They said it would be cruel to keep Paul in permanent confinement. Sea Life Centres responded that it would be dangerous to release him, because he was born in captivity, and was not accustomed to finding food for himself.

Sealife rejected the offer nevertheless. Each container was marked with the flag of a team, one the flag of Germany, and the other the flag of Germany's opponent.

The box which Paul opened first and ate its contents was deemed to be the predicted winner of the match.

Professor Chris Budd, of the University of Bath , and Professor David Spiegelhalter, of Cambridge University , have both compared Paul's apparent success to a run of luck when tossing a coin.

This feat would be unlikely to happen by chance alone, but not hugely so. Spiegelhalter points out that there are "other animals that have attempted but failed to predict the outcome of football matches"; it is not remarkable that one animal is more successful than the others, and only the successful animals will gain public attention after the fact.

There was discussion as to whether differences in flags design could have influenced Paul [12] [13] [14] [15] despite Octopus vulgaris being almost certainly colour blind [16] , or whether he could have been choosing boxes based on differences in their smell.

He failed to predict their defeats by Croatia in the group stage, [18] and by Spain in the championship's final. Paul's accurate choices for the World Cup, broadcast live by German news channel n-tv , endowed him with celebrity status.

His prediction that Argentina would lose prompted Argentine chef Nicolas Bedorrou to post an octopus recipe on Facebook.

There are always people who want to eat our octopus but he is not shy and we are here to protect him as well. He will survive. Paul correctly predicted the outcome of the semi-final, by choosing the food in the box marked with the Spanish flag.

Paul's notoriety attracted criticism from the President of Iran , Mahmoud Ahmadinejad , who accused him of being a symbol of Western decadence and decay.

Doubts were expressed as to whether it was actually the same octopus in as it had been in Some other German oracles did not fare so well in the World Cup.

The animals at the Chemnitz Zoo were wrong on all of Germany's group-stage games, with Leon the porcupine picking Australia, Petty the pygmy hippopotamus spurning Serbia's apple-topped pile of hay , and Anton the tamarin eating a raisin representing Ghana.

Mani the parakeet of Singapore became famous for correctly predicting the results of all four quarter-final matches.

Mani contradicted Paul by picking the Netherlands to win the final, resulting in some media outlets describing the game as an "octopus-versus-parakeet showdown".

Paul was last checked by staff on 25 October , and was in good health, but the following morning he was found dead. He was aged two-and-a-half, a normal lifespan for the species.

His agent, Chris Davies, said "It's a sad day. Paul was rather special but we managed to film Paul before he left this mortal earth".

Sea Life Centre manager Stefan Porwoll remembered Paul as an octopus who had "enthused people across every continent". A Chinese thriller film Kill Octopus Paul depicts Paul's predictions as being part of an international match-fixing scheme.

He was represented as in heaven, perched on a billowy bed of clouds and adorned with a halo; when animated, he appeared to vacillate in his predictions for the day's matches.

In that doodle, clicking on the clouds in the upper left brings up an image of Paul, similar to that in the earlier doodle, "cheering" on the final from heaven.

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Friday 20 September. Pool A Match 1. Japan JPN. Russia RUS. No prediction made. Saturday 21 September.

Pool D Match 2. Australia AUS. Fiji FIJ. Pool C Match 3. France FRA. Argentina ARG. Pool B Match 4. New Zealand NZL. South Africa RSA. Sunday 22 September.

Pool B Match 5. Make use of the joker in each group to make the enjoyment even more fun. Only registered players can create predictions, join or create leagues.

Players can be members of multiple leagues. Check out these screenshots to see how the site will look during the tournament. There will be no automatic qualifiers, with all the nations with host cities required to earn their place at the finals.

Every qualified host would be guaranteed two home games in the group phase, but there would be no such guarantee for the knockout phase.

The top two in each of the six final tournament groups will proceed to the round of 16 along with the four best third-placed finishers.

It is scheduled to take place across Europe from 11 June to 11 July The final will be played in London. UEFA Euro Screenshots Check out these screenshots to see how the site will look during the tournament.

Predictor Rules You will receive 3 points for a correct score. You will receive 1 point for a correct result.

Jokers applied to a game will double the points. Jokers can be used once per group. Your prediction for the Knockout phase will include extra time, but not penalties.