Birmingham chief executive Karren Brady has been in the headlines for all the wrong reasons this month

Supporters have always made up songs about rival clubs but Birmingham City, owned by pornographers, give opposing fans more opportunities than most. Plenty of new material has been provided by the arrest on April 9 of the club’s chief executive, Karren Brady, and owner David Sullivan as part of a City of London police inquiry. Both were released on bail, as were the seven others (including Harry Redknapp and Milan Mandaric) arrested last November in an investigation that appears to centre on a few deals involving players represented by the agent Willie McKay.

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Thaksin needs to learn that only stability will bring long-term success

With the news as we went to press that Sven-Göran Eriksson was set to be sacked after his new club’s best top-flight season since 1992, Thaksin Shinawatra appears to have confirmed his ambition of turning Manchester City into the English equivalent of Hearts. That story started quite well, too, back in 2005. The club’s new Lithuanian owner, Vladimir Romanov, loudly proclaimed his determination to challenge Rangers and Celtic, and the team led the SPL for just over three months. But even with the team topping the table, manager George Burley was manoeuvred out. Half a dozen less successful men, whose names even Hearts fans would struggle to keep track of, have followed.

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What are the expectations for the team?
Thanks to the apparently golden touch of Guus Hiddink, probably greater than ever before. Russia teams of the past have generally managed to be less than the sum of their parts; Hiddink has managed to reverse that. The general feeling is that reaching the knockout stages would be a success. With a relatively tough group, Hiddink himself has tried to dampen any false hopes and said that his main target is the 2010 World Cup.

Is the coach popular?
He is now, although he has had to overcome the initial mistrust of those who said a foreigner would never get his head round the enigma that is Russian football. Along with his fellow Dutchman Dick Advocaat at Zenit St Petersburg, he seems to have cracked it.

Which players are good interviewees and who are the worst?
Andrei Arshavin and Vladislav Radimov, two of Advocaat’s players at Zenit, are always good value – friendly and open. At the other extreme, the grumpy and monosyllabic Sergei Ignashevich of CSKA Moscow is generally best avoided.

Are then any players with unusual hobbies or business interests?
Arshavin has a degree in fashion design, which included a thesis on “The development of sportswear manufacturing”. Alexei Smertin collects wine, and runs his own football academy in his native Barnaul in Siberia. He’s also obsessed with the works of John Fowles (author of The French Lieutenant’s Woman, among others), turning up at the novelist’s house in Dorset to introduce himself.

Do any of the players have famous girlfriends or wives?
There are no A-List celebrities, but plenty of wannabes. Four years ago, ahead of Euro 2004 a group of the players’ wives posed nude for a calendar. No word of a reprise this year though.

Will there be any rehearsed goal celebrations?
Unlikely. The Russians don’t go in for this kind of flamboyance. Don’t expect anything more exciting than some fist‑pumping.

Are there any players involved in politics?
Arshavin capitalised on his popularity as Russian football’s golden boy to gain election to the St Petersburg legislative assembly in 2006, campaigning on Vladimir Putin’s United Russia ticket.

What will the media coverage be like?
Sovietsky Sport and the estimable Sport Express will battle it out for the heavyweight coverage in print. The garrulous Andrei Kanchelskis, now general director at first division club FC Nosta (owned by Alisher Usmanov, who also owns just under 25 per cent of Arsenal), may pop up as a TV pundit.

Will there be many fans travelling to the tournament?
Not really. With the costs of getting and staying there beyond the average Russian, the travelling support tends to be restricted to the caviar sandwich eaters of the burgeoning business class, who can doubtless take the chance to check up on their Swiss bank accounts. Russian football song culture remains primitive and unimaginative, not least where the national team is concerned.

Dan Brennan

What are the expectations for the team?
Expectations remain reasonably low – a respectable group stage with qualification for the quarter-finals. Still, Greece’s amazing run in the qualifying tournament – ten wins out of 12 games, propelling them into eighth place in the FIFA rankings – has made everybody secretly wonder if lightning doesn’t really strike twice.

Are there any players who have appeared in TV commercials or other advertising?
Post-Euro 2004 super stardom opened the ad-money floodgates: Theo Zagorakis advertised bottled water (the aptly named Zagori water), Antonios Nikopolidis went for aluminium fittings, while coach Otto Rehhagel enlightened us on the benefits of eating processed meat products. Striker Angelos Charisteas probably landed the best deal, an orange juice commercial that was funny in a surprisingly self‑deprecating manner.

