Football's coming home... #Euros2016 #ENG #FixThePlus

Football has returned with an almighty bang as the European 2016 football championship (aka UEFA EURO 2016) has well and truly kicked off. 24 of the best teams from around Europe are taking part in the matches across France, in an attempt to lift the trophy on the 10th of July.

As expected, England didn't win their first group game, although for a few minutes they got worryingly close to lifting the spirits of the nation as they led 1-0, until Russia pulled it back to a draw.  Even the BBC continuity announcer today introducing the Germany/Ukraine game couldn't stop himself from commenting "I bet THEY won't concede in injury time"! (which they didn't - Germany did what exactly they should do, increasing their lead in stoppage time to put the result beyond reasonable doubt)

For myself, I have many strengths, but playing football is not one of them.  For a number of years I used to play regularly, never getting quite beyond the level of "Extremely Bad", which I blame entirely to my eyesight.

I am somewhat shortsighted you see, which first came to light when I was 19, and finding that the road signs really weren't big enough, I couldn't read them until I got right up to them, and subsequently discovered that it was my eyes rather than the rest of the universe that were at fault on this particular point.

But wearing glasses whilst playing football isn't really recommended - I did tinker with some special prescription goggles, which are designed to pop apart when you get a ball in the face.

And make you look like an extremely unfashionable time traveller from the future.

But these didn't work that well either, I found that they steamed up within a couple of minutes of playing, rendering them even worse than playing without corrective lenses.  Contact lenses I never managed to correctly put in, so I resorted to playing generally in my second best glasses, so that I didn't mind when they did get hit, and scattered lenses and bits of spectacles liberally across the playing surface.

Now, I have sadly retired from soccer (after attempting a Zidane-style hop over a football, and instead stepping onto the ball, falling off it, and doing some sort of ligament damage to my knee) but whenever the big tournaments are on the football shirt comes out of the cupboard, and I find a comfy sofa, and some beer, and spend a pleasant two hours shouting at the television in an attempt to inspire some of the best footballers in the world, whilst balancing snacks on my stomach.  Well, someone's got to do it.

If you're interested in football, maybe this video where I explain the benefits of soccer over american football might be of interest.  Plus you get to see me be punched in the face.