The New Nation - Internet Edition

Internet, Vienna

King Juan Carlos rarely misses a big sports event when Spaniards are involved, and the Euro 2008 final between Spain and Germany on Sunday in Vienna is no exception. In the VIP box of the Ernst Happel Stadium the king - and likely Queen Sofia as well - will run into Spain's Prime minister Jose Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, German Chancellor and superfan Angela Merkel, plus German President Horst Koehler.

UEFA boss Michel Platini will naturally be there to hand the trophy to the winning team's captain, while guests also include former Germany coach Juergen Klinsmann, the German players dropped at the last instance from the Euro squad, and former US Foreign Secretary Henry Kissinger.

The Euro host nations are to be represented by the presidents of Switzerland, Pascal Cuchepin, and Austria, Heinz Fischer.

Spain's Royal Couple was already present in Vienna when the team beat world champions Italy in the quarter-final, with Juan Carlos later telling the team in the dressing room how happy he was that the 88-year-old curse against Italy and a 24-year-old rot to go beyond the final eight was broken.

"The curse is over at last, it was about time," the king reportedly told coach Luis Aragones and the players.

Crown-Prince Felipe and his wife, Princess Letizia, also regulars at major sports events, successfully offered their support at several Euro games including the 3-0 semi-final win over Russia.

Spanish media on Saturday said that King Juan Carlos expects Spain to win 2-1 while Zapatero even predicted a 3-1 decision in his team's favour.

But the German camp will naturally have none of it, with Merkel "convinced that Germany can make it," without giving a score. Koehler said that German will win 2-1.

Merkel stunned Germans with her joyious outbursts at the 2006 World Cup, and has already attended two of Germany's Euro games, the 1-0 win over hosts Austria and 3-2 semi-final victory against Turkey.

"I am simply into the game like any one else. It appears as if not many people knew that I am interested in football.

And no one asked me about it in my political life until 2006," she told the Sueddeutsche Zeitung earlier this month.

Merkel was seen chatting away with then banned Bastian Schweinsteiger during the Austria game and also with coach Joachim Loew when he was banned from the touchline in that game.

Accompanied by several of her ministers on Sunday, she could exchange her football knowledge with Klinsmann, who led Germany to third place at the 2006 World Cup

Klinsmann has been invited by football supremo Theo Zwanziger before starting his new Bayern Munich job because "somehow it is his final as well."