Wenger Uses New Analysis Tool to Pick UEFA EURO 2008™ Winners

Arsene Wenger believes World Champions Italy and his own country France are behind the likes of Spain, Portugal and Germany as he looks ahead to the finals next summer.

The Arsenal manager has studied the teams closely in his role as an ambassador for the Castrol Performance Index a new scientific system which analyses the performances and effectiveness of players in the tournament.

The World Champions were in a tough group, where Scotland threatened to ruin their qualification campaign, but the Azzurri eventually qualified top ahead of France in Group B.

Wenger said: “The statistics can’t tell you for certain who will win it but what the Castrol Performance Index gives you is the potential of each team.”

“At UEFA EURO 2008™, managers will need to be influenced by concrete measures, not just opinion. That’s why the Castrol Performance Index is such a fantastic tool.”

“Looking at it now, I feel teams like Spain and Portugal have massive potential, for me personally. Germany as well looks like they have found some good stability. After that it is difficult to predict. You would always say Italy who are mature and tactically intelligent, but I feel they are a little bit behind.”

The Castrol Performance Index uses a mathematical formula which evaluates all player actions during a match in terms of how they either assist or prevent a goal. It also weights its score by taking into account the strength of the opposition and the time in a game the player’s actions occurred.

“The official launch of the Castrol Performance Index is exciting news for football fans because we believe it will take them under the bonnet of football in a way they have not been able to do before,” explained Caroline Topping, Communications manager.

“Up until now, this level of football analysis has only been available to those within the game, such as coaches and players. We believe the Castrol Performance Index will help interpret the data to not only enhance fans’ understanding of the game, but also their enjoyment.”

The full list of Castrol Performance Index scores for the 14 teams who played in the UEFA EURO 2008™ Qualifying Groups will be published this Saturday (9am, December 1st 2007) on a new website www.castrolindex.com Castrol has created to host the data. Fans visiting the site will be able to see how the players of all the teams rank against each other. It will show who rates as the best goalkeepers, defenders, midfielders, strikers and ultimately teams so far.

“I use statistics in every game,” explains Wenger, who leads a high profile group of Castrol ambassadors, including Ottmar Hitzfeld, Emilio Butragueno and Pierluigi Collina. “I’m a little bit addicted to data. Statistics are like a universal language for football managers and players alike because everybody can use them to make a point - statistics don’t usually lie when it comes to a player or a team’s performance.

“A football match is played by 22 players but you only have two eyes to observe everything so the data available has become critical. The Castrol Performance Index will be very useful for fans because they will no longer just be relying on the views of pundits and presenters. Instead, Castrol will be giving them access to clear graphics and statistics to judge player and team performances objectively.”

Research* of football fans across Europe done by Castrol earlier this year, showed that 60% said their appetite for football performance data and in-depth analysis had increased since the last European Championships in 2004.

“When we started looking at a football property we were made aware of football fans’ increasing appetite for data,” said Vijay Solanki, European Marketing Services Manager. “Data tells the story of the game – of the speed, efficiency and economy of the players.

Analysing it can help to improve performance and that fits very well with the type of approach we’d use to develop different lubricants for motor vehicles.”

“The fans and the media will be better informed than ever.”

* Source: Castrol Football Fans Study 2007

Notes to Editors:

About Castrol’s UEFA EURO 2008™ sponsorship

Castrol’s sponsorship of UEFA EURO 2008™ is the biggest in the company’s 100-year history and an important element of the brand and product range re-launch announced at the Geneva Motor show earlier this year. It will help Castrol modernise its brand to deliver even more powerful and relevant offers for its consumers, which include a simplified product range and new technology benefits.

About the new UEFA Tracking System

The technology was originally used in the aerospace and defence industry to track missile targets before it was developed for use in football.

Next June in every stadium in Austria and Switzerland, two sets of eight cameras are set up three or four hours before the game. They are calibrated to cross each other so that any movement, through image processing, can be picked up on every inch of the pitch. Each individual player is given a code which the cameras can recognise instantly. The system is able to measure things such as:

* Position of all moving objects at any given time
* Player and ball speed
* Distance traveled
* Zonal coverage
* Relationship of players to one another (e.g. to review man to man marking)

www.castrolindex.com

For further information, please contact Caroline Topping, Communications manager

Phone: +44 (1793) 452781
eMail: Caroline.topping@uk.bp.com

About Castrol

1. An overview of Castrol (www.castrol.co.uk) is part of BP and is the market and technical leader for specialised industrial lubricants and automotive lubricants for the retail consumer. Castrol is the market leader in marine lubricants and a key player in the aviation and commercial vehicles market. It is also the third largest marketer of lubricants worldwide.

2. Lubricants manufactured and marketed by Castrol are supplied in more than 130 countries and through local distributors in the rest of the world. The business is concentrated on automotive lubricants, particularly in the consumer sector, but there is also a strong presence in business markets such as commercial vehicle fleets, marine and specialised industrial segments.

3. The first Castrol car lubricant was introduced in 1906 and was named after its castor oil ingredient. The company, which has over 150 subsidiaries, operating in some 55 countries, was purchased by BP in 2000.

4. BP is one of the world's largest energy companies with operations in over 100 countries. Its main activities are exploration and production of crude oil and natural gas; oil refining, marketing and transportation; and gas marketing and power generation. Its Alternative Energy business is actively involved in developing renewable energy, including solar, wind and decarbonised fuels such as hydrogen power generation. The company's current market capitalisation is around $200 billion and it employs around 100,000 people worldwide.

This release was published on openPR.