The 2012 UEFA European Football Championship, commonly referred to as Euro 2012, will be the 14th European Championship for national football teams sanctioned by UEFA. The final tournament will be hosted by Poland and Ukraine between 8 June and 1 July 2012.
The joint Poland/Ukraine bid was chosen by UEFA's Executive Committee on 18 April 2007, in Cardiff, Wales.[1] This bid defeated the other shortlisted bids from Italy and Croatia/Hungary, becoming the third successful joint bid for the European Championship, after those of Belgium/Netherlands (2000) and Austria/Switzerland (2008).
Host selection
Bid process
The organisation of the event was initially contested by five bids representing seven countries: Croatia/Hungary (joint bid), Greece, Italy, Poland/Ukraine (joint bid), and Turkey.
On 8 November 2005, UEFA's Executive Committee whittled the candidates down to a short list of three:
On 31 May 2006 all three bids completed the second phase of the process by submitting more detailed dossiers, before UEFA conducted site visits to candidate countries in September.The final decision was due to be announced on 8 December 2006 in Nyon but this was postponed to "give bidding associations more time for the fine-tuning of their bids".
The hosts were eventually chosen on 18 April 2007 in Cardiff, Wales by a vote of the members of the UEFA Executive Committee. Owing to their affiliation with associations bidding to host the competition, two of its 14 members were not permitted to vote.In the first of potentially two rounds of voting, each member had one vote (a total of 12 votes were therefore cast).
The Poland/Ukraine bid received an absolute majority of 8 votes, and was therefore announced the winner without requiring a second round. Italy received the remaining four votes, while the Croatia/Hungary bid failed to win a single vote.
Other candidates
Croatia and Hungary
Hungary was bidding for the third time consecutively after failing to win either the Euro 2004 or the Euro 2008 bid. It teamed up with Croatia after its previous partner, Austria, opted to unite with Switzerland to (successfully) bid to host Euro 2008. Neither of the two countries had ever hosted similar major tournaments.
The following cities were proposed by the Hungarian Football Federation and the Croatian Football Federation:
Croatia: Osijek, Rijeka, Split, Zagreb
Hungary: Budapest, Debrecen, Győr, Székesfehérvár
Italy
Italy was the most experienced of all the bidding nations, having already twice hosted the European Championship (in 1968 and 1980), and the FIFA World Cup (in 1934 and 1990). Although it topped the initial vote in 2005, the 2006 Serie A scandal and the football-related violence in Catania, which led to the death of police officer Filippo Raciti and revealed safety deficiencies in many stadia, may have damaged its standing.
The following venues were proposed by the Italian Football Federation:
Background
Readiness concerns
In January 2008, UEFA president Michel Platini went on the record to warn the organisers of the need to avoid "critical slippages" in their preparations,[8] prompting Scotland to reportedly inform UEFA that they would be willing to step in as hosts,[9] which they reiterated again later in the year.[10] However, by June 2008, UEFA stated they were "not discussing any plan B in terms of new countries" hosting.
Nonetheless, Ukraine reported several problems which threatened their co-hosting: delays in the renovation of Kiev’s Olympic Stadium, and difficulties funding infrastructure work after the economic crisis struck. After an inspection in April 2009, Platini re-affirmed that Ukraine would remain co-host but hinted that most matches could go to Poland.[14] The Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk stated his country would be capable of this task, but was committed to the original 4 + 4 host city plan,as was the Polish FA.
Poland's one major incident occurred in late September 2008, when its government suspended the PZPN (Polish FA) over corruption issues and assigned an administrator. UEFA swiftly issued a letter warning that it risked losing the right to co-host, which resulted in the government yielding.Preparation work proceeded more speedily than in Ukraine and, following a visit in April 2009, Platini announced that all was on track and he saw no major problems.The following month, UEFA confirmed the appointment of the Polish cities of Warsaw, Poznań, Wrocław and Gdańsk.At the same meeting, a appeal for delayed decision on the Ukrainian venues was granted to Lviv, Donetsk and Kharkiv in order to meet specific conditions regarding infrastructure, with a warning that only Kiev and the best prepared city of the other candidates would otherwise be used if issues were not resolved by the end of November.
In September 2009 Platini announced that "Ukraine has made sudden progress in their efforts to stage the tournament",and it was soon confirmed that their four cities (Donetsk, Kharkiv, Kiev and Lviv) would host matches. Kiev was also confirmed to host the Final.
However, an interview Platini gave to the German FA in May 2010, suggesting that Germany and Hungary could even replace Ukraine unless improvements were made, cast new doubt on their readiness. But by August, Platini seconded that and stated "You can consider that the ultimatum no longer exists",and that he was optimistic about preparations in both countries and saw no major obstacles.
Venues
Apart from Donetsk and Kharkiv, the host cities are all popular tourist destinations. The bid plans the expansion and modernisation of roads and highways.The obligatory improvement of the football infrastructure includes the building of new stadiums: Six of the eight venues are brand new stadia currently being constructed ready to open in advance of the tournament; the remaining two (in Poznań and Kharkiv) have undergone major renovation work to improve them.Three of the stadia will fulfill the criteria of UEFA's highest category stadiums.
Former candidates
The following venues were also considered but fell out of the running as a result of the UEFA meeting on 13 May 2009.
Participation
Euro 2012 will feature 16 national teams, as has been the format since 1996. Many European football associations were in favour of expanding the tournament to 24 teams due to the much-increased number of UEFA members in recent years (53 in April 2006 compared to 33 before the break up of the Soviet Union and of Yugoslavia).However, on 17 April 2007, UEFA's Executive Committee formally decided against an expansion for 2012. A later vote in September 2008 decided that the European Championship will indeed be expanded to 24 teams beginning with Euro 2016.
Qualification
The draw for the UEFA Euro 2012 qualifying round took place in Warsaw on 7 February 2010.[38] This was the first time the new UEFA national team coefficient was used for seeding the teams. The qualifying draw determined the makeup of nine groups. Nine groups were formed in the qualifying draw including six sections of six sides and three of five, as 51 teams chase 14 finals places alongside co-hosts Poland and Ukraine. The seeding pots are formed on the basis of the UEFA national team coefficient ranking system, finalised after the completion of FIFA World Cup qualifying, with the reigning European champions automatically top seeded. All groups contained one nation from the first five pots and six sections also included a team from Pot 6.
Qualified teams
Matches
Group Stage
Miscellany
Logo and slogan
The official logo for the competition was unveiled at a special event at Mykhailivska Square, Kiev, on 14 December 2009. It takes its visual identity from Wycinanki, the traditional art of paper cutting practised in Poland and rural areas of Ukraine. The art form symbolises the nature of the rural areas of Poland and Ukraine.[39][40] As part of the event, landmark buildings in the eight host cities were illuminated with the tournament logo.[41] The competition slogan, "Creating History Together" (Polish: Razem tworzymy przyszłość, Ukrainian: Творимо історію разом / Tvorymo istoriyu razom), was announced along with the logo. The slogan reflects the fact that Poland and Ukraine represent the easternmost host nations in European Championship history.
Tickets
Tickets for the tournament will be on sale from Spring 2011. Individual match tickets will be offered as well as team series for each of the 16 participating sides. It is already possible to register an e-mail address to be informed about the start of the ticket sales.
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