Is the coach popular?
Are you kidding? Last January Rehhagel was voted most popular man in Greece and that’s three-and-a-half years after he won Euro 2004. King Otto is not just popular, he’s untouchable. The news that he renewed his contract for another couple of years in March was greeted with universal enthusiasm.

Which players are good interviewees and who are the worst?
With 13 controversy-hungry daily sport papers in Athens alone, it’s not surprising that Greek footballers have perfected the art of speaking incessantly without actually saying anything. However, with Panathinaikos’s Ioannis Goumas and Georgios Karagounis, one tends to wonder if that effect is really produced on purpose. Not surprisingly, exiled Greeks are more interesting, albeit in a grumpy sort of way. Benfica’s Kostas Katsouranis has consistently produced the best quotes.

Will there be any rehearsed goal celebrations?
Actually the question is whether there will be any goals to celebrate at all. The Greek team is so defence-oriented that I suspect King Otto has explicitly forbidden any celebration rehearsals lest they give his players ideas. Hopefully, Karagounis will make up with his headless-chicken goal-celebration routine.

Are there any players involved in politics?
With Greek politics tinted, from one end of the spectrum to the other, by aggressive nationalism, it’s just as well that the footballers have so far kept their political views to themselves. Expect the odd “Macedonia is Greek” banner on the terraces, though.

What will be the media coverage be like ?
State TV, who hold the exclusive rights for the tournament, have not yet revealed their plans for Euro 2008, but we have every reason to believe they will, as always, adhere strictly to the Ceausescu school of objective reporting. Irrespective of whether they employ former players as auxiliary propagandists or not, hysterical jingoism will make up for poor journalism.

Will there be many fans travelling to the tournament?
Four years ago in Portugal, the team drew very impressive numbers of travelling fans and the same is expected to happen in Austria. The majority will travel from Greece, though the stupid wig-wearing, toga-clad, face-painted contingent will most probably hail from the diaspora centres of Germany. Ninety per cent of the songs date back to Euro 2004 and they’re so explicit in their celebration of the Greek male’s sexual prowess they will be ignored by TV commentators.

Paul Pomonis

What are the expectations for the team?
Most Swedes expect the team to get out of the group.

Are there any players who have appeared in TV commercials?
Fredrik Ljungberg, of course, was the face and body of Calvin Klein underwear for over two years and is now in a Pepsi advert with Ronaldinho, Frank Lampard and Lionel Messi. Anders Svensson is nicknamed Taco-Anders by opposing fans in the Allsvenskan after being in an advert for a company selling pizza, while Zlatan Ibrahimovic is now one of Nike’s hottest properties. It is a far cry from the start of his career when he was the face of Garnier Fructis, with the slogan: “You don’t think Zlatan has dandruff, do you?”

Is the coach popular?
Lars Lagerbäck is quite popular because he has taken Sweden to five consecutive major championships but is often criticised for the team’s negative approach. Remarkable, really, considering his achievements.

Which players are good interviewees and who are the worst?
Any journalist getting more than monosyllabic replies from Tobias Linderoth will have done really well. Mikael Nilsson is quite good and Ibrahimovic can be superb or awful depending on what mood he is in.

Do any of the players have famous girlfriends or wives?
Christian Wilhelmsson’s girlfriend, Oksana Andersson, is the most famous face at the moment. The Russian-Swedish model writes a blog about the couple’s life in Spain (he is on loan at Deportivo La Coruña) and has attracted a cult following (not necessarily because it is that good; one recent headline was “how nice it is with newly washed clothes”).

Are there any players involved in politics?
Not noticeably, but the current assistant coach, Roland Andersson, protested vehemently against the Argentinian junta before the 1978 World Cup. He threatened not to go to the tournament but in the end went and filmed everything he could concerning the regime.

What will be the media coverage be like?
Swedish Channel 4 has got the rights and their pundits are normally Magnus Hedman (ex-Coventry City) and Pontus Kåmark (ex-Leicester City). They are both good and professional – but nowhere near as popular as the former Sweden international Glenn Strömberg, who works for state channel SVT and will not be commentating on games this time around. The best newspaper columnist is, without a doubt, Aftonbladet’s Simon Bank.

Will there be many fans travelling to the tournament?
Loads of fans will travel, around 30,000 at the latest estimates. Sweden were voted Fans of the Tournament at the 2006 World Cup with the highlight being 55,000 Swedes in the Olympic Stadium in Berlin. 170,000 people applied for tickets. The two most popular songs are Vi är svenska fans allihopa (We are Swedish fans all of us) and In med bollen i mål (Put the ball in the goal).

Marcus Christenson