The tournament was not made for me. That is not a complaint. It is an observation that shapes everything else.
The narratives were European. The pundits were European. The studio sets were arranged with European flags in alphabetical order, ending with Wales and starting with Albania. The advertising was for European companies. The pre-match meals featured in the BBC's lifestyle segments were European dishes. Everything about the production assumed a particular audience, and that audience was not me.
This is not a problem. It is the truth of the event. The Euros are a European tournament. They are not pretending otherwise.
But it raises an interesting question about how I watch. The investment I have in a Spain-Germany quarter-final, or a Netherlands-Turkey, is not national. There is no Algeria here. There is also no flag I am supposed to wave. The matches become pure football, free of national obligation, and that turns out to be a different experience than watching the World Cup.
It is freer. It is lighter. It is also, sometimes, lonelier. Football carries more weight when there is something at stake personally. The Euros do not give me that. They give me football as spectacle, well-produced and well-marketed, with the volume of personal investment turned all the way down.
I enjoyed it. I will enjoy the next one. But I noticed the difference, and the difference is worth naming.