Poland and Ukraine pip Italy to host Euro 2012

[littlelol]

Poland and Ukraine host Euro 2012

Poland and Ukraine have been chosen to host the 2012 European Championships.
Italy were widely expected to win the Uefa vote in Cardiff, with another joint bid from Croatia and Hungary also in the running.

However, Italy's bid was overshadowed by last season's referee corruption scandal and their on-going problems with football-related crowd trouble.

It will be the first time that either Poland or Ukraine have hosted a major football championship.

"Finally, the big event is going to the countries which have had no opportunities to improve football," said Polish Football Association chairman Michal Listkiewicz.

"This big tournament will be a milestone in the common history of two Slavic nations."

Poland and Ukraine's bid team staged an impressive presentation on Tuesday, featuring Chelsea striker Andriy Shevchenko, Liverpool keeper Jerzy Dudek as well as boxer Vitali Klitschko, former Olympic champion Sergei Bubka and Ukraine president Victor Yushchenko.

Nonetheless, the bid was still considered the outsider of the three, partly because of a recent match-fixing scandal in Poland.

The Polish government has also been warned by Uefa and Fifa about political interference in the country's football governing body.

Nigel Adderley, BBC Five Live's reporter in Cardiff, said: "It's a massive slap in the face to Italian football. The complete outsiders will host Euro 2012, and Italy are beaten. "Michel Platini looked shocked when he announced the decision.

"Only last night, members of the Uefa executive committee seemed to be saying they would go for a safe pair of hands.

"They were hinting that although Italy has had problems, they still felt it is place that can develop a tournament and has the experience."

Uefa chief executive Platini is known to be keen to redress the balance of power in football throughout Europe and he appears to be supported by Uefa's 14-man executive committee.

According to Uefa sources, Poland and Ukraine won in the first round of voting with eight of the 12 votes while four went to Italy and none to Croatia and Hungary.

It will be first time the former eastern bloc has hosted the tournament since Yugoslavia in 1976.

Games will be played in four Ukrainian cities (Dnipropetrovsk, Donetsk, Kiev and Lviv) and six Polish venues (Gdansk, Krakow, Poznan, Warsaw, Wroclaw and Chorzow).

Kiev's Olympic Stadium, used to host football at the 1980 Moscow Olympics, is the proposed venue for the final.

The tournament will feature 16 teams, although Uefa is looking into increasing that to 24 from 2016 onwards.

[bobandbill]

Great news from my point of view as I am an Polish-Australian.
Shows that Italy's recent scandels and corruption probably costed them the hosting rights.

[Andy]

bobandbill said:

Great news from my point of view as I am an Polish-Australian.
Shows that Italy's recent scandels and corruption probably costed them the hosting rights.

That'd be the only reason that they didn't get it. However the comp is still 5 years away though, that's alot of time for them to fix all their problems up.

[Jesus]

Italy has some dodgy stadiums. Would have been good to get some of these fixed up, although with italy suggesting it be entirely funded by private enterprise, may have made for some uncertainty.
There is currently social unrest in ukraine, which made me think might hamper its chances, but nice to see it go east IMO

[forzamariners]

Yeah good to see some Eastern Bloc countries holding it

[~Floss~]

If the benefit is improvement to the host's facilities and world-wide exposure, i'd rather see it go to poland/ukraine.
Surely italian clubs/stadia have the money/sponsorship/crowds/tv audience to justify upgrades if genuinely needed. more so than ukraine and poland, anyway.

[bobandbill]

Poland defientely need some new staduims... and the fans there love their football too.

[Jesus]

More than stadiums. Pol/ukr need alot of infrastructure improvements. Alot will be partially funded by the EU. Italy should not need those same improvements, and if it does, then it is the governments problem since it sits somewhat better off than the eastern bloc.

This is a big step towards better intergration in the EU, and especially the economies of those 2 nations. Young people have been fleeing both nations in droves as jobs are just too hard to come by. This will create jobs, and industries will come for the cheaper labour once the infrastructure of highways, airports etc is there for them. Hence creating a stronger europe.

Ofcourse their are footballing benefits too

[~Floss~]

Yeah, i think that's kind of what i was trying to say. reading back over it, however, i think it could probably be interpereted the other way round.
i think my point was that if italy really "needed" (read: wanted) the improved infrastructure, i'm sure they'd find the means without an event like this as an excuse. Poland and ukraine however, would not.