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Thinking About The UEFA Euro 2012 Tournament

Thursday, June 3rd, 2010

The UEFA Euro 2012 Championships  will be co-hosted by Poland and Ukraine. The event is the last one to be 16 teams as the following one in 2016 will expand to twenty four teams. Poland and Ukraine overcome Italy and Croatia/Hungary for the right to hold the tournament.

 

The matches will basically be split 50/50 between the two hosts. Polish cities to host 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 hold a semi-final. This will be at the Olimpiysky National Sports Complex which after construction will be one of the premier stadia and sporting complexes across the globe. The new venue in Warsaw is also under construction and guarantees to be a state of the art arena.

 

The draw for the competition has already been made and qualifying fixtures will get started following the World Cup in South Africa. Each of the 9 group winners and the best runner-up will obtain direct entry into the competition. Following that the remaining 8 runner-up will be drawn into two-legged playoffs.

 

From Group A you would consider Germany and Turkey would be too good with Austria and Belgium being the contenders.

Group B looks to be a 3 way competition with Russia, Slovakia and Ireland.

 

In Group C it looks like it will be no problem for Italy and Serbia. France is the most likely from Group D with Romania looking at the one to take runner-up.

 

There is a northern European vibe to Group E where it should be Netherlands and Sweden.

 

Croatia and Greece are the likely challengers with regards to Group F as are England and Switzerland for Group G.

 

From Group H it looks like Portugal and Denmark and last of all from Group I it would appear to be Spain and the Czech Republic.

 

Qualifying ends in October 2011 by which time excitement and expectancy for the UEFA Euro 2012 Championships will be well and truly underway.

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Roy Hodgson’s Rise To The Top

Wednesday, May 19th, 2010

Roy Hodgson has confounded the odds by guiding Fulham to the 2010 Europa League final. Italian giants Juventus and holders Shaktar Donetsk were just two of the teams Fulham beat during a memorable campaign.

 

As a player, Hodgson was on the books at Crystal Palace but never made a first team appearance. It was when he moved into management that Hodgson started to make name for himself. The early part of his career was in Sweden with Halmstads, Orebro and Malmo where he won the Swedish league against the odds with Halmstads in 1976 and 1979.

 

From there, Hodgson moved to Switzerland with Neuchatel Xamax before taking over the Swiss national team who he guided to the 1994 World Cup Finals and the 1996 Euro Finals. For the next 2 season, Hodgson was the manager of the Italian giants Internazionale. Inter reached the UEFA Cup Final in 1997 which was Hodgson’s final season as he headed to England with Blackburn Rovers. The move didn’t work out and he was sacked after 18 months.

 

For the next few years, Hodgson held a number of managerial positions but never really settled anywhere for long and in 2005, he took over the Finnish national team and took them tantalisingly close to the Euro 2008 finals.

 

At the end of 2007, Fulham offer Hodgson the managers job as at the time, they were struggling in the Premier League and needed a change of direction. Hodgson worked his magic as Fulham stayed up and the following season qualified for the UEFA Europa League by finishing 7th.

 

Fulham’s first season in Europe has been nothing short of spectacular. They have not had an easy route playing the holders, Juventus and the German champions on the way. Now, Atheltico Madrid stand in their way of glory in the final in Hamburg.

 

But what next for Roy Hodgson?  There is no doubt that his influence on Fulham will not have gone unnoticed. The England job has been mentioned but at present, Fabio Capello is doing an excellent job and will be in charge for some time. Perhaps it is a bit more realistic to think that Hodgson could well take over the English national team after the Euro 2012 finals.

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Who Will Qualify From Group G For Euro 2012?

Tuesday, May 18th, 2010

Every team will be desperate to qualify for the UEFA Euro 2012 Championships. In total there are nine groups. The best runner-up will join the nine group winners in the tournament. Following that the other eight runner-up will be drawn into two-legged playoffs. 

One of the main groups of interest in Group G which contains England, Switzerland, Bulgaria, Wales and Montenegro. As the seeded team, England will be favourites to finish top of the group. But having said that, they did miss qualification for the last tournament. 

The main competition will come from Switzerland and Bulgaria. Switzerland have qualified for three of the last four European Championships but not once have they made it past the opening round. They actually co-hosted the last tournament with Austria. They are a solid team without being anything special.  

Bulgaria have only qualified for the tournament twice, the last of which was in 2004. They have never progressed past the group stage. They used to be a regular at the World Cup attending every one from 1962 to 1974 and then in 1986 and 1994 where it finished fourth. That last time is was back was 1988. 

Its big name players are Stiliyan Petrov who plays for Aston Villa and Dimitar Berbatov who plays for Manchester United.  

Wales only previous experience with this tournament was in 1976 and that was when it using a completely different format. The eight group winners of which Wales was one were drawn into two-legged playoffs and those winners went through to the finals which were in Yugoslavia. They were the team that beat Wales in the playoffs. This was the last time Wales was in a major international tournament and it’s hard to see that change now. 

Montenegro is only three years old. It used to be part of Yugoslavia and then Serbia and Montenegro. They will struggle to do well in the Euro 2012 Group G.

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Euro 2012 Qualifying Fixtures Decided By UEFA

Wednesday, April 14th, 2010

The Euro 2012 draw caused great excitement amongst the fans. Supporters started to think of the new destinations they will travel to during their teams qualifying path to the Euro 2012 finals in Poland and Ukraine.

Supporters couldn’t make their travel plans until the dates of the qualifying matches were confirmed. In the first instance, the teams in the 9 qualifying groups were to hold a meeting to attempt to sort out the fixtures. The countries are free to chose the fixture dates from a list of international dates between September 2010 and October 2011.

Within weeks of the Euro 2012 Qualifying draw being made, meetings were being held all round Europe and in five of the nine groups, fixtures were agreed which meant supporters could start making their travel plans. For the countries of the four remaining groups, the fixtures were decided by UEFA. Among the teams who didn’t agree fixtures were both England and Republic of Ireland who enjoy huge travelling support. Consequently, loyal supporters had to wait a little longer to make their travel plans. Such delays only served to increase the anticipation and the more cynical supporters believed it was also an excuse for the officials of the various football associations to have another all expenses trip to Tel Aviv.

The countries from the four unresolved groups headed to Tel Aviv to await their fate at the hands of UEFA. The procedure was quite simple. UEFA have a standard fixture list with fixtures such as A v B on a specific dates. All that was left to do was to draw the teams from each group into a letter thus giving the set of fixtures for the remaining four Euro 2012 Qualifying groups. Supporters could start planning their trips at last.

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