1. The mascot
Organisers spotted a pattern here. Euro 1980 went with a cartoon boy called Pinocchio; Euro 2004 with a cartoon boy called Kinas; Euro 2008 had cartoon boy twins Trix and Flix; and Euro 2012 chose two cartoon boys, Slavek and Slavko. So Euro 2016 decided to change things up, and went with a cartoon boy, Super Victor. The name was chosen by public vote, beating Driblou and Goalix. He tweets from @supervictor.
2. The music
French DJ David Guetta released his official Uefa anthem last month – This One’s for You (ft Zara Larsson). Among the mixed early feedback, US music producer Diplo accused him of ripping off the 2015 Major Lazer & DJ Snake hit Lean On. Guetta’s effort has 10.1m hits on YouTube – 158,000 thumbs up, 7,400 thumbs down. Prepare to be moved by lyrics including: “We’re born to fly/So let’s keep living till it all falls down.” The track will be played before and after every game. And after every goal.
3. The trophy
The old Henri Delaunay Cup was retired in 2008 – its sterling silver London-made replacement is 18cm higher and 2kg heavier. Henri Delaunay was Uefa’s first general secretary – and before that a referee, who retired in 1905 after swallowing his whistle mid-match. The European Championships were his idea: he proposed the tournament in 1927 – 33 years before it began.
4. The cult heroes
Plenty of candidates. Among them: the tournament’s oldest player, Hungary’s 40-year-old tracksuit-bottom-wearing former Palace keeper Gabor Kiraly; Wales’s third-choice keeper and part-time artist Owain Fôn Williams, who was first called into the squad in 2009 and spent six years on the bench before a cameo debut last November; and Northern Ireland’s Will Grigg, who arrives in France buoyed by chart smash Will Grigg’s On Fire by DJ Kenno – a reworking of Freed From Desire by Gala, which has reached No6 in the iTunes UK Top 100.
5. The ball
Always a big moment, the PR unveiling of the “most advanced ever” official tournament ball. This year’s effort is the “thermally bonded, seamless” Beau Jeu from Adidas, featuring “enhanced in-flight visibility”. Yours for £105.
6. The ceremony
Fans of costume-based modern dance shows can look forward to plenty from David Guetta on opening ceremony night – Uefa’s “musical ambassador” encouraging several hundred volunteers to leap and roll round the Stade de France. Set to last 30 minutes – up from Euro 2012’s merciful 12 minutes – from 7pm on Friday 10 June.
7. The ticket scramble
Uefa are still selling seats for multiple matches, with plenty of availability for the big one: Romania v Albania in Lyon. Unofficial online reselling channels have the rest – with a potentially genuine England v Russia category one seat yours for anywhere between £122 and £4,356.
8. The sponsors
It’s a festival of athletic clean-living this summer, with Uefa pledging to deliver key legacy objectives including “Respect your health” and “Healthy Stadia”. The messages will be pushed all tournament, brought to you in association with official sponsors McDonald’s, Carlsberg and Coca-Cola.
9. The wonderkids
Every tournament needs a breakthrough star to build up and knock down. Marcus Rashford is the tournament’s youngest player at 18 years and 214 days – part of England’s youngest squad for 58 years. Among other youngsters tipped to make news: France teen Kingsley Coman, Turkey’s Denmark-born Emre Mor – who scored a Messi-style strike against Copenhagen for Nordsjaelland in March – and Portugal’s Renato Sanches, who joined Bayern in May for a fee that could rise to €80m.
10. The tat
On offer now from Uefa’s official online outlet: a Super Victor doll (£29.50), a Super Victor key ring (£5), a Super Victor paper banner (£4), a Super Victor pencil case (£7.99), a Super Victor backpack set (£18.99), and a Super Victor mug (£5.99). Other Super Victor products are available. Also being sold by the official Euro 2016 store: a strangely off-topic signed Steven Gerrard England shirt, for £199.99.
11. The odds
Sure enough, the bookies have decided against offering 5,000-1 on an outsider winning it. The least fancied sides, Albania and Northern Ireland, are on offer at 500‑1; the Republic of Ireland 150-1; Wales 80-1; and England 9-1. France are 16-5 favourites. Harry Kane is 16-1 to finish top scorer, behind Thomas Müller (8-1), Cristiano Ronaldo (17-2) and Antoine Griezmann (10-1).
12. The dugouts
Among the coaches most likely to provide a touchline diversion this summer is Turkey’s Fatih Terim. During last month’s England friendly “The Emperor” was told off for trying to sway a fourth official with mobile phone footage, and in 2013 he was given a nine-game ban for recurrent “unsporting” referee abuse. Now in his third stint as national coach, he famously dismissed the use of data in 2012: “Statistics are like mini-skirts – they don’t reveal everything.”
