Euros fever

On punditry, representation and Women in Football's survey results

There are simple joys you miss while living abroad, including getting the BBC on your television at the press of a button. On the eve of the men’s European Championship though, I found myself in London for a few days of work, staying at a friends’ house and with the TV remote in hand.

There on the iPlayer was the greatest warm-up to tournament football imaginable: hours of goal highlights from Euros gone by on the Classic Euros channel. Decades of footballing brilliance, heartbreak and controversy there at my fingertips. I settled in with a packet of McVities digestives (another much-missed luxury item I miss while in Spain), and pressed play.

It was a couple of hours of retro bliss. The graphics were gaudy and one-dimensional, the theme tunes nostalgic, the TV studio sets relics of broadcasting ages gone by. And it was all playing on a loop.