The Blockchain Race: Turkish Digital Lira to Finish Testing in 2020

 

The Turkish administration aims to complete testing their national digital currency (CBDC) in 2020 after directions given by the countries president Recep Tayyip Erdogan in the presidential program published on 3 November according to a document published yesterday by Resmi Gazete.

Turkey’s objective by launching a digital currency is to create a better infrastructure as the document notes:

“The main objective is to establish a financial sector with a strong institutional structure that can respond to the financing needs of the real bitcoin dice  sector at a low cost, offer different financial instruments to a wide investor base through reliable institutions and support Istanbul’s goal of becoming an attractive global financial center.”

Turkey is a country where cryptocurrencies are very popular and it is clearly visible on localbitcoins chart volume. In part, this interest comes because of the instability of the local currency which has gone down by more than 70% only in the last few years.

After China interest in Blockchain and discussions in the U.S. Congress about Libra, other countries are in a race to compete in the blockchain innovation.

It is strange how things change so fast. Only in a decade, governments went from laughing at the idea of bitcoin into trying to copy it for their central bank currency.

The question now is, what will happen in the next 10 years?

Feel free to post your opinion in the comments below.

LibraCoin returns as a topic in the main media. All thanks to the actions of regulatory authorities for counteracting monopolistic practices in the European Commission, which sent a special questionnaire, thanks to which they want to determine whether LibraCoin is an anti-competitive project.

The information was provided to the public by Bloomberg. According to a portal article, the Commission sent the questionnaire in August and is trying to determine whether other market players will be able to compete with Libra. In the eyes of the EU authorities, LibraCoin is a dangerous project in the field of information exchange and use of consumer data.

Regulatory authorities also want to see how the Facebook currency can work based on applications such as WhatsApp and Messenger on Facebook.

According to a spokesperson for the financial services department, the commission “monitors the market development in the field of cryptographic assets and payment services, including Libra and its development

LibraCoin will collapse before being created?

On the Facebook project, black clouds appeared actually on the first day, as soon as the giant announced its plans. The first statements – e.g. of the Governor of the Bank of England – were still conservative and suggested that Libra should be looked at first, and not deleted immediately.

Then it was worse. Congressional hearings showed how influential politicians are hostile to the project. The candidate for US President of Democrats – Maxime Waters – has even prepared a bill that would prohibit money transfers using social networking sites. Experts from the International Monetary Fund, the Bank for International Settlements and the Financial Stability Board spoke negatively about LibraCoin.

All this meant that Facebook has already suggested that it may not emit its e-currency at all. Some suggest, however, that this is deliberate action and the company is just waiting for a better moment to enter the market.

Schildy1984 wins keluar sgp WCOOP Event 28

 

This year’s World Championship of Online Poker is in full swing at keluar sgp , with players from around the globe competing for awesome prize pools in exciting tournaments. We’re fast-approaching the halfway mark of the series, so a huge amount of cash has already been won but, more importantly, there’s also a lot of it up for grabs. Event 28 wrapped up earlier this week, and the lucky winner to walk away with the number one spot was Schildy1984 of Austria, who received $206,280 for a job well done.

The World Championship of Online Poker is pretty much exactly what the name suggests. It can be seen as the internet’s answer to the World Series of Poker, and the PokerStars hosted series is by far and away the largest such online series around. This 2011 series boasts a massive combined guaranteed prize pool of $30,000,000, which is much larger than many were expecting given the withdrawal of PokerStars from the US market. The combined prize pool is spread over 62 events this year, which offer a great variety so players of any game should be able to find a tournament they’ll love.

 

Event 28 was one of the more standard formats, a simple No Limit Holdem tournament with no surprises. The buy-in was respectable at $1,000, and 1146 players decided to register and take their shot at the money. This many contestants lead to an almost doubling of the prizepool from its guaranteed $600,000 to the final figure of $1,146,000, to be divided among the top 135 players, with the winner allocated over $200,000. The event dragged on over two days before finally finishing less than an hour into September 15th.

 

After nearly two days of grueling button clicking and close decisions, the tournament got down to just three entrants, two players from Austria and one from neighboring Australia. The Australian player, delaney_kid, was Schildy1984′s first casualty, and was sent to the rail in third place. This gave Schildy1984 a slightly more than 3:2 chip lead against fellow countryman TheFan83 as Heads Up play commenced. While the chip edge was small, it was more than enough for Schildy who dispensed his opponent within a dozen hands when his flopped overpair turned a set to beat TheFan83′s two pair when the money went all-in on the river. Runner-up TheFan83 received just under $150,000 for his efforts, and the winner on the day Schildy1984 walked away with the pride, the title, and $206,280.00 in tournament winnings.

