Hello Everyone,

The European Championships Soccer are starting on Friday, June 10, and I would like to organize a game to predict the outcome of the whole tournament. I found an Excel template online to help you do this: http://www.excely.com/football/euro-2016-schedule.shtml).

Instructions for the template

The template is fairly easy to use. You just need to fill out the scores of all 36 games in the first round (yellow shaded areas only). Once you have done that, the ranking of each of the 6 groups will be updated automatically on the right-hand side, and the names of the countries that qualify for the second round will be updated as well. You then continue to fill out the scores all the way to the final. You’ll see that each time you complete the score of a game the winner will automatically appear in the correct place of the next round. Apart from completing this template, we also came up with some general questions to predict and you can also predict the score of the final once the semi-finals have been played.

Point system

In total, there are 400 points to be earned, as follows:

Predict the correct score of the 36 first round games (maximum of 4 points each)                144

Eight of those games will have double score (games are listed below)                                      32

Predict the correct score of the final (after the semi finals have been played)                         12

Predict the 16 countries that will qualify for round 2 (4 points each)                                         64

Predict the 8 countries that will qualify for the quarter finals (6 points each)                           48

Predict the 4 countries that will qualify for the semi finals (8 points each)                                32

Predict the 2 countries that will qualify for the final (10 points each)                                        20

Predict the European champion                                                                                                   16

Predict the answer to 8 additional questions (4 points each)                                                      32

For predicting the scores of the first round games, you can earn a maximum of 4 points per game, as follows:

2 points for the correct result (team A wins, team B wins or a draw)

1 point for the correct score of team A

1 point for the correct score of team B.

Example: suppose Germany-France ends in 2-1

You receive 0 points if you predicted 0-2 or 0-0 (wrong result, two wrong scores)

You receive 1 point if you predicted 2-3, 2-2, 0-1 or 1-1 (wrong result, one correct score)

You receive 2 points if you predicted 3-0 (correct result, two wrong scores)

You receive 3 points if you predicted 2-0 or 3-1 (correct result, one correct score)

You receive 4 points if you predicted 2-1 (correct result, two correct scores)

8 first round games with double score

Belgium-Italy

England-Wales

Germany-Poland

Belgium-Ireland

Portugal-Austria

Switzerland-France

Croatia-Spain

Sweden-Belgium

8 additional questions to answer

1) In which minute will the first goal be scored?

2) Which country will have scored the most goals after the first round?

3) Which country will have conceded the most goals after the first round?

4) How many red cards will there be in the 51 games of the Euro Cup?

5) Which player will be the top scorer of the Euro Cup?

6) How many goals will Romelu Lukaku (Belgium) score?

7) How many goals will Cristiano Ronaldo (Portugal) score?

8) How many games will end in penalty shoot outs (only possible after round 1)?

For questions 1, 4, 6, 7 and 8: if no one has the correct answers, 4 points will go to each participant that predicted the closest number.

Money, money, money

Every participant pays $10. At the end of the Euro Cup, the prize money will be distributed as follows: 50% to the winner, 30% to the second place and 20% to the third place.

You can also participate without paying the $10, but of course that excludes you from winning any money at the end as well.

If you want to participate, please make sure I receive your completed email (template and the 8 questions) and $10 before the kick-off of the first game on Friday June 10 (I will be at the beatl Thirstdays on June 2).

I will participate as well, but I will share my template with all other participants before the start of the first game to avoid any discussions in case I would win the game...

Feel free to distribute this to any other friends you think might want to participate.

Best regards,

Steven Vangodtsenhoven (svangodt@hotmail.com)