The UEFA Euro 2012 tournament will be jointly hosted by Poland and Ukraine. The competition is the final one to be 16 teams as the following one in 2016 will increase in size to 24 teams. Poland and Ukraine beat Italy and Croatia/Hungary for the right to host the competition.
The games will basically be split 50/50 between the two hosts. Polish towns to put on games will be Warsaw, Gdansk, Wroclaw and Poznan. The Ukrainian cities will be Kiev, Lviv, Kharkiv and Donetsk.
The final will take place in Kiev which will also host a semi-final. This will be at the Olimpiysky National Sports Complex which after development will be one of the top stadiums and sporting complexes in the world. The new arena in Warsaw is also under construction and promises to be a state of the art arena.
The draw for the competition has already been made and qualifying matches will start just after the 2010 World Cup. All of the nine group winners and the best runner-up will obtain direct entry into the tournament. Following that the other eight runner-up will be drawn into two-legged playoffs.
From Group A you would assume Germany and Turkey would be too resilient with Austria and Belgium being the contenders.
Group B looks to be a three way fight involving Russia, Slovakia and Ireland.
In Group C it looks like it will be a piece of cake for Italy and Serbia. France is the most likely from Group D with Romania looking at the one to take 2nd.
There is a northern European feel to Group E where it should really be Netherlands and Sweden.
Croatia and Greece are the likely challengers by way of Group F as are England and Switzerland for Group G.
From Group H it looks like Portugal and Denmark and last but not least from Group I it would look like Spain and the Czech Republic.
Qualifying ends in October 2011 by which time hype and expectation for the Euro 2012 tournament will be well and truly underway.
Tags: euro 2012, euro 2012 poland, uefa euro 2012, Ukraine euro 2012