Euro 2004 three days old and UEFA site smashes own record

The official UEFA Euro 2004 website has broken its own record for page impressions, which was set during the last European Championships in 2000.

Already, just three days into the tournament, the website has racked up an impressive 130 million page impressions - more than one million more impressions than UEFA achieved throughout the full duration the Euro 2000 site was live.

The achievement is a massive affirmation of the increase in web use during the past four years.

Alexandre Fourtoy, CEO of UEFA New Media, believes the increase shows how the internet has become many people's first port of call when looking for information about sporting occasions, as they eschew traditional media such as television, radio and newspapers.

Fourtoy said in a statement: "This is the first time a site of such magnitude has been produced completely in-house by UEFA New Media."

Fourtoy claimed innovations such as making the content available in nine languages has increased football fans' interest in using the site to keep up to date with team news and the developments out in Portugal.

In total Fourtoy claims the site has attracted visitors from more than 200 different countries around the globe - emphasising the worldwide appeal of the beautiful game and the widespread of internet access.

UEFA is also reporting 300,000 visits to euro2004.com's multimedia site, which offers fans the opportunity to view paid-for content.