As The European Football Championships is due to start on Friday, the latest addition to the Ukraine's squad is a psychic pig called Krhyak, who made his debut to footie fans in Kiev where the final match is due to be played next month.

The porky tipster will be wheeled out to give daily forecasts once the tournament kicks off. He is among an array of 'psychic' animals that have been chosen to predict the outcomes of the Euro 2012 football matches. There is Citta the elephant in Krakow, Poland and Fred the Ferret in Kharkiv, Ukraine. The original and some may say best' psychic animal' is of course the legendary, Paul the Octopus, who rose to fame in the 2010 World Cup.

A spokeswoman for the Kiev 2012 fanzone explained in Russian just what the pig's football and psychic credentials are

"He really likes people, he enjoys interacting with them, not to mention he likes football. He reacts well to soccer balls, watches matches with his owner, he likes television, and we checked over two weeks his ability to predict outcomes of local and international matches and well… he has a psychic ability, we would not have taken him otherwise. We'll see how accurate he is in just a few days"

And as we all know, the world of modern football is a cut throat industry with big money at stake, so what could be the outcome for Krhyak if he makes a wrong psychic prediction? Well- rest assured the pig's unique charm has earned him the full support of the Euro 2012 staff who have promised to secure him a long happy life, far- from the butcher's shop.

Written and Presented by Ann Salter