European Championship Stories; 2008, when the world felt very different

Euro 2008 was played against a backdrop of growing financial tensions, but they now feel like small beer in comparison with the stresses of 2024.

Left almost entirely as it was written in May 2012, this is how I viewed Euro 2008 at the time, while giving a little thought to the future of the men’s game. And the fact that I wouldn’t have called it that a dozen years ago tells us something about how much has changed, and how quickly. The full piece and notes that I’ve made are available to paid subscribers.

In Vienna in June 2008, Fernando Torres broke free from his marker and scored the only goal in the final of that summer’s European Championships. It was a goal that ended almost half a century without a major tournament win for Spain, and it marked the calcification of new Iberian footballing hegemony within Europe which continues to reign over European football to this day.

And by the end of the first decade of the 21st century, this wasn’t the only tectonic shift that was taking place. European political and economic power was beginning to wane, and the seeds of what may come to be regarded as the new world order of the twenty-first century were being sewn.