Arrival Dates & Public Training Sessions Announced

May 21st, 2008 | by: chris |

UEFA has announced the arrival dates as well as public training sessions and, in some cases, how many people the number of spectators will be capped at for all 16 teams in the tournament*. Each team will have their own fancy schmancy training center and grounds to prep on.

* – Only 14 of the 16 teams will be allowing at least one public training session, strongly suggested by UEFA (hint hint, nudge nudge, wink wink), with the two kids who are way too cool for school being Germany and Poland.

The first teams to arrive will be Portugal and Turkey from Group A, on June 1st, which seems rather rude to me. Who shows up at a party before the hosts? If you were throwing the biggest party of the summer and somebody else showed up with media in tow while you were at the store getting ice and adult beverages you’d probably be mildly miffed. Switzerland and Austria can’t be happy.

Showing up fashionably late will be the Spaniards, who don’t arrive until June 5th, roughly 48 hours before the games are due to kick off – though their first fixture won’t be until June 10th against Guus Hiddink and his band of merry Russians. I hope they show up on parade floats with an accompanying flamenco band, with the entire squad wearing giant hats. (Giant hats a must.) Really working the fashionably late thing to its full potential.

There’s a full PDF here for all the details on each teams training sessions and specifics. For most it’s going to be a limited number of fans allowed. So if you’re going, check first.