Live Streaming Football
Nowadays, due to the improvements of technology and the development of the Internet everyone can watch live streaming football from a comfortable seat at home, and all this without paying expensive cable or satellite fees.

Now you can watch top matches live, all broadcasted on the Internet, sometimes free and sometimes after paying a small fee. You can enjoy many quality live streaming football matches easier then ever. And don't think that you have to buy some extra hardware or anything because all you need is an Internet connection.

How can you do this? Almost every soccer match that is taking place somewhere in the world is broadcasted through a live football stream that you can access from anywhere and furthermore most of the matches come with an English commentary.

If your Internet connection's speed is high enough then the live streaming football transmission will be continuous. There are many websites that are broadcasting live streaming football but most of these provide only limited service with poor quality live streaming football during busy periods.

You also need a player that supports live streaming football. The most common players are RealPlayer, MediaPlayer and WinAmp. The websites that provide live streaming football have a list with all the games taking place at the moment and all you need to do is click on the game and the player will open and you can watch it. As simple as that!

So whenever there's a major football event you know that it's certainly broadcasted somewhere on the Internet and you can watch everything and you only pay a few GBP!

Watch Live Football. The History Of Online Streaming.
Ole ole is the biggest streaming football site in the world and updates its member's area daily. With only a few sterling pounds as yearly membership fees, the members are entitled to an extremely wide coverage of the latest streams and feeds of live English football, European cup games, major league soccer and international matches. These streaming football feeds are all broadcasted via the Internet, so that you can watch live football and your favourite stars from the comfort of your home. As most of the matches come with an English commentary, hence viewing the games is simultaneously a knowledgeable and a highly entertaining experience. Whenever, there is a major football event, be sure that Ole ole is streaming it for you so that you can watch live football on any PC from anywhere in the world.

A Brief History of Online Streaming
Data is traditionally transmitted over the Internet as a unicast address (single sender-single receiver) or anycast address (single sender-nearest network receiver). If a live broadcast is shown then both of the above addressing systems would require as many signals as there are users. If the entire nation is watching a live football match, then it needs millions of signals to be transmitted, which will soon flood and jam the whole transmission system. A way was to be found out whereby there would be a single sender, who would send a single signal that could be tapped by any number of users. This is known as multicasting, where there is a single sender but multiple users. Online streams are all multicasted. The Internet Protocol version 6 (IPv6) supports unicast, anycast, and multicast addressing system.

The birth of multicasting. Multicasting was conceived and introduced by Steve Deering, a Stanford University graduate student, in the late 1980s in his doctorate dissertation titled, "Multicast Routing in a Datagram Network" which was subsequently used as a basis for further research in the premier IP-Multicasting IETF document - RFC1112. Dr. Deering's IP-Multicast solution suite comprised of two protocols, namely IGMP (Internet Group Message Protocol) and DVMRP (Distance Vector Multicast Routing Protocol).

The birth of MBone. Most of the routers in the Internet support unicast-addressing system and so in 1992, several servers equipped with multicast routers (Mrouters) were placed at specific locations in a mesh topology, which connected to different unicast routers in a star topology across the world. These multicast servers formed a backbone for multicasting and came to be known as Multicast Backbone or MBone. Since the intervening routers were not multicast, the MBone used IP "tunneling" to unicast the multicast data between the Mrouter islands. The MBone comprises of a mix of Sun Sparc UNIX routers and Cisco routers.

The DVMRP was not a very scaleable solution as the unicast-based RIPv2 (Routing Information Protocol) offered only 32 router hops. Therefore, three protocols were developed, namely, PIM-DM (Protocol Independent Multicasting - Dense Mode), PIM-SM (Protocol Independent Multicasting - Sparse Mode), and MOSPF (Multicast Open Shortest Path First). The IGMP as first proposed by Dr. Deering is still the only deployed mechanism to determine interested user nodes in multicast sources. In the IP-multicast paradigm, these five protocols have spanned numerous applications. The MBone network uses applications like SDR for session directories, VAT for audio transmissions, VIC for video streaming transmissions, and WB tool for white-board collaboration and information exchange. Multicasting has significantly advanced and now uses switches, data-plane processing, aging, timeouts, sizing RAM tables, CAM tables, and decoding protocols, etc. This technological advancement has enabled global viewers to watch live football.

