Depending where you live in the world, this summer’s Euro 2008 tournament will be a true test of your football watching stamina. That’s because sixty four percent of Euro 2008 matches will be televised live on weekdays (with kick-off times
of Noon and/or 2:45pm ET). That 64% includes the majority of first round games, two quarter-final matches and both semi-finals.

If you’re like me, your job gets in the way. Unless you have a super cool boss, you’ll have to resort to calling in sick for the 12 weekdays when Euro 2008 matches are on, or you can record the matches on DVR, hope that no one will tell you the score at work and then try to squeeze in four continuous hours after you get home each night. Unless you plan on hibernating this June, the daily ritual of watching two matches back-to-back could get tiring real fast.

Thankfully there is a solution. It’s called Slingbox.

I first heard about Slingbox a couple of years ago after reading about it on the forums at Big Soccer. At the time, it sounded like a techy device that only geeks could understand. But now that I’ve taken the plunge and got my own Slingbox Pro, I can’t believe how easy it is to use and how long I’ve lived without it. Yes, it’s that good.

Slingbox is a device that allows you to watch your TV set from anywhere in the world. So whether you’re at work, on vacation, at a friend’s house or on the road, you can load the Slingbox player from any computer and watch your TV live including HD programming, too.

For Euro 2008, you can watch live matches from your PC at work. The picture and sound quality is superb. There’s little to no pixellation or video artifacts. You can either watch the games full-screen or size the Slingplayer screen to take up less real estate (so you can continue to work on your desktop, answering emails, etc).

The best part is that when you get home, you’ll have time to enjoy the summertime evenings with your loved ones, or go online to read the analysis of the games you just watched earlier that day.

Setting up Slingbox for the first time is easy. All you have to do is connect your Slingbox, which sits on top of your TV set, to your cable box or DVR. Then just plug the ethernet cable from your Slingbox to your router, switch the power on, run the free Slingplayer software on your computer and you’re done.

To see how easy it is, watch this how to video from CNET:

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Because my big screen TV is downstairs and my router is upstairs in my office, I picked up SlingLink Turbo, which acts as an extension cord for the Internet by using my home’s existing electrical wiring to transfer the ethernet signal from my router to my Slingbox downstairs.

When installing new hardware or software in my house, I almost always encounter problems no matter how easy the marketing on the box says it is. With Slingbox and the SlingLink Turbo, I had everything up and running within 15 minutes and didn’t encounter any issues or problems at all. It was that easy. Slingbox works on PCs as well as Macs.

The other great advantage about Slingbox is that you can also watch your live TV on your mobile phone with Slingbox Mobile. It works on cellphones with Windows Mobile, Palm OS or Symbian cell phones and PDAs. Imagine watching Euro 2008 on your mobile phone!

Later this year, Slingbox plans on launching SlingPlayer Mobile for Blackberry.

Also noteworthy is that Slingbox requires no monthly or annual fee, so once you buy a Slingbox Pro you no longer have to worry about additional costs or hidden fees.

Imagine the possibilities of how Slingbox can free yourself from your TV. Other than television and the Internet, Slingbox is the greatest technological invention ever for soccer/football fans. If you don’t believe me about how amazing Slingbox is, watch this testimonial and you’ll be convinced. Trust me ; )

If you’re interested in learning more about Slingbox, visit the Slingbox Pro page or take advantage of the special offer where Slingbox Pro combined with Slingbox HD Connect is available for $290.93 (including shipping).

If you already have a Slingbox, post your comments below about your experiences with the device.