Euro 2004 divides 'team-mates' Biaggi, Schumacher.

While Max Biaggi and Michael Schumacher may be just a little busy elsewhere during the forthcoming Euro 2004 Football Championships, they will be paying more than a passing interest on the results from group C and D.

The stars from two and four-wheels are at the pinnacle of their chosen professions but deep down behind those darkened helmet visors, both would have loved to displayed their talents on the international football stage.

Between them Biaggi and Schumacher (middle pic) have won an amazing ten world titles and 116 grands prix races, but it's their great love of football that has forged a partnership in the midfield engine room of a very special team.

In 1981 Formula One star Riccardo Patrese together with Sporting Director Mario di Natale created the World Drivers Association for Solidarity, which included setting up a drivers and riders football team to play in charity matches. Over 20 years later both Biaggi and Schumacher arrive boots in hand whenever possible to form that formidable partnership with a few others lending a helping hand.

"I play on the right side of midfield, the same position I played when I was a kid in my local team," explained Biaggi, who was far more interested in football until a trip to the Vallelunga circuit near his home town of Rome fired his enthusiasm for two wheels when he was 17-years-old. "I gel best in that midfield with Michael Schumacher and Giancarlo Fisichella together with Giorgio Pantano because they are all extremely skilful and play very well."

Biaggi, who also plays for the MotoGP riders team (lower pic) in their annual fixture for the Riders For Health charity on the eve of the German Grand Prix at the Sachsenring, can see no better and enjoyable way of raising money .

"I've been playing for around ten years and the idea appealed to me immediately because of its total transparency and immediacy, given that it wasn't the normal way of doing things," recalled Biaggi. "It was more of an impersonal way to do something for good causes. but it required a direct and long term involvement and the results were there to see. They were tangible and concrete and at the end of every evening you knew that a certain amount would be passed to various charities. Meanwhile it also involved my second great passion after motorcycles: soccer."

Many charities have benefited from the football matches but it's the game in Italy last year that was so special to Biaggi and his family.

"One of the games that moved me most was when we played in Latina last year," explained the four times 250cc World Champion. "The Francioni stadium was a 10,000 sell-out and the game was dedicated to the association for the fight against Leukaemia. It was the association set up by my cousin Fiorella and myself in honour of Andrea, his son and my cousin, who was unable to win his battle against the disease."

However, finding free weekends for both car drivers and motorcycle riders can be difficult:

"Playing has always been a great experience for me and I have taken part in all the matches that don't clash with the MotoGP World Championship," said Biaggi. "As Onlus was borne out of the F1 Drivers Association it tends to follow the four-wheel calendar rather than that of MotoGP, so a lot of times their free Sundays are exactly the same as we race on."

It's not only Biaggi who's prepared to put on the boots in the MotoGP paddock; world champion Valentino Rossi played for his fan club in Mugello last week while the likes of
Carlos Checa, Alex Barros and Jeremy McWilliams are regular members of the Riders For Health team. One person they've not managed to persuade to play for them is a certain owner of a 125cc Grand Prix team, who like themselves is pretty busy at the moment...

Dutch International Clarence Seedorf is a regular visitor to the grands prix after investing a good deal of his time and money into setting up his own 125cc team. However, he hopes to give the Dutch TT at Assen a miss this year. Instead of watching young Spaniards Hector Barbera and Alvaro Bautista perform on their 125cc Aprilias he would like to be in Portugal preparing for a Euro 2004 quarter final tie. If Holland did not qualify he could just be back for the first 125cc qualifying session on Thursday afternoon.

The tournament kicks off in Portugal on Saturday evening, just a few hours after final qualifying for the Grand Prix of Catalunya has finished in Barcelona. As the tournaments unfolds, both MotoGP and Formula One paddocks will be split into patriotic factions.

Biaggi could be back in his Monaco home to watch all three of Italy's games in group C while Schumacher could rush back from the Canadian Grand Prix to watch all Germany's games in group D. If both Italy and Germany qualify for the later stages, the quarter, semi and final, it's Schumacher who'll be laughing.

If Italy reach the final, Biaggi will be in Brazil at the Rio Grand Prix while if Germany are successful, Schumacher will be in France where television coverage of the European Championship will be a lot easier to find than in Latin America.

Whatever the outcome both Max Biaggi and Michael Schumacher will be entertaining millions of fans world-wide on their chosen sporting stage, while casting more than an envious glance on another sporting arena at Lisbon in Portugal.