Watch Live Football, Watch Streaming Football
Ole ole encapsulates the best of the broadcasting technology and brings excellent live streaming football exclusively for its members. No new PC is required and we provide any software that you may need to watch streaming football. You do not need broadband as any type of net connection works fine with Ole ole. You can watch live football from any part of the world by using our excellent streaming football services. Members are entitled to many other benefits also like getting access to our full package of radio, TV and movie channels. The member benefits and privileges are many. Become a Ole ole member, enjoy streaming football and watch live football today!

Watch Live Carling Cup
The Carling cup is a competition for all league teams in the UK. Teams from the English Premiership and other divisions can compete for the Carling cup title. It was started in 1960 by a man named Allan Hardaker. He was serving as Secretary of the football league at the time. He created the Carling Cup competition because he believed a tournament for smaller and lower league teams was required. Carling Cup matches have the potential to create huge windfalls for smaller teams meeting the larger entities such as Premier League clubs.

The original idea met with some controversy. 6 Of the top Premiership teams refused to enter the competition, feeling that the lower leagues would fair no better in the Carling cup than in the FA cup and the extra matches would put strain on the domestic leagues. However, these feelings were soon put aside when in the first year, the second division Rotherham United fished runners up to Aston-Villa.

The following year saw even more upsets. This was the first year a fourth division team ever made a cup final. The winners were second division Norwich city. This season attracted a lot of attention and the third season saw even more entries from the Premier League teams. There were again many upsets. Birmingham city managed to beat their local rivals and premiership giants Aston Villa.

By 1965 the League tournament was really gaining popularity. It also saw one of the premiership powerhouse teams Chelsea enter. Chelsea did quite well but were defeated by Leicester City.

By 1967, the Carling cup had gained respect and notoriety. It was now considered as important as the FA cup for domestic tournaments. The 1967 Carling cup final had 98,000 people in attendance at Wembly Stadium. The Carling cup has sold Wembley stadium out every year since.

The league cup continued to grow in popularity, size and attendance. From the years 1967-1970 the Carling cup final drew larger crowds than the FA cup final. The upsets kept on coming as well. Once of the greatest cup upsets in history came when a third division team, Swindon town beat Arsenal 3-1.

Despite the controversy in getting started the Carling cup has grown and shown continued success. It is viewed today as equal to the FA cup, with teams desiring the ultimate prize of gaining a double in a single season. With the popularity, it is unlikely that this cup that no one believed in is going anywhere anytime soon. Using your Ole Ole membership it is possible to Watch Live Carling Cup matches online on your pc. Availability is included in our standard membership fee.

Watch Live FA Cup
The FA Cup is the longest running and largest domestic competition for English football clubs. Each year the Premiership teams battle it out in countless games all in the hope of winning the coveted FA Cup. There have been many nail biters and emotional endings, year after year the FA cup final proves to be one of the most exciting and well followed sporting events world wide.

The FA Cup is the longest running domestic football competition in England. It was created in 1871 and the offices of the Sportsman in London. The FA honorary secretary, Mr. Charles Allcock felt there was a need for a competition for the various football clubs around England. The clubs had to belong to the association, but that was the only requirement at the time to compete for the FA Cup. It was also felt that some kind of challenge cup competition would help act as a unifying force among the many clubs that were in existence. The idea was accepted and approval was granted a mere 3 months later.

