Switzerland has scored! But what else do I know?

Avoiding EURO 2016: A self-experiment — Day Three

In a newspaper heading somewhere, probably online, I caught that Albania’s team was reduced to ten players in yesterday’s match. Probably a red card, but that’s just an assumption.

So far, all I know for sure from EURO 2016 is that Switzerland has scored a goal against Albania. I don’t for a fact know whether the Eidgenossen scored more than this one goal, nor if they won, drew or even lost against the decimated Skënderbeu squad. This is going well! Not knowing more about the actual results of the tournament, I mean.

Oh, and one of my 400+ Facebook connections posted this neat picture. So apparently the two countries that up until the first world war (I know that according to dictionaries, this takes capital letters, but I deliberately write the names of wars in lower case) formed the main part of a European colossus-on-feet-of-clay superpower are actually in the same group. And me who had happily forgotten that they even qualified. I mean …what has Hungarian football been since Puskás, and what has Austrian football been since Krankl? I werd’ narrisch. No offense.

Then the less funny part I half picked up today. Apparently England and Russia have played as well. And their brainless hooligans have caused chaos. If I trusted that this scum could actually read, I would send them this link, hoping it could make them realise what they actually do. And what it costs society. Did you know that the Land Bremen in Germany has started invoicing their local heroes Werder Bremen for the extra costs they have in providing man-days to ensure security at regular Bundesliga matches? I think it only fair. Until someone comes up with a better idea for a simple game not to set the agenda on how one of society’s essential resources is used.

I want to end today’s blogpost on a positive note though. The so-far biggest challenge in avoiding the EURO 2016 showed up today: An invitation to watch tonight’s matches. From friends, a Belgian-Polish couple. So most likely, diable rouge is playing. Or the silver eagle. Or both. Maybe even against each other. Though I would have enjoyed the Belgian beer and a bit of the Polish wódka that would for sure have been on the small table in front of the big screen, I stayed firm.

And I hope we are still friends.