 

Final Table Results are as follows:

 

1 – Schlidy1984 (Austria) $206,280.00

2 – TheFan83 (Austria) $147,031.80

3 – delaney_kid (Australia) $110,016.00

4 – d-mon-d (Norway) $82,512.00

5 – djibh (Canada) $57,300.00

6 – touchmynuts1 (Ukraine) $45,840.00

7 – lindeyloo22 (Canada) $34,380.00

8 – anguila (Spain) $22,920.00

9 – hithenose (Spain) $13,752.00

 

 

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Full Tilt Poker’s exchange rates are updated throughout each day and it is the User’s responsibility to check the applicable rates in our cashier before proceeding with transactions involving an exchange of currency. Full Tilt Poker will use XE’s mid-market rate for deposits and withdrawals in currencies other than US Dollars, and will add a margin adjustment of 0.5%. For less liquid currencies a higher margin may apply.

If the method of deposit is not an instant method, the exchange rate as described above in section 7 will be applied when we are provided a confirmation of the deposit by our payment processor.

 

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If you have any questions about playing for real money, please contact us at support@fulltiltpoker.com.

 

Russian Legal Translation

Translation Company UK

Russian is an important language primarily spoken in Russia, Belarus, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, and Kyrgyzstan. It is also spoken unofficially by millions of people in Ukraine, Moldova, Latvia, Turkmenistan, and Estonia.

 

As a result, Russian is the largest native language in Europe with 160 million speakers. This also makes it the 8th most spoken language in the world.

 

Since the collapse of the Soviet Union, the Russian legal system is generally considered to by a civil law system.  However, the socialist influences of communism and the political influences post communism have made a strong imprint on Russia’s legal system.  Combined with early Byzantine influences, this means that Russian law is in many ways very different from European civil codes.

 

Driven largely by the increase in International trade and investment in Russia, in the last decade we have seen a dramatic increase in the amount of Russian translation that we are asked to undertake.

 

Producing legal translations can be both complex and challenging. Therefore it is imperative to use professionally trained Russian linguists with the adequate knowledge and experience. Our extensive knowledge with legal translations also ensures that we only use industry experts and appropriately qualified copywriters to manage our translations.

 

Legal document translations can sometimes involve highly sensitive information but you do not need to worry about this being compromised. Our systems are protected by 128-bit encryption technology and our team of staff and linguists all sign confidentiality agreements as a matter of course.

 

If you require, we are willing to sign any non-disclosure agreements of your own for added peace of mind about legal document translations.

 

Meet some of our Russian Legal Translators – Vitali

 

My name is Vitali and I’m a certified translator with 9 years of professional experience. I translate the following texts and documents; Technical (instructions, manuals, technical requirements, specifications, engineering drawings, etc.), Legal (contracts, laws, legal texts, normative documents, articles of association, licences, certificates, etc.), Financial (banking documentation, loan documentation, investment, insurance and other sectors, etc.), Scientific (articles, investigations, theses relating to variuos sciences, etc.), and Websites.

 

Japanese Technical Translation

 

Japanese is a language that is spoken as a mother tongue by 130 million people worldwide. Although it is spoken almost exclusively in Japan, there are large Japanese emigrant communities in the US, Brazil, Argentina, and Australia.More about Translation Companies UK

 

By only using local Japanese language experts, we can ensure that our Japanese technical translations will be both accurate and formatted correctly.

 

Producing technical translations can be both complex and challenging. Therefore it is imperative to use professionally trained Japanese linguists with the adequate knowledge and experience.

 

Our experience in Japanese technical translation includes working with clients in the following fields:

 

Architecture

Defence and Security

Electronics and Electronic Engineering

Engineering and Construction

IT, Networks and Computing

Machinery and Tooling

Patents

Telecommunications

 

As well as our vast experience in Japanese technical translations, our translation tools can deal with technical document formats. Our sophisticated software filters through the original copy, and separates all translatable text from coding. Our intuitive platforms also guarantee that the translator will not interfere with the formatting.

 

 

Understanding Island Slot Online Time

Slot Online

In a past life, I was the editor of a consumer publication that covered Internet gambling and I was consequently faced with the task of fielding complaints from disgruntled Net bettors. Nearly every complainer believed he was being ripped off, and most of those who believed they were getting ripped off thought so because they requested payment and did not receive it. The good news for the consumer is that most of the complaints were resolved.

But, what gives? Why so many mistaken victims?