The very first FA Cup competition had only 15 entrees. That is small compared to today's standards but for the time it seemed staggering. The wanderers won the first FA Cup by defeating the Royal Engineers. The score was 1-0 and it was played at the Kensington Oval. There were 2000 people in attendance and the price of a ticket was 1 shilling. The ticket price and crowd size has increased exponentially since those days, but the turn out was considered quite respectable for it being the first challenge.

The FA Cup final continued to grow in size, interest and shape. In 1922, the Duke of York later to become King George the 6th, in a special ceremony, cut the first turf which was to become Wembly stadium. This was also going to be the new home for the FA Cup final for the next several decades. The project was completed for under £750,000 and took less than a year to build. Today, every FA Cup final has been played in Wembley stadium up until 2000, when plans for the new stadium got underway. The only exception was the war years.

Today the FA Cup is hardly recognisable when compared to its origins. Crowds at least 20 times the size of the first final attend. The FA Cup final is watched world wide leaving audiences in nearly every foreign country on the edge of there seats. There have been some great games played for the FA Cup final and the most recent, 2006 was no exception. The FA Cup has been pleasing sports fans worldwide and gives the sporting tradition of England one of its greatest achievements to be proud of. Watch FA Cup Live here.

Watch Live English Premiership
Professional football is the most popular sport in England today. It is as much a part of English culture as Shakespeare, Ale, and Meat pies. Many in England today build there life around football, flocking to pubs, clubs or even their living rooms to catch their favorite team. Football is a fast paced, fun and exciting game that has spread around the world like wildfire. Countries, that 20 years ago had barely heard of the sport are now competing against one of the most powerful football nations, England.

The English Premier League represents the elite of English football. It consists of 20 top teams battling it out for the coveted Premiership title. An English Premier League team risks being sent down to a lower league should they have a poor year in the premiership. On the other side of the coin, teams that are rising in ability have the opportunity to enter European competitions through domestic success.

The English Premier league was founded in 1992. It did then and still contains 20 of the best football clubs. The competition to get into the English Premier League is tough and staying there is tougher. In its 14 year history only 4 different teams have won the English Premier League title. Those teams being Arsenal, Blackburn Rovers, Chelsea and Manchester United. Of the 4 teams the most successful is Manchester United winning the title 8 separate times. Currently Chelsea is the reigning English Premier League champions winning the title for the 2005-2006 season. The current 2006-2007 campaign is a much closer affair.

The English Premier League is England's primary football competition. It is also known as the Barclaycard English Premiership. It is the most watched sporting event in England as well as being one of the largest football competitions in the world. It is one of the most lucrative sporting institutions and has a following of nearly 1 billion people creating huge cash flow in the main teams.

The English Premier league was established for a couple of reasons. The first being that it gave the Premier English football clubs a degree of independence from the Football Association. The Premier League became allowed to negotiate their own terms for broadcasting and sponsorship. This new arrangement allowed the English teams to compete more equally with the Leagues from Europe and also be able to attract the best in talent. The gamble obviously paid off; today the English Premiership is the most lucrative sports scheme in Europe. It has managed to attract some of the best players from the 4 corners of the globe. Ole Ole was built for Premiership football. Using your membership you can Watch Live Premiership football online on your pc and join in the forum discussions on your favourite team.

Watch Live Scottish Premier League
Football is the most popular sport in Scotland. There is some debate about who actually brought the game to the British Isles first. The English are credited historically for its discovery but the more modern game seems to have its roots in Scotland. Despite the historical debate behind who discovered what, the sport remains the most popular in Scotland drawing crowds to stadiums, pubs and televisions.

The Scottish football association was formed in 1873, which eventually gave rise to the Scottish Premier League. It is the second oldest football association in Europe, second only to the English Football association. It acts as the governing body for all of Scotland's football teams and clubs. The Scottish football association is full member of FIFA and UEFA allowing Scottish team's access to the world's most prestigious football tournaments.

