Tracy Griffiths, Stephen Mills and Dan Grant become armchair football pundits.
Euro 2016 kicks off on June 10 and all eyes are on a seemingly rejuvenated England team to bring home some silverware.
To get into the football spirit, all this week The Source will be giving some industry names the chance to be armchair pundits, picking their tournament winners, top scorers and surprises, all with a licensing twist of course.
Today – Tracy Griffiths from FremantleMedia Kids & Family, Watermelon’s Stephen Mills and Dan Grant from Danilo.
Tracy Griffiths, vp licensing & consumer products EMEA & Australia, FremantleMedia Kids & Family
Tournament winners? France
Player everyone will be talking about? Kevin De Bruyne (Belgium)
Surprise of the tournament? I hope England, but I’m going to go with Italy.
England’s chances? I hope for at least the semi final but I’m going for the knock outs.
Which licensed character would you play in the England team? Danger Mouse – the world’s greatest secret agent could retrieve all the secrets and surprises the opposition have planned for England, plus no defender would catch him with his pace.
Stephen Mills, commercial & licensing director, Watermelon
Tournament winners? I have to go with Germany.
Player everyone will be talking about? Youri Tielemans (Belgium)
Surprise of the tournament? Italy don’t qualify from their group – the Belgians and Swedes will both do enough to block them out.
England’s chances? I’d love them to win, but with Spain likely in the semi finals, I’m not sure they’ll be able to stop the Tiki-Taka.
Which licensed character would you play in the England team? Wile E Coyote – it doesn’t matter how hard and how many times he’s hit or even falls off a cliff, he never stops chasing his goal.
Dan Grant, senior licensing manager, Danilo
Tournament winners? I obviously hope England can win it, but I think that France will be tough to beat, especially as they have home advantage. Although I think Belgium will win as they have so much talent in their squad.
Player everyone will be talking about? Dele Alli (England)
Surprise of the tournament? Iceland
England’s chances? Semi finals and then dramatically crash out.
Which licensed character would you play in the England team? I would put Jabba the Hutt in goal, as he would fill it and stop anyone from scoring.
This feature originally appeared in the Summer 2016 edition of Licensing Source Book. Click here to read the full publication.
