Greece will be in the Euro for at least one more month as the Ethniki Omada (national team) compete in the 2012 Europe Football Championship, the second most prestigious title in world football. Greece kicks off the tournament Friday at noon eastern when they take one of the two (racist?) host nations, Poland, in group A (to be fair to Poland, the real racists appear to be in the other host country, Ukraine). The game will be shown live on ESPN.
Since World War II there have been 3 significant events in Greece. One is the restoration of democracy after six years under the junta in 1973. Two is Greece's entry into the European Union in 1980. And three is the sporting events of 2004, a year that saw Athens host the Olympic Games and the motherland some how win the 2004 European Championship.
That 2004 title is one of the improbable in the history of sports. It's Villanova beating Georgetown in 1985, or Buster Douglas beating Mike Tyson. Consider that prior to 2004 Greece had NEVER WON A GAME in an international football tournament, let alone a title.
Of course, 2004 was the good old days in Greece. The country was flush with money, some borrowed and some donated by the EU, to build new Olympic facilities, up grade ports and build a new airport (which is efficient but styleless, but what do you expect when you pick a German architect to build it?), dramatically expand the Athens Metro system (which was a huge success), and build new hotels.
We visited in 2005, a year later, and the pride in their city was evident from every Athenian we talked to.
Now we know the back story: that the government in power in 2004 and 2005 had been cooking the books and lying to the EU about Greece's deficit spending for years; the wealthy (who supported the conservative New Democracy government) continued to NOT pay their taxes; and the deficit got larger and larger and larger - and Greece's standard of living was not sustainable.
What a difference 8 years makes. Greece was riding high in both sport and society in 2004. Heading into Euro 2012 it's doubtful that this year's team can repeat that magic, or how long the motherland will even be in the euro zone once the Euro tournament ends the first week of July.
A few more EURO 2012 notes
Since World War II there have been 3 significant events in Greece. One is the restoration of democracy after six years under the junta in 1973. Two is Greece's entry into the European Union in 1980. And three is the sporting events of 2004, a year that saw Athens host the Olympic Games and the motherland some how win the 2004 European Championship.
That 2004 title is one of the improbable in the history of sports. It's Villanova beating Georgetown in 1985, or Buster Douglas beating Mike Tyson. Consider that prior to 2004 Greece had NEVER WON A GAME in an international football tournament, let alone a title.
Of course, 2004 was the good old days in Greece. The country was flush with money, some borrowed and some donated by the EU, to build new Olympic facilities, up grade ports and build a new airport (which is efficient but styleless, but what do you expect when you pick a German architect to build it?), dramatically expand the Athens Metro system (which was a huge success), and build new hotels.
We visited in 2005, a year later, and the pride in their city was evident from every Athenian we talked to.
Now we know the back story: that the government in power in 2004 and 2005 had been cooking the books and lying to the EU about Greece's deficit spending for years; the wealthy (who supported the conservative New Democracy government) continued to NOT pay their taxes; and the deficit got larger and larger and larger - and Greece's standard of living was not sustainable.
What a difference 8 years makes. Greece was riding high in both sport and society in 2004. Heading into Euro 2012 it's doubtful that this year's team can repeat that magic, or how long the motherland will even be in the euro zone once the Euro tournament ends the first week of July.
A few more EURO 2012 notes
- There is some good juju for Greece's team, however. In 2004, Greece opened the tournament by beating the host nation Portugal 2-1 to put the tournament on notice. Once again, Greece opens the entire tournament by playing the host nation. If Ellas wins 2-1 again watch out!
- Why would you award EURO 2012 to Ukraine in the first place? Racist behavior by their fans has been a long-standing problem there, to say nothing of the performance of the Quisling government in Ukraine during World War II.
- During the 2010 World Cup, I read "How Soccer Explains the World." It was a fun read, but it was also depressing. It should be called "How Soccer HELPS PERPETUATE SOME PROBLEMS IN the World.' Chapter after chapter talk about soccer rivalries that serve as proxies for ethnic or political or racist strife and tensions in Serbia (Nazi collaborators vs. partisans), Scotland (Catholics vs. Protestants), Spain (fascists vs. Catalonian nationalists), etc. I guess we can expect a new chapter or editor's note on new Ukrainian racism in the next edition.
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