Euro 2008 Football Championship

Special Youth football stamp

This stamp issue of Switzerland is the second of four special stamps issued by Swiss Post in the run-up to the Euro 2008 Football Championship in Switzerland and Austria: The theme this stamp issue is Youth football.

Young soccer virtuosos emulate the top stars

Every young soccer player dreams of controlling the ball, making slide-rule passes, bending free-kicks, and volleying the ball into the back of the net like the top stars of the soccer scene: Ronaldo, Zinédine Zidane, David Beckham, Michael Ballack, Thierry Henry and Alex Frei. And, if they are real fans, they show it by wearing the right shirt of Real Madrid, Bayern Munich, Chelsea or Rennes.
Youth football is played more or less everywhere a ball can be found: in the street, on squares, in school playgrounds, in backyards, in fields, and on the beach. Stones, sticks or handkerchiefs are often used for the goalposts. FIFA, soccer's international governing body, estimates that some twelve percent of the 250 million football players registered worldwide are under twenty.

Major efforts in football clubs

Developing young soccer talent has taken on a completely new dimension in clubs and associations compared with the good old days. Whereas it used to be mainly in colleges, boarding schools and a few major clubs that proper football was played at youth level, nearly all clubs now promote the development of young talent.
The big clubs have their own football schools with board and lodging, where the young prospects spotted by so-called scouts are coached up to professional standard. Long-term contracts with the parents and substantial monthly salaries are part of the deal. Logically, football is also an important branch of the Youth and Sport movement run by the Swiss Federal Office of Sport in Magglingen.

Four Swiss Stamps

The young forward in red and green is heading down the wing and looks ready to take the pass at any time. In May 2005 a first stamp was issued for Euro 2008 Football Championship. The next stamps will be issued in 2007 (Women's football) and 2008 (Men's football). And then you'll be able to see the whole black and white football in the block.

Stamps in detail

Issue: Switzerland, 7 March 2006
Printing: offset by Cartor Security Printing, La Loupe, France
Stamp sizes: 33 x 28 mm
Paper: self-adhesive
Perforation: 13.25 x 12.75
Design: Pierre Castella, Fribourg

More information

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