Last night, Spain won the Euro Cup.  It was the national team's first football victory in over 44 years.

Since getting through to the semi finals,

Spain has gone football mad,  and although I am too tired after my late night celebrations to do a full write up today,  here are some interesting snippets of info about

Spain

in this year's Euro Cup...

At 11 am when the lifeguards announced the beginning of their watch at the beach over the tannoy,  they blurted out a cry of ‘España’ at the end.  The beach peddlers added flags of all sizes to their usual array of cheap dresses, beach towels and chancla flip-flops.

Spain is mostly Catholic, and during the games, they have the idiosyncratic practice of placing images of Catholic saints around the television during crucial stages of the game.  Not content to rely on one single religious practice, the Spanish TV station Cuatro sold Voodoo doll ephigies of a goal keeper.  The doll came with a backpack of flags, one for each country in the Cup, to be pinned to his chest during a match, a set of pins, and a small length of rope.  The concept was rather disturbing, and undoubtably in poor taste,  but they sold like wildfire, perhaps because it was a way for people to feel like they were doing something to help.   I have a nasty feeling that theses little OTTO dolls as they were called may hit the news,  as Spanish reporters and commentators got carried away after the game and started placing the mutilated figures in the German changing rooms and on the tour bus.   While they were designed as a bit of fun,  I’m not sure the Germans will get the joke.

You can see OTTO over at this link:   http://otto.cuatro.com/

You can read my article about Spain winning the Euro Cup at www.orato.com