When you walk into a sportsbook or a betting shop with a betting receipt and request payment on a winning bet, you receive it promptly. When you come up big playing blackjack or craps, you can expect to walk out of the casino with cash in your wallet. Even when you request payment for a winning telephone wager, you know that your account will be credited immediately and that you’ll have relatively quick access to your winnings.

Enter the era of Internet gambling. They say this Internet thing is all about convenience, but you’d be surprised how inconvenient it can be when it comes to getting your money.

Most Internet gambling services are operated out of the Caribbean, and many inexperienced Net bettors don’t quite understand that things don’t always move along quickly there.

Despite advancements in payment processing technology, winnings are still most often paid out via bank wires, money transfer services or personal checks. That means it’s up to the folks that run the site to either issue and mail a check or prompt their bank to wire the money. But the thing is, when those wheels get rolling on the islands, they don’t always roll quickly.

When you visit the islands, you leave concepts like haste and urgency behind, and this relaxed mentality is widely prescribed to throughout the region. Add to this the fact that the communication infrastructure in many island locations is lacking, and it should come as no surprise that your money might not fly out of the Caribbean with lightening speed.

Then, when you call customer service, they might tell you that the money is on the way, but what you don’t realize is that “on the way” in “island time” can mean “being processed and will be sent eventually.”

A few additional translations: “The check is in my Slot Online hand and will be mailed right away,” often means, “The check is somewhere on my desk and it will be mailed whenever I get around to it.” Likewise, “The money will be wired to your bank account within one week,” can mean, “We typically try to have the money wired within a week, but sometimes it takes up to four.”

So, my answer to bettors who complained that they requested payment “three hours ago” and still haven’t had the funds moved was always, “I’m sorry to hear this. Call me back in a week if you still haven’t received payment, and we’ll see if we can help resolve the matter.” Very seldom did I hear back from them, and very seldom was it a case of the customer getting ripped off. Instead, most instances were cases of the customers getting very poor service.

In the early days of Internet gambling, customer service and prompt payment were severely lacking. Improving technologies and increased competition have changed this quite a bit for the better. Even most of the online sportsbooks and casinos in the Caribbean have figured out how to circumvent island time. But, be aware that there are still many that haven’t yet adopted the concept of speedy service.

There are consumer advocate groups put together for victims of scams, and by all means use seek their assistance if you’ve been had, but you don’t necessarily need to rush to them at the first sign of trouble. If your payment doesn’t show up right away, and customer service doesn’t seem to be responding, don’t immediately panic and move onto the offensive. Grab a piña colada, throw yourself into a hammock and give it a few days. (Or if you’re not so much into the island spirit, at least use your time to seek a site that offers better service.) More often than not, you’ll get your money.

 

 

 

Gambling Top IDN Poker Online Vice

 

Gambling is the “most lucrative vice online,” according to a report published by eMarketer.com. The report estimates that US consumers spent $2.9 billion on vice content in 2002. Of that, $2.5 billion went to gambling websites. Adult content spending totalled an estimated $400 million.

 

eMarketer estimates that online content spending for general online content targeted at consumers will total $1.2 billion for 2002.

 

Get Tips from Poker Expert Lee Jones

 

This weekend, Poker expert Lee Jones, author of the best selling book “Winning Low-Limit Hold ‘Em”, will be playing and giving expert advice to players at Golden Tiger Poker. For three days only players are invited to play and learn from one of the best Texas hold’em strategists.

 

Using Citadel to Fund Your Casino Account

A couple days ago a press release arrived in my Inbox mentioning yet another casino that had partnered with Citadel Commerce (www.citadelcommerce.com) to offer players yet another deposit alternative. Financing options are always a worthy topic here at WINNERonline.com so … what exactly is Citadel Commerce anyway?

 

Based just outside of Vancouver, Canada, Citadel Commerce Corp. offers an electronic checking system that allows players to transfer money from their bank checking account to a casino’s e-cash system by writing an e-check. “Within just 5 minutes you can open your Citadel account, deposit your funds and get into the action in the Casino,” says the press release.

 

Unlike wire transfers and direct deposits which can take several days –or longer– Citadel’s electronic checking system boasts a worst-case scenario of 72 hours though typical times are reported as being a few hours or less. Obviously that’s a step in the right direction.

 

Ok, so who can use Citadel? Citadel is currently available to US resident users with US Dollar bank accounts in the United States. It’s also available to Canadian residents with both US Dollar and Canadian Dollar bank accounts in Canada. This is exactly the audience that was hit hardest by the withdrawal of the credit card companies from the casino scene.

 

Of course there are a few caveats with Citadel but nothing that’s going to shock the online gambling crowd. For example the casinos are warning that the Citadel account that was used to make the first deposit must be used for all related deposits and withdrawals. Been there, done that.