League football in Scotland is split. There are the Scottish football leagues and the Scottish Premier league. The Scottish Premier League is the top league in Scotland and consists of one division of 12 teams. The Scottish premier league was formed in 1998. It was an attempt to allow the top teams in Scotland to keep more of the revenue from the games similar to the setup of the English Premier League. Previously all revenues were split among all of the league teams in Scotland. The top producing Scottish Premier League teams felt this was slightly unfair and so the Scottish Premier League was formed.

The Scottish league originally consisted of 10 teams but was increased to 12 on the 2000-2001 football seasons. The Scottish Premier League also has a system of relegation similar to the English Football Association. Provided, the local area can support crowd numbers safely, the top Scottish league team is promoted up into the Scottish Premier League for the next season.

There are plans underway for a second Scottish Premier League known as SPL2. However, this decision has proven extremely unpopular. Plans are for this new league to start in the 2008/2009 season, and be formed with the top Scottish league teams. The decision however, has been met with mush hostility and there are questions as to whether this will occur. The Scottish Premier League has other problems to contend with as well. The Bank of Scotland, what is the Scottish Premier Leagues main sponsor is discontinuing their arrangement after the 2006/2007 season.

Despite the problems and controversy around new leagues forming and sponsorship, football remains the most popular sport in Scotland. Loyal fans flock to see their team and draw crowds by the thousands. Despite difficulty it looks as if the Scottish Premier League will be with us for years to come. Watch Live Scottish Premier League with Ole Ole.

Watch Live Spanish La Liga Football
The Spanish La Liga is the top professional football league for Spain. As part of your Ole Ole membership you can watch live La Liga. The Spanish La Liga is highly respected and is considered one of the best football leagues in the world. The Spanish La Liga plays a very important role in international competitions. The top four teams from The Spanish La Liga are automatically put forward for the UEFA champions league. The fifth and Sixth place teams are automatically sent to the UEFA cup. Spanish La Liga football also has some of the most highly competitive domestic tournaments. The top team in The Spanish La liga plays against the Copa Del Rey winners for the Super Copa De Espana.

The Spanish La Liga was first formed in 1928. Ideas were being thrown about for a Spanish professional league. The ideas were eventually accepted and the original Spanish La Liga was formed. It consisted of 10 teams who were all previous winners of the Copa del rey. The league was quite popular and continued to grown in strength and popularity. Team names such as Barcelona and Real Madrid definitely won their share of La Liga titles. The Spanish Civil war of the 1930 put a temporary stop to the La Liga tournament. However, when it emerged in 1940 it was stronger and better than ever before.

The 1940's brought forward more teams and others that showed their gaining strength. Real Madrid and Barcelona had continued success. Other teams such as Valencia and Bilboa will also gaining momentum. Spanish La Liga football again was temporarily suspended in the 1940's due to the outbreak of the Second World War. However, it re-emerged in 1946 with Sevilla FC winning their title.

One of the most well known and successful football clubs in Spain and worldwide is Real Madrid. The club was one of the dominating forces in the Spanish La liga matches and this was never truer than between the years of 1969-1980. The club won the title 11 times between those years making Real Madrid one of the most sought after organizations to play for and recruit from.

Today football continues to be the most popular sport in Spain. The Spanish La Liga still continues their tradition of high quality teams, and games packed full of suspense and emotion. The Spanish La Liga will ensure that Spain continues to play a vital role in European Football as well as football around the world. With your Ole Ole membership you can Watch Live La Liga and catch Spain's top La Liga teams in live UEFA Champions league and UEFA cup games. Also catch Spain as they progress through the Euro 2008 qualifiers.

Watch Live Italian Serie A Football
The Italian Serie A is the top league of football teams in Italy. Watch live Serie A with Ole Ole. Serie A is part of the Italian football league and forms the top layer of its structure. Italian Serie A and Serie B make up the National professional league. Below that you have the Serie C divided into C1 and C2 and onward you have Serie D there are 5 more levels of Italian football all representing different ranks and abilities, but all contributing to the Italian football association.