13. Trending pundits
Michael Owen owned Twitter last season – all his best lines going viral (see: “When Manchester City don’t score, they hardly ever win”). But in his absence, expect Tactics Truck folk hero Andy Townsend to step up, as he spends the summer co-commentating for ITV. Among the others vying for attention alongside the usual faces: the BBC roll out Gianluca Vialli, Vincent Kompany, Dean Saunders, Chris Brunt, Gerry Armstrong and Jens Lehmann to take on ITV’s Slaven Bilic, Lothar Matthäus, Peter Crouch, Christian Karembeu and Norman Whiteside.
14. The officials
Mark Clattenburg is there – fresh from his much-maligned FA Cup final outing and from his much-retweeted Champions League final lizard impression. Other UK-based officials in France are Martin Atkinson and Scotland’s Willie Collum, while Michael Oliver, Craig Pawson, Anthony Taylor and Andre Marriner are back-up assistants.
15. Nervous club managers
Among Premier League clubs, Liverpool have most to lose from midsummer injuries, sending 12 players to France, five with England. Spurs are sending 11, Arsenal 10 – including new Swiss signing Granit Xhaka – and Manchester United 10. Promoted Middlesbrough are the only Premier League club with a full squad on the beach.
16. A cheapened icon
The Eiffel Tower is being made to pay during the tournament, with sponsor Orange having it change colour to reflect whichever team is being most hashtagged-about online. Plus, in an asking-for-trouble wheeze, “a selection of the best fans’ social media messages will also be broadcast on the tower”, says Orange.
17. Surprise kits
Among the summer’s most discussed-already outfits: Nike’s uneasy take on the England kit; Turkey’s natty Spider-Man tribute; Germany’s second-choice sickly pea-green and black striped number – reversible to produce an Adidas-promoting high-vis bib; and Northern Ireland’s green with a blue stripe first-choice, which provoked a fan petition back in November. Organiser Ian McKinney told local media: “We qualify for our first tournament in 30 years and they go and produce something like this – it’s horrendous. It’s a perfect storm of rubbish.”
18. 95 rule changes
Are now live, since 1 June. Some of them will test co-commentators to the limits: no more automatic red cards for denying a goalscoring opportunity; the ball not having to move forward at a kick-off; booking players who feint to kick the ball once they have taken a runup for a penalty (but feinting in the runup is fine); and booking players who try to impede a throw-in if they are less than two metres away. And then there’s the big one: players wearing tights have to wear tights the same colour as their team‑mates’ tights. Zero tolerance.
19. Political plots
Expect plenty of a) strike talk – half of French train services were halted last week and power plant workers also took industrial action; and b) European referendum stunts. Vote Leave started it, offering punters a £50m sextillion‑to‑one shot at tipping the results of all 51 games correctly to make a point about Britain sending the EU £50m a day, which opponents say it doesn’t, and which the UK Statistics Authority said “undermined trust in statistics”. Only 18 days to go.
20. The hair
Always a talking point in the quiet times. Among the choice cuts: Aaron Ramsey’s Bieber-bleached makeover and Gareth Bale’s topknot, Paul Pogba’s shaved-in “Pogboom” trademark; France team-mate Kingsley Coman’s blond highlights/rat tail melange; Marek Hamsik’s mohawk; and Joe Ledley’s beard– making the Turkey squad look clean shaven.
21. France squad meltdown
Started early this year, with Karim Benzema dropped over an alleged attempt to blackmail a team-mate with a sex tape. He then accused manager Didier Deschamps of racism; Deschamps is suing Eric Cantona for similar claims; Front National leader Marine Le Pen accused Benzema of using slurs to “hide his wickedness”; and France fans booed Olivier Giroud in their warm-up friendly win over Cameroon for not being Benzema. “It’s a shame,” said Giroud. “I just cannot understand it.”
22. Unexpected superstars
James Milner is Euro 2016’s fifth best player, according to Uefa’s official form tracker, the “SOCAR Player Barometer”. Could be a big summer for parody account @BoringMilner, which tweeted his reaction to being picked last month. “Roy rang me to say I’m in the England squad. I said me? He said yes. I said in the squad? He said yes. I said for the Euros? He said yes.” Above him in Uefa’s list: Cristiano Ronaldo, Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Dimitri Payet and Antoine Griezmann.
23. Official gaffes
Always liven things up. Watch out for incorrect anthems and automated Twitter debacles – such as December’s #SupportYourTeam mess which resulted in @UefaEuro tweeting: “@Adolf_Hitler You are now a supporter of Poland for the #EURO2016! #SupportYourTeam”. (Uefa: “We apologise for the offensive and tasteless user names generated by some taking part earlier in a fan activation.”) They followed that up by forgetting to include Wales in the official Euro 2016 app.