 

Also, players must register first with Citadel and have their banking information cleared before they can proceed to deposit and withdraw. Again, this is old news.

 

Casinos now offering Citadel include: Intercasino, English Harbour Online Casino, River Belle Casino, Silver Dollar Online Casino, Omni Casino, Blackjack Ballroom, and many others.

 

While it may not be immediately obvious, one of Citadel’s main attraction appears to be that since they’re processing an e-check transaction they’re in an ideal position to offer what may well be an must-have service to the casinos: “check recovery.”

 

Citing stats indicating that there are over 1.1 million IDN Poker checks returned per day for non-sufficient funds (“NSF”), Citadel Commerce offers to “efficiently and discreetly handle the collection of a customer’s NSF ‘bounced’ check.” How so? By dealing directly with the banks. In brief it appears that since they’re dealing with the checking system they are authorized to attempt to recover as much of the check amount as possible from the signator’s account. The casinos are definately going to like that.

 

With the pullout of the credit cards and the relatively recent backing out of PayPal the online gambling community has been looking for some new friends to handle the cash flow from player to casino and back. Citadel’s arrival is good news.

 

 

 

 

 

 

In hindsight, the Situs Qq Euros were easy to call…

Situs Qq

THIS SUMMER PROVED AGAIN HOW USELESS THE ‘EXPERTS’ ARE

“We are not going there on an excursion,” insisted Portugal coach Fernando Santos.

“We are going there to win!”

Cue the smirks from the assembled press at the pre-Euro 2016 conference.

Looking back at this summer’s big European tournament, we can all we so maddeningly wise after the event, convinced now having read the statistics at leisure that the best team all along won it in the end.

The elements for Portuguese victory were thus:

Three appearances in the semi-finals out of their last four European Championships, seven consecutive one-goal wins, a tight defence, a focused and unified group of players, the young star of the tournament, oh and Cristiano Ronaldo.

Speaking to 442 magazine before the tournament, Portugal centre-back Jose Fonte’s resonating words should have alerted us to his team’s potential:

“We have the best Situs Qq player in the world,” he reminded us. “We have a strong team, a fantastic manager and the full support of a nation.”

Well that sounds like a recipe for success.

He went on:

“I think we’re very well organised, we’re a close-knit squad and we have players who are extremely dangerous offensively.”

Yup, can’t argue with that.

“I think Portugal have a very good chance, ” ex-goalkeeper Ricardo told World Soccer. “I know there is an excellent spirit within the squad and the team has a very good coach. I think everything is in place for Portugal to have a good tournament.”

Ah, the 20/20 vision…

“I think we’re going to have a great Euro,” added Paulo Futre. “Portugal can beat anybody if we’re at the top of our game…Portugal are a great team when they are in good shape.”

Tom Kundert in World Soccer talked up their chances as well:

“Portugal have an impressive European Championship record,” he began. “They also have the outstanding player in the tournament, a core of experienced, solid performers and an exciting crop of young players.”

Looking at the Euros with the benefit of hindsight, Portugal were clearly always in with a chance of winning the thing but nobody tipped them as far as I can recall, despite this abundance of evidence.

Why was this? Don’t hundreds of men and now expensive computers spend hours analyzing football?

Yes, but the best so-called experts, paid analysts and algorithms clearly cannot pick the rabbit out a 24-team hat.

If they were able to, the football betting industry would die a death (no great loss perhaps) but football fandom would too, as everyone would know who was going to win.

It is reassuring therefore that football retains this unpredictability in the face of smug punditry and advanced technology, a chaos factor that makes it relentlessly watchable. But getting back to Portugal, the ingredients for success were clearly there but pre-match odds placed them joint-sixth favourites with Italy at best, behind France, Germany, Spain, England and Belgium…?!?

Most betting companies placed them seventh in fact!

How could so many highly-paid observers get it so spectacularly wrong and fire so amazingly wide of the mark?

I think the answer lies in gut instincts more than anything.

Despite its team’s pedigree, Portugal is a small country with only 62% of the population of the Netherlands, the other obvious small nation which punches above its weight, albeit not since the last World Cup.

Portugal just did not have the F Factor of big names like Germany, Italy, France, Spain and England, national teams from the countries with the biggest domestic leagues coincidentally.

Ronaldo’s gargantuan profile continued to cast the rest of the team in the shade as far as casual spectator recognition went.

His ongoing failure to win trophies in a Seleçao shirt having passed the landmark of 30 years of age also probably contributed to Portugal’s under-valuation pre-tournament.