The Italian Serie A has a similar structure and playing schedule to other European nations. The Italian Serie A consists of 20 teams who each play each other twice in a single season. This makes a total of 38 games played in a single season. The Italian Serie A games play a true round robin format. The first 19 games are played comprising the first half of the season and each team playing each other once. Then the second half of the season is played, repeating the exact same playing order. The only difference being, the venue is changed. Those that had the home field advantage the first time around will be the away team in the second part on the season. Italian Serie A football also operates a system of relegation and promotion. As with many other European Football leagues, the top 3 teams from serie b can be promoted while the lowest Serie A teams can be relegated.

The Italian football league has a long history. From 1898-1929 the teams were organized into regional groups. From 1929 onward it followed a structure similar to what is practiced today. The most successful Italian Serie A teams were Juventus, with 27 championships and AC Milan with 17. The Italian football league makes a great contribution to the international competitions. The top 4 teams from Italian Serie A football are sent to the UEFA champion's league. The top two teams are automatically put through to the group stages. The fifth and sixth place Italian Serie A football teams qualify for the UEFA cup.

Football is the most popular sport in Italy. Italy has also produced some of the world's biggest stars. The Italian football league has its share of ups and downs in the past. Tragedy struck in the 1948-49 season when a plane crash claimed all of the lives of the Tourino team. More recently in the 2005/2006 season, several of the top Series teams were involved in a match fixing scandal. This resulted in 4 Italian Serie A teams being put under investigation and trial.

Despite the hardships the Italian Serie A has endured, it will surely continue. The excitement that the Serie A league contributes to the international and domestic game is hard to match. Using Ole Ole it is possible to Watch Live Serie A football online on your pc. Catch Serie A matches and games as part of our low annual membership fee.

Watch Live German Bundesliga
German Bundesliga is the top league of professional football in Germany. The winners of the Bundesliga are the national champions of Germany. Germany is slightly different when compared to its European rivals. Germany did not create a national league of professional football until the 1960's, far after most of the other nations.

Football has been a favorite sport amongst Germans for a very long time. Before the German Bundesliga was created, there were several amateur leagues around the country at various levels of size and ability. These teams would play a series of games and tournament for the end prize of German national champions. Changes later came allowing teams from other countries to participate. The only stipulation was that they were of German ethnicity. This allowed teams from Austria-Hungary, Switzerland and then named Czechoslovakia to join in.

Football continued to grow in Germany throughout the 1900's. In 1900 there were approximately 150,000 registered football players in Germany. By 1932, that number had increased exponentially to well over 1 million. Despite this increase there was no desire to professionalize the game. Promoters felt that keeping the leagues at an amateur level would bring forward the true sportsman and those that played football purely for the love of the game.

The third Reich brought about drastic changes to German football. Under the government all German football leagues had to disband and be replaced by those controlled directly by the Nazis. They controlled every aspect of the sport down to team formations and player selection. In order to be selected for a team you had to recommend by at least two high ranking Nazi party members.

The German Bundesliga was formed in the 1960's. After continual changes and troubles in Germany, many of the clubs suffered. The effect of this was showing in international competitions. The 1962, world cup quarter final match where Germany lost to Chile 1-0 finally got serious talks going about forming a national, professional league. The German Bundesliga was officially created in Dortmund in 1962 and modeled itself on the English football association structure.

Today, Germany remains a powerhouse in professional football. The German Bundesliga remains one of the most competitive and sought after leagues to play for and recruit players from. The German Bundesliga has ensured that Germany will remain one of the greatest forces to be reckoned with in international professional football. Watch Live Bundesliga online on your pc through Ole Ole.

