Here is my favorite team in the European Football Championship

Greece 2004. Denmark 1992. Unlikely winners of the EC title and it rarely happens. But you can just as well take Morocco in WC 2022, Sweden in WC 1994 or Wales and Iceland from EC 2016. Yes, you know those national teams that surprise and achieve results with what they have in terms of players.

The EC in Germany starts on Friday and 24 national teams are there and it is a given that everyone believes. Everyone sees possible success. Because it can happen even if it is unlikely. Which is the strength of the EC and WC. Even if some think there are too many teams nowadays, in terms of the importance for the quality of football, I like the development.

The world has become bigger in terms of football and the collapse of everything from the colonial empire to the former Soviet Union means an increased number of nation states. Fifa is up to 211 member countries compared to 1990 when 116 countries qualified for the World Cup in Italy. In Uefa, there were 53 countries that qualified for the European Championship in Germany 2024 compared to 33 for the European Championship in 1992.

That expansion has been difficult to stop, which means that we get Georgia as an EC debutant. All Swedish supporters well remember the World Cup qualifier in Batumi 2021 when Chvitja Kvaratschelia sank Sweden. He has since helped Napoli to a Serie A title and wants to make even more history in Germany. If that happens? Doubtful.

It is the same with Scotland. Can they progress from the group stage for the first time? They are certainly making a second European Championship in a row after missing out after France in 1998. Andy Robertson from Liverpool is the star, otherwise it is difficult to get started on the players even though I am weak for the British.

Steve Clarke is the national team captain for Scotland. He’s a football coach, not a magician. He must try to weld together a team of largely limited players and with the simple hope that eleven men will become something much bigger in the form of a team. Somehow I’m hoping for success because the Scottish supporters add something I want in the EC.

“Show’em yer eyes, Ian, show’em yer eyes!” The Scotsman in a kilt, national team jersey and a row of teeth who caused a manager at Folktandvården to commit harakiri, and who is apparently called Ian, turns around. He pulls up the kilt. An eye is tattooed on each ham.

Ian’s party trick on the train to Genoa during the WC 1990 causes both him and the pole to tan themselves to death. Of course, we also tan. The Scottish duo have tasted strong and are part of “the Tartan Army” heading into the match against Sweden at the Stadio Luigi Ferraris.

I’m there as a supporter and the jubilation after Scotland took the lead was an abysmal roar where you could understand that we will never turn this around. Quite rightly, Sweden was not only beaten by Scotland, but also by Brazil and Costa Rica before Olle Nordin’s national team had to turn home.

There were more fun championships as a Swedish supporter. Both in 1992 and 1994. And for me, national team football is something I am particularly passionate about. Where it is not possible to recruit a team for local potentates or venture capitalists, sheiks and oligarchs. But you have to work with what you have, and sometimes you only get it with the team, the draw and the long shots.

And make for a magical summer. I can still evoke the feeling from the World Cup in 1974. How, as a seven-year-old, I didn’t always have patience with Swedish 0-0 matches, but how things got loose against Uruguay and it was 3-0. The penalty miss against Poland. The shaking of West Germany in the rain as Sweden led. A national team that made an impression on me forever.

Or the World Cup in 1978 with Thomas Sjöberg’s toe kick against Brazil. Jubilation at home in the party house. But of course also the losses and setbacks. Hans Krankl’s filming during the Argentina World Cup. A long series of years of championships without Sweden and then you were taught that it could be fun to watch the WC and EC, but maybe not as much fun. Although sometimes it was nice to think that you escaped a Swedish fiasco.

All of the above makes Scotland’s cause ours. At least for those of us who protect national team football. For the Scots, it becomes a symbol that the small country’s national team can raise the hope of a magical summer. We know it usually stops at a jump, but it can go a long way in the world of sports.

Now I am not so ignorant that I close my eyes to the fact that even championships and national team football are affected by the changing world. Out of 13 main sponsors for the EC, five are Chinese and then Qatar’s tourism agency is also included. Plus, a gaming company has been added for the first time ever. The cash must come in, regardless of where it comes from.

That Uefa and the German state came along a declaration on respect for human rights during the European Championship 2024 is of course not bad. Then we’ll see what happens if Hungary is angry at rainbow bandages or when, unfortunately, there is a risk of racism in the stands. Hopefully Uefa will act then, but I’m not convinced.

Nice words sometimes stop at being just nice words. And even though Germany is a democracy, the country is not without challenges, as the EU election showed. Add to that the threat of terrorism, fear of hooligans, wars and conflicts and you realize that football’s power is limited. At the same time, a little hope of success on the field can be a nice break. And you have to treat yourself to that.