They were defensively rather than attacking-minded too, a boring yet winning approach not unlike Greece’s surprise win in 2004.

A tight defence was clearly a big reason for their ultimate victory, grinding out wins in a functional fashion, a stark contrast to the flamboyant Portugal of Eusebio in 1966, or of the Geração de Ouro (Golden Generation) of the late 1990s and early noughties.

It is useful to remember Portugal drew their three group games against Iceland, Austria and Hungary, before an extra-time 1-0 win over Croatia and a penalty-win over Poland after a 1-1 draw.

So not only did they reach the last four having finished third in their group, in five games at the finals they failed to win within 90 minutes and only once within 120 minutes.

Such tactics never catch the eye of the fans or appeal to hacks, who would rather see such sides eliminated than tip them to go all the way and have to suffer more turgid defensive clashes settled by a late winner or penalties.

Quite clearly the heart still rules the head of the football fan or journalist.

Despite the evidence of Euro 2016, nobody really wants to advocate out loud a safety-first, keep-it-tight and squeeze all creativity out of the game approach.

As in their qualifiers, Portugal edged past all their finals opponents, until their stand-out 2-0 victory over Gareth Bale and friends.

But most people still thought the hosts would use their home advantage to beat Fernando Santos’ men in the final.

Even when Ronaldo finally hobbled off the pélouse of the Stade de France for good, most watchers expected Portugal to lose, not win. Nine out of Santos’ ten wins in charge of Portugal before the tournament began were by a single goal so the writing was on the wall.

If only we had analysed their narrow wins more, we might have seen they were cannily avoiding defeat in every game and only needed to wait until they found the opposition net, as they did after 109 minutes in the final through Eder.

If only we had listened to Fernando Santos and his single-minded vision:

“I believe we can win Euro 2016,” he insisted beforehand. “If this team keeps its concentration, with the quality it has, it will be difficult to beat us.”

We should also have noticed how strong their esprit du corps was before the tournament, so watertight in fact that the loss of their talisman in the final was no obstacle to victory but rather a fillip. If anything, they played better without Ronaldo, as if his teammates felt liberated without his ego around and his short tempered reactions to not being given the ball, like a spoilt child.

In retrospect we get it all now, as we always do, but Portugal’s victory confirmed how the army of football ‘experts’ were once more anything but. Did anyone tip either South Korea or Turkey to make the World Cup semi-finals of 2002? No.

Enjoy the army of incompetents get their predictions for Russia 2018 hilariously wrong too.

As for the Euro 2016 champions, the manner of their win has been swiftly forgotten, with the plague of moths and Ronaldo’s agony the final’s abiding images.

But the glory is Portugal’s, the nation’s first international trophy.

As Santos said of Eder’s winner,

“The ugly duckling went and scored. Now he’s a beautiful swan.”

 

Proposition bets provide additional shots for action

Qq Poker Online

It takes only a little longer to read the 1,472 pages of the Leo Tolstoy novel “War and Peace” than it does to analyze the numerous Super Bowl proposition bets authored by Las Vegas sports book directors.

The New England Patriots are 7-point favorites over the Philadelphia Eagles in Sunday’s game at Jacksonville, Fla.

Don’t care to place a wager on that? No problem.

“If you don’t have an opinion on the game, we’ll give you one,” Las Vegas Hilton sports book director Jay Kornegay said. “It doesn’t matter if you’re an educated bettor or a novice. These props are another opportunity.”

The Hilton has posted more than 250 prop bets, some bland and some that suggest the exorbitance of it is getting out of hand. But this is the year’s biggest betting event in Las Vegas, and imagine if everyone was restricted to drinking light beer on New Year’s Eve.

“It’s something that people are definitely wanting,” said Kornegay, who remembers posting just 15 props on the Super Bowl when he was at the Imperial Palace 15 years ago.

Of the variety of props offered in town, there is one obvious omission: Will Patriots safety Rodney Harrison put the hammer down on Eagles wide receiver Freddie Mitchell?

After making disrespectful comments about Harrison and the New England secondary, Mitchell is under the microscope. But the posted totals for his receptions (2 1/2) and receiving yards (43 1/2) indicate he likely will be a minor factor.

One of the simplest props is always one of the most popular. Will there be overtime? Betting “Yes” is plus-500 and betting “No” is minus-700.

“It has never happened, but the public is in love with betting ‘yes’ on that prop,” Kornegay said. “The money is just so lopsided, we don’t want it to happen.”

It almost happened last year. The Patriots’ Adam Vinatieri kicked a last-minute field goal for a 32-29 victory over the Carolina Panthers.

