After the extraordinary success of Euro 2008 winners Spain will quite rightly receive most of the accolades. However, this triumphant tournament is about much more than the Spanish team, or any of the teams competing for that matter.

The "much more" I am referring to is the work done over a substantial number of years by nameless and unselfish people. It began at grass roots level and was essentially started by the schoolboy Coaches from all regions of Spain who, each and every weekend and some evenings of the week, took the time to gather the boys of their local community into groups and teach them the fundamentals of football. This seeming innocuous action that is replicated in every community across the world, was the spark that ignited the passion and the talents of the group of individuals who stepped onto the podium in Vienna last Sunday evening to accept the title of the Best Team in Europe.

The reason why The European Championship is so attractive, and so important, is because it is about every aspect of the game of football. Unlike the much-hyped Champions League the Euro Championship it is not just about professional football. Of course, the Champions League is a magnificently attractive Tournament in its own right but when one begins to compare it with the European Championship the real truth emerges.

Champions League football is about individual clubs and, at its most successful level, the biggest clubs on the continent at that. Unfortunately, these clubs are not only the biggest and the best they have also become the greediest clubs on the continent of Europe. Or at least a large percentage of them have. The irrefutable fact is that the very substantial money generated by each individual club is utilised purely for the benefit of the club itself, whereas the money the Spanish Football Association receive on the back of Sunday's success will be invested in the present and future generations of young men and women in every area of the country.

The fact that some of these young people will graduate to play for the best clubs in Europe in the years ahead only serves to highlight the hypocrisy of the myopic self-interest attached to many of the big clubs. Where would these clubs get their players from if it wasn't for the work done at grass root level work by the Football Association's spread across the World?

So the big clubs insistence that they be allowed charge the relevant Football Associations for the use of their players when they are selected to represent their countries in International fixtures is in my opinion simply scandalous.

When one even delves further into the physche of professional football one sees that most of the spectators that follow these clubs, the Champions League and the Euro Championship have themselves come through the very same systems in these countries.