Europe Soccer Games Get “Oracle Hog” to Predict Wins

Championship organizers hope the pig will garner the popular attention that Paul the octopus did at the 2010 World Cup

Forget rankings and coin tosses. A psychic pig is the latest tool European soccer tournament organizers intend to use to predict who wins matches, Reuters reported.

Those behind the Euro 2012 championships said they had found "a unique oracle hog, a real Ukrainian pig and a psychic which knows the mysteries of football" to deliver daily predictions during the games come June, according to Reuters.

The pig follows in the tentacle-steps of Paul, the now-dead octopus employed to predict results of World Cup 2010 matches.

A statement by city officials in Kiev, Ukraine — where many of the Euro 2012 matches will take place — said the pig would predict the winner of the upcoming match every day at 4 p.m., Reuters noted.

They said they hoped the animal would drum up public interest in the games in the same way Paul did two years ago.

Ukraine has been under international pressure leading into the games over its treatment of imprisoned opposition leader Yulia Tymoshenko.

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