New England has won two of the past three Super Bowls, and both wins were by three points. So here is another prop: Will the game be decided by exactly three points? A “Yes” bet is plus-320 and a “No” bet is minus-400.

Other props are more complex, comparing statistics from the Super Bowl with NBA Qq Poker Online players such as the Philadelphia 76ers’ Allen Iverson, golfer Ernie Els and even an Italy-Ireland rugby match Sunday.

If the Super Bowl turns into a blowout, props guarantee that every play counts and bettors stay entertained from start to finish.

“You can be in our sports book, and after something that looks like a meaningless play, you’ve got all these guys going crazy,” Kornegay said. “We know exactly why they are cheering.”

 

 

 

Where are they Togel Singapore now?

Togel Singapore

 

 

What happened to the stars of Euro 2009?

Two years ago at the UEFA U-21 Championship in Sweden, I made a list of the players to watch out for in the future – those young guns who looked set to make the next step to the big time.

After all, ‘Stars of today, superstars of tomorrow’ was the slogan for UEFA’s summer tournament in Denmark.

 

These were my hot tips for the future:

 

Mesut Ozil, Mario Balotelli, Marcus Berg, Andrew Driver and Zoran TosicOzil has obviously scaled the heights since 2009, starring at the Togel Singapore World Cup finals and signing for Real Madrid, while Balotelli is asserting himself for Manchester City and Italy, although his volatility is still an issue and his future for Italy remains in the balance.

 

The other three haven’t exactly taken off since. Berg, the tournament’s golden shoe winner, joined Hamburg but four strikes in 30 games does not scream goal machine.

 

English right-winger Andrew Driver wowed me on his debut against Germany but amazingly never won another cap and has switched allegiance to Scotland, where he has lived for years.

 

Zoran Tosic gave a dribbler’s masterclass in Sweden but could not fill Cristiano Ronaldo’s shoes at Old Trafford and now works at CSKA Moscow. He played half an hour for Serbia at the World Cup finals in South Africa.

 

As for the others who caught my eye, Serb Gojko Kacar also graduated to the 2010 World Cup, but teammate Nikola Petkovic has fallen away, and at the age of 25 now rests in the elephants’ graveyard of Saudi Arabia having failed to make the grade with Eintracht Frankfurt.

 

Finland’s Teemu Pukki fell out of favour with Sevilla and is now back home with HJK Helsinki; Belarussian enforcer Sergei Kryvets is a journeyman player with Lech Poznan as is Swede Gustav Svensson, who plays for Bursaspor in Turkey. Fellow Viking Rasmus Elm has gone on to win 15 caps for Sweden and is a success in the Dutch Eredivisie, with 51 appearances for AZ Alkmaar.

 

Sweden’s deep-lying attacker Ola Toivonen has also been a hit in Holland, with 34 goals in 75 games for PSV since Euro 2009. Italian midfielder Sebastiano Giovinco finally made his debut for the Azzurri this year and now has four caps and a permanent contract with Parma, while Javi Martinez is perhaps the most successful of the starlets of 2009.

 

Still only 22, the commanding midfielder has clocked up 170 appearances for Athletic Bilbao and played 20 minutes in South Africa for the eventual World Cup winners.

 

Jack Rodwell has cemented a place in Everton’s midfield but has yet to step up to being an England squad regular.

 

A mixed bag therefore, which makes me wary of tipping anyone from 2011, except Barcelona & Spain’s Thiago Alcantara.

 

The rocky road traveled by the starlets of 2009 reminds us that footballers peak at different ages. Some excel aged 14 (Freddy Adu), while others are not discovered until they are almost 22 (Ian Wright) or even 25 (Jay DeMerit).

 

Some ‘golden generations’ pass through the age rankings, while others disintegrate and uncapped players are brought in instead. Whilst a robust youth soccer system is vital for every country, its value in predicting future national team players remains shaky.

 

 

Euro 2008 was a tournament to Judi Poker Uang Asli savour

Judi Poker Uang Asli

 

 

Back in England a week on from the end of Euro 2008, the tournament still looks as impressive as it did in the Alps. I am not relishing another stolid European club season, dominated by the tawdry money of the big teams, so for the last time, I am looking back on what was a refreshing festival of football, the sort of which comes around only every few years:

 

How was the play?

 

Very good, on the whole, refreshingly adventurous and attacking. Only France v Romania seemed to have come from planet boredom. The French Judi Poker Uang Asli appeared to have a cloud over them all tournament, while Romania strangely failed to turn the screw when they needed to in their final group game, so deserved to leave early, too.

 

Croatia v Turkey was not easy to sit through for two hours, but that was rather down to one team buttoning down the hatches and trying to frustrate another which was playing with winning ambition.