Watch Live UEFA Champions League
The UEFA Champion's League is the league tournament for clubs from the European nations. It was created in 1955 and began 1 month after the first UEFA conference was help in Vienna. The UEFA Champion's League owes a lot to the French. In the beginning it was thought that the French were only trying to create a venue for their home teams, but surprised everyone when they lobbied heavily for a Europe wide tournament and league.

The very first tournament of the UEFA Champion's League was tiny compared to today's standard. 16 clubs entered and the matches were played in Lisbon. There was also no stipulation in place that the entering teams had to be champions of their own country. However, it was felt that the better clubs would be naturally encouraged to participate.

In the early years of the UEFA Champions League it looked as if the Spanish would reign supreme forever. The club Real Madrid won the first 5 finals. However, since then the victories have been scattered and spread out. There have been successful teams such as Bayern Munchen and AC Ajax winning 3 consecutive titles. However, both teams have had to wait decades for their fourth title. Real Madrid still remains the only football club to win 5 consecutive UEFA titles.

The UEFA Champion's League tournament underwent a serious change in the 1992-1993 season. They decided to introduce team grouping and they use the knockout system during the finals and semi final rounds. When piloted the year before, the system received endless praise. It also expanded the tournament from allowing only 8 teams to 32.

Today the UEFA Champions League tournament not only stages the biggest matches in Europe but it is also widely followed by neutral supporters. Hundreds of teams from across the continent start out in hopes of raising the UEFA Champions League trophy. The popularity of the tournament has grown as well. The UEFA Champion's League games are not only broadcast in their home countries, but all over the world. The UEFA Champion's League final is one of the most watched sporting events world wide and success is very lucrative for the football club.

Today, Barcelona are the current UEFA Champions defeating the mighty Arsenal. The 2007 cup is still very much anyone's game. However, this year promises to be an exciting as any and you can catch all the Champions League Matches Live online with Ole Ole of the previous.

Watch Live UEFA Cup
The UEFA Cup was originally conceived by Ernst Thommen, Ottorino Barasi, and Sir Stanley Rous. They wanted to create a tournament from representative sides, for European City teams that regularly held trade fairs. Originally named the Intercity Fairs cup, this new tournament was started on the 18th of April 1955, only two weeks after the creation of the European Champions League cup.

The Very first fairs now the UEFA cup had teams from all over Europe. Teams supporting Basel, Birmingham, Lausanne. London and Frankfurt came just to name a few. The second tournament of the UEFA Cup, held two years later did involve club teams. However there was still the stipulation that these teams had to come from cities hosting trade fairs. In the 1958-60 tournaments, only 16 teams participated. This was soon increased to 32 and the tournament was to be held annually. Today over 100 teams participate in the UEFA Cup tournament.

In the early days of the UEFA Cup, it seemed that teams from southern Europe had an advantage. They won the first 3 tournament titles. Then the direction changed when in 1968 Leeds united were the first team from a northern European country to claim the cup. After the Leeds victory, the cup would be won 6 successive times by English teams. Tottenham hotspurs, a north London based team were the fifth London Team to claim the title in the 1971/72 season. The importance of this year is that the name of the tournament was officially changed to the UEFA Cup. This announced to the world in a sense that the tournament was now controlled by UEFA and was no longer tied to the trade fairs.

The northern European teams still continued to dominate the UEFA Cup. Between 1968 and 1984 the final winners all came from Germany, Belgium, the Netherlands and the UK with the exception of 1977 when Juventus took the title. The tide soon shifted after the mid eighties with a long string of Italian victories. The Italians took the UEFA cup title 8 times in 11 seasons from 1989 onward.

The current reigning champions of the UEFA Cup are the Spanish club Sevilla. They ended a 58 year drought in the UEFA Cup when the beat UK based team Middlesborough in a 4-0 match held in Eindhoven. The current UEFA cup is still very much up for grabs and promises to bring as much excitement, joy and suspense as previous years. Catch the UEFA Cup action live online.

