How will you watch Euro 2016?

[git2thachoppa]

Gauging the excitement.

Think I'll just be watching highlights for the first two matches of the group stages. A group stage where nearly all the teams go through anyway, and which is effectively a round 2 of qualifying for a knockout competition, it's sort of like the Intertoto Cup isn't it?

Hardly fills me with excitement, peril and expectation of quality right now.

[toon_84]

I'll watch every match I can because it's football basically. No doubt when it gets to the last group games i'll pick the wrong game to watch as I always manage to do

[Harryseaess]

I'll watch every match possible. I'm pretty excited and hope it'll be a good tournament.

[Danchinaski]

I'm actually recovering from surgery, so I'm going to stretch this recovery period out as much as possible so I can goof off for the month and watch football.

[CFuller]

I'd like to say that I'll watch as much action as possible, like I always do. It'll be a bit more complicated this year, though, as I'll actually be away from home for a week during the tournament.

My parents and I will be travelling up to Telford, where my sister lives, on the morning of the England-Wales game, so I'll almost certainly miss much if not all of the live coverage for that.

I'll then be staying with my sister for a few days before a short holiday in Derbyshire, so some matches between 16-23 June might be 'highlights only' for me.

[Citizen Sandman]

i'd always watch a game of footy should it be on

[craigcwwe]

Watch every match I can in full. Like I always do.

[Redshift]

Watch some matches and watch some highlights?

[bestbrother]

I'll watch every match possible. I'm pretty excited and hope it'll be a good tournament.

Thats my plan, im actually really looking forward to it. Ive not done much research into the teams and squads, so will take it all as it comes.

[skybluedave]

My mate (post 6th form, pre job) watched every game of Euro 2004 except the Greece/France QF as we had our 6th form ball. He also had an additional smaller tv in his living room for his PS2 so he simulated each Euro game on PES (cpu vs cpu) at the same time and watch those too. He's extremely proud of that month.

[Robokid87]

I've got a week and a half off work to ensure I don't miss any 2pm kickoffs; good job I have nothing else in my life to get in the way ( )

[given1legend]

Booked the England games off work, I'll watch everything else that I can.

[G-Man11]

Went with other, I'll probably watch about 50-60% of the matches but wont be supporting any team in particular.

[Baptista_8]

Always say I'm gonna watch all the matches but never happens. Plus I'm on holiday for the first week of the tournament so will no doubt miss a few then as well.

[forameuss]

I've taken next week off (oh, there's football on? I hadn't realised) so hoping to watch every game starting from the opener until I go back to work on the 21st. Having said that, after that there's no 2pm weekday games for the rest of the tournament, so it'll just be the 5pm ones that cause trouble. Then again, there's only five of those (two pairs of which are played at the same time).

I'll have every intention of watching every match, but as always I'll end up missing a few, all of which will turn out to be brilliant.

[JD nawrat]

Just watch what I can. I think I have the week of the final off (by coincidence) on holiday so I'll watch most of the KOs.

Groups I'll just see what I can, working in a bookies the games will be on in work so I'll probably see the majority of the games tbf.

[PaulHartman71]

I'm still on a seasonal contract at work so for the next few weeks I'm basically gonna **** them around and only work hours if there's a game I'm not that fussed about. Should be great.

[TalkSport]

Rather annoyed it's 3pm/5pm/8pm kick offs. Means I miss all the 3pm games and a large majority of 5pm games 1st half. Unsocial kick off times for working people

Will watch every 8pm game and as many 5pm ones I can, if not a household 5pm game probably just watch the highlight show which I'm sure will be on everynight after 8pm game.

[PaulHartman71]

Rather annoyed it's 3pm/5pm/8pm kick offs. Means I miss all the 3pm games and a large majority of 5pm games 1st half. Unsocial kick off times for working people

Will watch every 8pm game and as many 5pm ones I can, if not a household 5pm game probably just watch the highlight show which I'm sure will be on everynight after 8pm game.

Tbf when else are they gonna put them on? Could maybe do 4pm/6pm/8pm games, but otherwise if they're doing 3 on the same day at different times it's a bit hard. You can't really expect them to have 10pm kickoffs as that would make life a lot harder for the policing and fans travelling around in France, not to mention the players too. I'm just pleased they're starting them at 3pm and not at noon.

[forameuss]

Tbf when else are they gonna put them on? Could maybe do 4pm/6pm/8pm games, but otherwise if they're doing 3 on the same day at different times it's a bit hard. You can't really expect them to have 10pm kickoffs as that would make life a lot harder for the policing and fans travelling around in France, not to mention the players too. I'm just pleased they're starting them at 3pm and not at noon.

They're not starting at 3pm are they? Isn't it 2pm?

2, 5 and 8 as far as I was aware, 3, 6 and 9 local time.

As Paul says, it's the right way to do it. The only way to realistically avoid 2pm kick-offs is to not play 3 games a day. That would mean either putting two games on at the same time early in the group stage, or stretching the stage out across more days. Neither is really that desirable. To be honest, the 5pm game is the one that annoys me more. I have a chance of watching most of the 2pm game, but unless I leave the office pretty late, I'm going to miss a good 45 minutes of the 5pm game.

[Scott1892]

I'll try to watch all that I can, the 5pm and 8pm games I'll be able to watch with ease, it's just a couple of the 2pm ones that I'm teaching during where I'll struggle, although I'm sure the students won't mind if I put it up on the projector during the lesson.

[Ville]

One aspect of the game starting times is the fact that you can't really play the evening games at much later than 8pm. The whole eastern time zones would have to watch these games at midnight or even later.