 

The Dutch were irresistible for two games, while Spain danced their way to the trophy delightfully throughout.

 

Portugal were also great to watch and Croatia were not bad, while even minnows like Austria and Switzerland showed enough fighting spirit to commend their efforts. Turkey’s late-late comebacks were thrilling, making up for a lack of the beautiful game with exciting attacking.

 

That leaves Poland and the Czechs as fairly forgettable, although they did at least play to win. Germany, as always, never dazzled but dazed as they ground out more impressive results to add to their endless roll of honour, while Greece could not make lightning strike twice with their safety-first and negative game plans. In their defense, one might argue that Greece were only making the most of their limited options, as were Italy when they kept it tight against Spain after losing playmaker Andrea Pirlo through suspension. The host nations, meanwhile, felt an obligation to their populations to go for broke, given they might not have made it to the finals had they been forced to qualify like the rest of the teams.

 

In terms of entertainment overall, Euro 2008 unanimously thrilled viewers more than the most recent comparisons, World Cp 2006 and Euro 2004. It was also more open than the average Champions League encounter, which tends to resemble the sort of high-quality but low-scoring encounter that Italy and Spain served up in the quarter-final in Vienna.

 

Why was this? The cool air and lush grass of the Alpine settings might have helped, but then again the sweltering conditions of USA ’94 produced plenty of goals, while Korea did not seem short of breath in 2002. Some games at Euro 2008 were chilly e.g. it was overcoat time when Spain played Sweden in Innsbruck, but other days were up to 35C.

 

You can’t read too much into climactic conditions. Euro 2008 was great to watch because the zeitgeist had changed, as it does every few years in football for reasons we find hard to pin down.

 

After a negative Italia ’90 came a positive USA ’94. Likewise, come 2008, most of the coaches had decided to win games by attacking first and defending second. Otto Rehhagel’s triumph with Greece in 2004 thankfully failed to inspire others to follow his defensive example. Ambition, the successful coaches correctly concluded, was the way to advance. If the next World Cup has teams as exciting to watch as the Spanish, Turkish, Dutch, Portuguese and Russians were in the Alps, then we are in for a treat.

 

The play was clean too, with hardly any diving or play-acting, which has blighted previous tournaments. Only when bad-losers Poland tried to make an issue of Howard Webb’s correct application of the laws on shirt-pulling was there any angry argument over refereeing.

 

The debate surrounding ‘was-it wasn’t-it’ Ruud Van Nistelrooy strike against Italy was more interesting. Given the absurdity of deeming a player lying in a heap off the field as an active participant, the rule surely needs changing to avoid any interminable debate over interpretation, but it looks like FIFA are trying to brush this one under the carpet.

 

Was there any tactical revolution?

 

Spain’s victory would have brought a smile to the former FIFA President Stanley Rous, who insisted that at the end of the day, nothing compares to skill. Let us hope Spain’s technical prowess and desire to play to feet catches on.

 

4-2-3-1, a refinement of 4-5-1, seemed to be the preferred system for most teams, with 4-4-2 second, while even the Dutch ditched their old 4-3-3 formation to win games. Spain’s actual shape was more 4-1-1-2-1-1. The anchor midfielder sat in front of the back four (an advanced sweeper if you will) is certainly in vogue, typified by Spain’s exemplary Marcos Senna, who set up as many attacks as he intercepted.

 

Wingers too, were to the fore, with Roman Pavlyuchenko, Arjen Robben and Cristiano Ronaldo reminding us how exciting wide men can be, as indeed did the previously unheralded Colin Kazim-Richards with a stunning one-off appearance for Turkey against Germany in the semi-final. The overlapping full back is still a potent weapon, as Germany’s Philipp Lahm, Portugal’s flying Jose Bosingwa, Russia’s multi-talented Yuri Zhirkov and an unsung hero, Sweden’s Fredrik Stoor, reminded us.

 

Spain’s miasmic midfield brought back memories of some of its finest club sides, who proved how switching positions increases the attacking potential. Wide men Andres Iniesta and David Silva requently swapped flanks, while Xavi reveled in his free role, popping up all over the last third of the opposition half.

 

While we in England make a sport of criticising Latin teams’ lack of recognisable strikers, the mobile centre-forward in the Thierry Henry or Fernando Torres mould continues to impress. Germany reached the final with their real firepower coming from out wide in Lukas Podolski and Bastian Schweinsteiger. The top scorer of the tournament was a penalty-box predator (David Villa) but Spain won the final without him.

