To celebrate the arrival of the Euro 2008 championships, we look at each of the nations in turn and their connections, tenuous or otherwise, with Bristol Rovers.

On several occasions over the past three decades England have faced crucial World Cup games against Poland. There are, however, a few tenuous links between Poland and Bristol Rovers.

Alan Ball, a terrier-like midfield dynamo in the England side and latterly for Rovers, was sent off in June 1973 when playing against Poland in Chorzow. He became only the second England player to be shown a red card, Alan Mullery having been the first; there have now been ten such occasions. Ball was to sign for Rovers in January 1983 and he played in seventeen Division Three games, scoring twice.

As long ago as February 1952, Northampton Town fielded Felix Staroscik, born in Poland in May 1920, in their side that defeated Rovers 2-0.

Fairly recently, a Polish-born striker scored for Yeovil Town on Rovers' League Two visit to Huish Park. Bartosz Tarachulski's 72nd-minute header, adding to Phil Jevons' hat-trick, condemned Rovers to a 4-2 defeat in February 2005. Tarachulski, previously on the books of Gornik Zabrze, Polonia, Ruch Chorzow and Widzew Lodz, was born in Gliwice in May 1975. He had also appeared as a substitute in the Yeovil side restricted to a 2-2 draw by nine-man Rovers in the exciting fixture at the Memorial Stadium in October 2004.

One feature of the disappointing 1992-93 relegation season was the 4-0 home win against Bristol City at Twerton Park in December 1992. The City side that day included Dariusz "Jackie" Dziekanowski, a former Legia Warsaw striker, who was born in Warsaw in September 1962.

Three other Poles have opposed Rovers in recent months. The utterly unpronounceable Przemyslaw Kazimierczak, formerly of LKS Lodz, played in goal for Accrington Stanley against Rovers in March 2007. Jaroslaw Fojut was in the Luton Town side that played at the Memorial Stadium on Boxing Day 2007 and Marek Saganowski, a former Legia Warsaw player who has sixteen full caps for Poland, was in the Southampton side that visited for an FA Cup fifth-round tie in February 2008.

Zbigniew "Detsi" Kruszynski, born in Germany of Polish parentage, played for Brentford against Rovers in 1992-93. Pawel Abbott, born in York of Polish parents, played for LKS Lodz in 2000-01 and has since played against Rovers for both Bury and Huddersfield Town.
Finally, George Poland (1913-1988), a Welshman, was in goal for the Cardiff City side that defeated Rovers 3-1 in Division Three (South) in March 1937.