Euro 2012: Opening ceremonies, why do they insist on doing this to us?

It has never been satisfactorily established why major international football tournaments require opening ceremonies. There's a logic behind the organisers of the Olympic Games pre-empting their event with the sort of lavish song-and-dance productions that would put the combined efforts of Rodgers, Hammerstein, Lerner, Loewe, Bernstein, Berlin and the carpenter who used to build the sweeping staircases for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer to shame: that flame won't light itself. But there are no such pyromanic administrative requirements in the world of soccer. So why do they insist on doing this to us? What is it that we've done?

The audience at an opening ceremony is praying for the performance to degenerate into a thundering shambles. It's the only hope of extracting any sort of entertainment from such a deep, dark mine of bland, focus-grouped mediocrity.

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Euro 2012: Opening ceremonies, why do they insist on doing this to us? | Scott Murray | Football | The Guardian