The 2012 UEFA European Football Championship, commonly referred to as Euro 2012, was the 14th European Championship for national football teams organized by UEFA. The final tournament was hosted for the first time by Poland and Ukraine, between 8 June and 1 July 2012, after their bid was chosen by UEFA's Executive Committee in 2007. Euro 2012 set the record for both the highest aggregate attendance (1,440,896) and the highest average attendance per game (46,481) under the 16-team format (since 1996).The final tournament featured 16 nations, the last European Championship to do so; from Euro 2016 onward, there will be 24 finalists. Qualification was contested by 51 nations between August 2010 and November 2011 to determine the remaining 14 finalists. The tournament was played across eight venues, four in each host country, five of which were newly built for the tournament. Aside from venues, the host nations have also invested heavily in improving infrastructure, such as railways and roads, at UEFA's request.
In the final match at the Olympic Stadium in Kiev, Ukraine, Spain defended their title with a 4–0 win over Italy. Spain became the first team to win two consecutive European Championships, and the first European international team to win three straight major tournament titles Euro 2008 and 2010 World Cup. Since Spain had already gained entry to the 2013 Confederations Cup by winning the 2010 World Cup, the runners-up Italy qualified. Euro 2012 was the second consecutive European Championship (after Euro 2008 held in Austria and Switzerland) in which neither of the hosts emerged from the group stage, as both Poland and Ukraine were eliminated. Poland–Ukraine became the third successful joint bid for the European Championship, after those of Belgium–Netherlands (2000) and Austria–Switzerland (2008).
Their bid received an absolute majority of votes, and was therefore announced the winner, without requiring a second round. Italy, which received the remaining votes, had been considered favorites to win the hosting, but incidents of fan violence and a match fixing scandal were widely cited as factors behind their failure. The draw for the UEFA Euro 2012 qualifying competition took place in Warsaw on 7 February 2010. Fifty-one teams entered to compete for the fourteen remaining places in the finals, alongside co-hosts Poland and Ukraine. The teams were divided into nine groups, with the draw using the new UEFA national team coefficient for the first time in order to determine the seedings. As defending champions, Spain was automatically top seeded. The qualifying process began in August 2010 and concluded in November 2011. At the conclusion of the qualifying group stage in October 2011, the nine group winners qualified automatically, along with the highest ranked second placed team. The remaining eight second placed teams contested two-legged play-offs, and the four winners qualified for the finals. Alongside Euro 2012 champions Spain, co-hosts Poland and Ukraine have also emerged winners in UEFA's quadrennial championship showpiece event, held for the first time in states.
0 comments:
Post a Comment