “return” match, with the DFB side scoring a 3-1 win in the earlier match in Duesseldorf in February 2007. The second encounter will be held at St. Jacobs Park Stadium in Basle. This stadium will be the number two venue for the UEFA European Football Championship™ 2008 behind Vienna, with six matches to be contested in each city. If the German team qualify in their group, the three-time European champions could play at that venue in June – and the opponents could be the Swiss, provided they qualify in Group A against the Czech Republic, Portugal and Turkey.

After the two matches against the UEFA EURO co-hosts, there will be no further international match until the start of the specific preparations for the UEFA EURO 2008 ™. On May 19, two days after the conclusion of the Bundesliga season, the team will travel to a training camp in Majorca, where the DFB squad last prepared for the UEFAEURO 2000™, under the guidance of then team manager Erich Ribbeck. They will stay on the Spanish holiday island until May 29. After their return, two further international matches will be held in Germany against opponents not participating in the UEFA EURO 2008™.

The squad will move into their European Championship hotel at Ascona in the Swiss canton of Ticino in early June. The five-star hotel “Giardino”, close to the Italian border, will remain the squad’s accommodation for the duration of the tournament. The picturesque, peaceful town is surrounded by mountains and lies directly on Lago Maggiore. The training and press conferences will take place at Tenero, a suburb of Locarno, near to Ascona. The team will fly the day prior to their matches in Klagenfurt and Vienna and possibly Basle if they qualify, from Lugano airport, about 40 kilometres away.

The European Championship campaign will cost the DFB more than 10 million Euros. Niersbach estimated the expenditure at “two-digit millions”, approximately the same as at the 2006 FIFA World Cup™. There will ample revenue to be gained, however. A maximum of 23 million Euros prize money is at stake for the new title holders. The European Football Association, UEFA, has fixed that prize money from their Lucerne headquarters. UEFA will pay a total of 184 million Euros to the 16 participating teams. Each team will receive 7.5 million Euros as appearance money. Every win in the preliminary round is worth one million Euros, every draw half a million. The UEFA payments will increase in the following rounds, rising to the new record sum of 23 million for the tournament champions.

The German players have not yet negotiated their bonuses with the DFB. This should happen at the beginning of 2008, perhaps to coincide with the friendly in Austria. A maximum of 150,000 Euros per player was cashed after the successful qualification. National coach Joachim Loew will possibly nominate the 23 players shortly before the departure to Majorca. The final deadline for submitting the actual UEFA European Football Championship™ squads to UEFA is likely to be fixed at the end of May.