Watch Live World Cup
The World Cup is the ultimate competition for professional football. Nations from all over the world are eligible to participate. The World Cup is held every 4 years and is the most coveted prize in football. The first tournament took place in 1930 and has continued ever since. The only exception being during the Second World War when many nations were forced to disband there football leagues.

The world cup competitions as we know it is actually the World Cups final Phase. This contest consists of 32 teams from around the world, playing in a group setting and representing their home country. The actually world cup from start to finish takes much longer. Nearly 3 years and hundreds of qualifying games are played before the final phase is played in its designated host city.

The history of the world cup is quite long. It begins with the very first international football game being played between England and Scotland in 1872. At this time the sport was virtually unheard of on the European continent and was rarely ever played outside the British Isles. Improvements and increased travel gradually brought football to other nations. By the turn of the century it has grown significantly in popularity and was offered as a demonstration sport at both the 1900 and 1904 Olympics, with it becoming an official sport in the 1908 games.

The organization known as FIFA formed in 1904, and attempted to create an international football competition between national teams that fell outside the framework of the Olympics. However, the early attempts were not met with much acceptance and despite repeated tries the early efforts failed.

Another attempt to get a competition going came with the 1932 Olympic Games in Los Angles. The promoters of the Olympic did not originally plan to include football but due to it not being a popular sport in the United States. However, it was growing in popularity so it was agreed in principal. Plans failed again however, when FIFA and the IOC could not come to an agreement as to the status of amateur players. They were never able to settle the issue and the game was scrapped.

It seems odd that a tournament that failed so many times to even get started is now one of the most sought after sports honors in the world. Over 198 nations attempted to qualify for the FIFA 2006 world cup that was held in Germany. Of the 32 teams that made it to the final phase it was Italy that emerged as the world cup champions. The victory was extremely important to Italy being that Italian professional football had just been involved in one of the worst and most publicized football scandals in history. The world cup is always full of excitement, emotion and drama. With the growing popularity of the sport around the world it will surely continue its tradition. You can catch all international matches live online with our service.

Watch Live Euro 2008
The UEFA Euro 2008 football tournament is more commonly known as the UEFA European football championships. They are held every four years on the even numbered years opposite the world cup. The plans for this tournament started to materialize in 1956. In 1958 the first European Nation's Cup was played. This was quite a small tournament when compared to today's UEFA Euro 2008 contest but offered much potential for growth which is exactly what it did.

By 1968 the tournament had changed its name to the UEFA European football championship and it saw a much larger competition in size and interest. Now there were eight groups of teams introduced into the tournament, each playing each other twice. The remaining teams played in knockout round after that in the semi finals and ultimately the final.

The format introduced in 1968 remained intact until 1980, when more changes were brought about. 8 teams went to the final rounds instead of 4 in the preceding years. They would then play each other in two groups of four teams until a winner emerged. 1984 saw another change. In 1984 only the top two teams from each group moved on to the semi finals, from there they played winners until the last team was standing.

The UEFA European championships have made to expand and make changes due to political changes. In 1992 we saw a united Germany play for the first time. The break up of the Soviet Union also brought about many small republics that wanted their chance at playing in the tournament. Both this tournament and the world cup expanded to allow for this shift in political thinking.

Other changes have occurred as well. In 1990 UEFA allowed for countries to host the tournament jointly. Belgium and the Netherlands were the first to take advantage of this new opportunity and the next tournament will be shared between Austria and Switzerland at the UEFA EURO 2008 tournament.

Watch free live football streams online. Footy on the internet streaming direct to your PC tv. streams and feeds.

The UEFA European cup championships are an exciting tournament full of suspense and emotion. The next contest, the UEFA Euro 2008 tournament promises to be as exciting. The quality of the games ranks equally with the world cup. Especially considering many of the worlds top teams are European based. Qualifying games are already being played for the next UEFA Euro 2008 tournament and you can watch live Euro 2008 qualifiers online.

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