 

Daniel Guiza, Jan Koller and Luca Toni stood out as old style ‘raging bull’ No.9s, but watching the stylistic triumph of the Spanish, you could not help thinking they represented the past in football. If there is still room for tall men up front, then they will have to be skilful on the deck too, like Zlatan Ibrahimovic or Van Nistelrooy, as the physical centre-forward role looks dated.

In terms of height anyway, the short men (Spain) beat the tall guys (Germany) in the final.

 

Did the finals miss England?

 

As if. No, the tournament managed quite well without them, danke. When Euro 2008 was about to begin, most Anglos and the land’s breweries no doubt, felt the absence of the three lions quite painfully, but now it has ended, the inital proposition appears absurd.

 

A happy, party atmosphere engulfed the hundreds of thousands of fans who travelled to Austria and Switzerland, the sort of feeling England’s travelling hordes have yet to master en masse. The boorish and un-sporting attitude of too many England fans was certainly not missed, nor was the jingoistic nationalism of its tabloids. Only the Turkish fans (and at times a few Germans and Poles), failed to tap in to the party spirit, preferring to taunt opposition fans when winning or failing to look on the bright side of life when losing.

 

Women were more evident than ever at the FanZones, as were ‘adopted fans’, cheering for different countries every night with the appropriate shirts, flags and face paints. This idea of supporting countries other than your own and enjoying the losing as well as the winning is still sadly anathema to most Englanders.

 

Without England there, real English fans of football could appreciate the games without the nagging influence of the national team’s presence. Those English who travelled to Euro 2008 were true fans of the game. As well as some English supporters, I saw small groups of Irish, Lithuanians and some Colombians, identifiable by their national team shirts, who had travelled to the finals for the love of the game and the pleasant experience it can offer at big tournaments.

 

After a fun-filled month of mutual camaraderie in the Alps, I came home to watch the final in a London pub amid shouts of ‘f*** off Ballack’, and ‘Torres you c***’ etc, completely the opposite in ambience to the rest of Europe.

 

England’s boorishness to the spirit of the game was exposed when the UK tabloids ran several racist articles during the country’s hosting of Euro ’96. Forget the nice stadia; if England wants to host the World Cup again it needs to understand how fandom has moved on.

 

We did not miss the ridiculously overladen English media expectation, nor the trashy WAGs behaving like it’s hen night every night, without a nod of respect to the culture they have landed in.

 

If we are talking in terms of football, the question looks even stupider. England finished third in their qualification group and not since their 4-1 demolition of Holland at Euro ’96 have ever looked like contributing aesthetically to the world game.

 

Is Russia about to join the elite in European football?

 

Following Zenit St Petersburg’s UEFA Cup triumph, Moscow’s hosting of the Champions League final, Roman Abramovich’s overflowing bank accounts and the national team’s ride to the semi-final of Euro 2008, one could be forgiven for thinking Russia are about to realise their long-held potential as a major football nation.

 

Steady on. The UEFA Cup is hardly the competition it used to be if Rangers can make the final. Rather, it resembles the old Cup Winners’ Cup in the quality of teams involved.

 

At Euro 2008, Russia flattered to deceive – starting badly before improving enormously, only to bow out in the semi-final the way they began the tournament. Their classy 3-1 dismissal of the previously untouchable Dutch will was unforgettable, but one swallow does not make a summer.

 

The Dutch and Russians had met before of course, in the Euro ‘88 final when Marco Van Basten, the coach 20 years later, scored one of the greatest goals of all time. Like the USSR of 1988, Russia of 2008 at their best were a well-drilled machine, exploiting all areas of the field and compensating for a wealth of individual genius.

 

Andrei Arshavin of course was one such talent, as was Igor Belanov in 1988, along with Lev Yashin one of only two Russians to win the Ballon d’Or European Footballer of the Year award (Oleg Blokhin was strictly speaking a Ukrainian).

 

Whether Arshavin or attacking colleague Roman Pavlyuchenko, is truly great I doubt. Arshavin’s age (27) is not important; players flower at different times in their careers. It is rather that he flourished under the shrewd coaching of Guss Hiddink, without whom Russia would not have even made it to the finals. In the event, they scraped in after losing away to England and Israel thanks to England’s inept 2-3 defeat at home to Croatia in their final game.

 

Russia turned on the gas against Sweden before they neutralized the Dutch courage but their semi-final surrender to the Spanish was such a let-down after those wins that their fans probably deserved a refund from Abramovich. That night, the Russians looked more like a moderately good eleven who had scraped into the finals via some good fortune, but in the end did not really deserve to be eating at the high table. And Arsahvin, the prematurely-crowned king of Euro 2008, was nowhere to be seen.