Eurofootball.com is due to launch later in March in time for the soccer frenzy of Euro 2000.

The site will initially cater for English, German, French, Spanish and Italian soccer fans. Eurofootball.com will only have an English-language service at first, though the team behind it said German, French, Spanish and Italian language services would be available by May, with other languages added later in the summer. Although eurofootball.com said in a statement it would serve "Europe_s six major footballing nations," its initial service will bypass the Netherlands, winners of the 1988 European championship and co-hosts of Euro 2000 with Belgium. Dan Josefsberg, acting chief executive officer for eurofootball, admitted the Netherlands and Belgium were too important to miss out. Swedish investment fund IT Provider, a privately-held firm based in Stockholm, provided 98 percent of second round funding for eurofootball.com, raising $4 million. Josefsberg added that the biggest investor in IT Provider is Sweden_s Rausing family, which owns food packaging firm Tetra Pak. Josefsberg also said eurofootball.com was currently in talks with several media partners, with a view to bringing them in as shareholders in the firm. He also said the group was close to appointing the London unit of an investment bank to advise on its future financial strategy.