[Tony85]

Schedule could have been adjusted slightly to get rid of the 2pm games during the week. There is a Sunday during the main group stage where there is only 2 games instead of 3 like on the Saturday.

Then at the last round of fixtures we have Group A playing on the Sunday at 8pm with no matches at 2pm or 5pm. Push those back to Monday (which also only has an 8pm kick-off and no 5pm game) and you could have filled the additional 2pm games into that Sunday slot.

[Kenco]

Schedule could have been adjusted slightly to get rid of the 2pm games during the week. There is a Sunday during the main group stage where there is only 2 games instead of 3 like on the Saturday.

Then at the last round of fixtures we have Group A playing on the Sunday at 8pm with no matches at 2pm or 5pm. Push those back to Monday (which also only has an 8pm kick-off and no 5pm game) and you could have filled the additional 2pm games into that Sunday slot.

The Sundays you are referring to there are the same day. There are only 2 Sundays in the group stage, the 12th which has 3 games already and the 19th, which is the start of the final round of group games.

So that would only cover 2 of the games. Even then it means some teams get one day less in between 2nd and 3rd matches, which they won't be too keen on.

[Tony85]

You're right about the Sunday so I was slightly out with my ideas. But it would cover 3 games not 2 as you are now playing 3 games on the Sunday instead of 1 and 2 timeslots on the Monday being used instead of 1.

That would leave 1 midweek game to move. If they wanted they could have had 2 games on opening night but obviously don't want to as they want France to be first game and also at primetime.

I don't know about the rest days but I'm sure there was some way around it if they really wanted to make it work.

[forameuss]

You're right about the Sunday so I was slightly out with my ideas. But it would cover 3 games not 2 as you are now playing 3 games on the Sunday instead of 1 and 2 timeslots on the Monday being used instead of 1.

That would leave 1 midweek game to move. If they wanted they could have had 2 games on opening night but obviously don't want to as they want France to be first game and also at primetime.

I don't know about the rest days but I'm sure there was some way around it if they really wanted to make it work.

But why would they? The current format is fine, no real need to change it.

[Tony85]

People were talking about how they'd miss the 2pm kick-offs and mentioned alternative kick off times to make it better. I was just pointing out how easily the schedule could have been changed to avoid early kickoffs during the week.

[git2thachoppa]

I think the best option is to have 3 games a day, or as many as you can, at the times they are now local time, and for anyone who finds it a bit inconvenient for watching every game in full to man up.

[Razzler]

I'll watch every game but I have an ever growing malaise with football atm

[Neil Brock]

I'm super excited but have had to come to Australia due to a death in the family. Which means I'll be watching matches with kickoff times of 11pm, 2am and 5am.

Suddenly from super excited it goes to 'ugh'.

[Razzler]

Ouch, 5pm, 8pm and 11pm here, which is pretty much perfect

[Ville]

4pm, 7pm and 10pm here. Which I would say is perfect.

[forameuss]

I think the best option is to have 3 games a day, or as many as you can, at the times they are now local time, and for anyone who finds it a bit inconvenient for watching every game in full to man up.

Basically, yeah. We saw what happened when they tried to screw with the calendar to suit TV audiences in WC2014. Dirk Kuyt almost melted.

[B-Real]

Watch all matches and all highlights again.

[G-Man11]

I'm super excited but have had to come to Australia due to a death in the family. Which means I'll be watching matches with kickoff times of 11pm, 2am and 5am.

Suddenly from super excited it goes to 'ugh'.

Yeah watching the 2010 WC down under was awful, amazed I even managed to stay awake during the snoozfest of a final (4am-7am).

[GunmaN1905]

I still remember that classic between Ivory Coast and Japan at 3am CET from 2 years ago, yawn.

3, 6 and 9pm are pretty much perfect kick off times, for most people.

Copa America final stages during the night after that.

[Kain]

This is my first tournament since I started working from home, so hopefully I'll be able to watch pretty much every match. Unfortunately there's also a 4 month old baby wanting lots of attention, so no doubt most games will just end up being on in the background.

[ryan045]

I will be watching every game in full, football comes before most things for me.

[Adelaidean]

Yep the European football times are the worst part of being a football supporter in Australia. Also on the 11pm, 2am, 5am times.

Last two World Cups have been middle of the night affairs. Watched every game of the last WC as I had no commitments at the time but not sure I can justify catching more than the odd match for these Euros.

[Razzler]

There's something great about watching live sporting events from faraway in the middle of the night. I have fond memories of staying up all night to watch the '88 Seoul Olympics

[git2thachoppa]

Yep the European football times are the worst part of being a football supporter in Australia. Also on the 11pm, 2am, 5am times.

Last two World Cups have been middle of the night affairs. Watched every game of the last WC as I had no commitments at the time but not sure I can justify catching more than the odd match for these Euros.

A while ago someone was saying Australia should never host a World Cup because the kick-off times were inconvenient for him and us Britons. I thought he was a ****, and reminded him that the world is more than 1 country and 2002 was a great World Cup that was fine.

[Mr Wallin]

There's something great about watching live sporting events from faraway in the middle of the night. I have fond memories of staying up all night to watch the '88 Seoul Olympics

Yea there where a few late nights in -94 but that still was a great tournament.

[Kenco]

There's something great about watching live sporting events from faraway in the middle of the night. I have fond memories of staying up all night to watch the '88 Seoul Olympics

Reminds me of the time I spent Christmas Day with the family, got home around 11.30pm, put on a pot of coffee and stayed up all night for the first day of an Ashes Test. I watched all 5 days (or should that be nights?) thanks to having some leave from work so I could sleep in the mornings.