Rich Zahradnik came over from America for Euro '96 and, much to his surprise, found himself in a Catholic country

I arrived on the morning of the first match of Euro ’96 to find a nation still recovering from “The Shame!!” Members of the England team had had some drinks in a dentist chair then, played rough with the interior of an airplane. Shame was everywhere, the same shame felt by the entire British nation when one of its politicians, vicars, talk show hosts, policemen, soldiers, dogs, cats or royals does something the rest of us probably do all the time anyway.

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A view of the media and public reaction in Portugal to Euro '96.  Phil Town reports

While the hopes and dreams of 20 million Portuguese worldwide crumbled during that second half capitulation against a 15-man defence and Poborsky, I’ll wager the most disappointed of all were the handful of advertising executives in Portugal who had, it seemed, set so much store on the national team going all the way.

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A view on the media and public reaction in France to Euro '96. Neil McCarthy reports

Two big news stories in France before Euro ’96 were Mad Cow Disease and the arrest of football hooligans in Birmingham and Newcastle. Some suggested that the shaky relationship between Britain and the rest of Europe coupled with England’s hooligans were a recipe for trouble.

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A view on the media and public raction to Euro '96 in Spain. Phil Ball reports

Until the Daily Mirror’s outbreak of cultural sensitivity on Thursday 20th June, the Spanish press had, by and large, been serving up a positive view of all things English – describing in drooling terms the facilities on tap at the team’s hotel on the outskirts of Leeds, publishing photos of Zubizarreta signing an autograph for a smiling “bobbie” and of Caminero wolf-whistling at his English (female) security guard.

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A view on the media and public reaction to Euro '96 in Bulgaria. Mark McQuinn and Boris Petrov report

If ever a country needed a break, in terms of football success, it was Bulgaria at Euro ’96. The run up to the finals saw the country in a state of economic collapse with over 100 banks folding, 65 major industries being closed and people having to queue for hours each days to buy bread, as the government had exported most of the country’s wheat supply to bring in hard currency.

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