In better times, talk about Spain, Greece, Ireland and Portugal would focus on the performance of their respective football teams in the Euro 2012 championship at this time of year.

Instead, unusually, the football teams are competing for the spotlight with more serious – although football fans may disagree – economic matters.

A number of potentially significant developments are occurring while the championship takes place, including the eurozone’s agreement to provide a loan of up to €100 billion to Spain to shore up its banking sector.

The amount is significant – perhaps even surprising – but so far, the Spanish government is seeking to downplay what is happening.

It has studiously avoided drawing parallels with the bailout agreements reached with Greece, Ireland and Portugal, emphasising that the agreement – which is yet to be finalised – would not impose spending cuts or austerity measures.

Instead, it has portrayed it largely as an achievement, spinning its decision to seek rescue funds as a positive event, perhaps to convey an image of normalcy.

But Spaniards do not appear to be particularly convinced, and Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy’s decision to travel to Poland to watch his country’s football team play Italy hours after the agreement was reached drew particular criticism. Opposition leader Alfredo Perez Rubalcaba noted that the government was apparently trying to convince the country that it had won the lottery.

Furthermore, the Spanish government’s repeated insistence that the conditions attached to the agreement are lighter than those attached to the bailouts for Greece, Portugal and Ireland are hardly expected to go down well in those countries, and may even fuel popular sentiment that these agreements were unjustly harsh.

This is particularly problematic in Greece, where the second general election in as many months will take place next Sunday. The most political parties will agree to is a revised agreement which softens terms to allow for economic growth: Other parties have boosted their popularity by rejecting the agreement outright.

The outcome of the election remains to be seen, but at its worst, it can make the Spanish government’s self-declared triumph effectively irrelevant.

Greece is being warned that the country will either stick to its deeply unpopular commitments or default on its debts, starting a course which would see it depart from the eurozone

The Spanish rescue package will considerably hike Spanish debt considerably, pushing the level closer to levels deemed unsustainable, as is the case in Greece. Since the country’s economy is expected to worsen further before it improves – the government noted that previous economic predictions for 2012 remain unchanged – the threat of the need for further assistance may not be ruled out.

As the eurozone’s fourth largest economy, however, Spain may prove to be a bit too large to rescue if its financial situation deteriorates further. Complicating matters further are fears that the third-largest eurozone economy – Italy – may need assistance if it continues facing economic stagnation and crippling debt levels.

Whatever happens, EU leaders will have their work cut out for them when a European Council meeting takes place at the end of the month. In the meantime, the best news those in crisis-hit countries can hope for, arguably, is that their football team performs well in Poland and Ukraine.