Euro 2012 – or, to give it its full title, the 2012 EUFA European Football Championship –
is the 14th championship of its type. It is organised by UEFA for
national football teams and is being hosted by Poland and Ukraine. The dates of
the Euro 2012 tournament are 8th June – 1st July 2012.
This particular EUFA Championship is
notable because neither Poland nor Ukraine has hosted it before. Just like all
the other championships, however, there will be 16 teams taking part. This will
be the last time that happens though, as from the 2016 tournament onwards, 24
finalists will be able to take part.
As most football fans will be able to tell
you, a total of 51 nations took part in the qualifying rounds. These took part
between August 2010 and November 2011
There will be several different host cities
throughout the Euro 2012 tournament. These are Warsaw, Gdansk, Wroclaw, Poznan
and Kiev. As a result of being chosen to host the tournament, much of the
infrastructure in these areas has had to be improved, and three quarters of the
venues being used for Euro 2012 are brand new.
The sixteen teams playing in Euro 2012 are:
Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, England, France, Greece, Italy, Germany,
Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Republic of Ireland, Russia, Spain, Sweden and
Ukraine.
The stadiums being used in Euro 2012 are:
National Stadium in Warsaw, PGE Arena in Gdansk, Municipal Stadium in Wroclaw,
Municipal Stadium in Poznan, Olympic Stadium in Kiev, Donbass Arena in Donetsk,
Metalist Stadium in Kharkiv, and Arena Lviv in Lviv.
There are 12 referees and four fourth
officials who have been named by UEFA to oversee the tournament. There will be
teams of five officials, all from the same country, including the main referee,
two assistant referees and two additional assistant referees.
The Euro 2012 game is split into groups of
countries who will play each other in order to decide who goes through to the
later stages of the championship. Group A consists of Poland, Greece, Russia
and the Czech Republic. Group B includes the Netherlands, Denmark, Germany and
Portugal. Spain, Italy, Republic of Ireland and Croatia make up Group C, while
Ukraine, Sweden, France and England are the teams in Group D.
After the group stages there will be a
knockout phase, where the winners and runners up of each group will play
matches until there are four teams left for the semi-finals. The winners of the
semi-finals will play in the final on 1st July 2012 in Kiev.
UEFA EURO 2012 event calendar
| Date | Event |
| 16/11/2010 | Mascot launch |
| 01/03/2011 | Ticketing sales launch |
| 25, 26, 29/03/2011 | Qualifying matches |
| 03, 04, 07/06/2011 | Qualifying matches |
| 08/06/2011 | One year to kick-off |
| 02, 03, 06/09/2011 | Qualifying matches |
| 07, 08, 11/10/2011 | Qualifying matches |
| 13/10/2011 | Play-off draw |
| 11, 12/11/2011 | Qualifying play-offs |
| 15/11/2011 | Qualifying play-offs |
| 02/12/2011 | Final draw in Kyiv |
| 29/02/2012 | 100 days to kick-off |
| 08/06/2012 | EURO kicks off in Warsaw |
| 01/07/2012 | EURO final in Kyiv |
