I've spent most of my blogging time today writing a ridiculously long piece about the complexities of qualifying out of the group matches at the European Soccer Championships, and a link from here to there is all I can offer today.

Here, gratuitously, is the picture I used to illustrate the kind of stuff I was writing about.

The educational relevance? Well, simply that sporting arithmetic is a great way to teach arithmetic to small boys. I still remember with pleasure the day I explained about fractions to a small boy, by talking about a soccer game.

And I dare say there's even the occasional girl who might be persuaded to take maths a bit more seriously with talk about sport.