2012: European Football Championship. Interesting Facts

In 2012, the European Football Championship was a pretty big event in the sporting life. By the way, "Euro" in the hierarchy of sports events is considered the third most important in the world after the Summer Olympics and the World Cup.

Where did the tournament take place?

For the third time in the history of European championships the tournament was held in two countries - Poland and Ukraine. Preparation of these states for the tournament took place in difficult conditions of the world economic crisis of 2008-2010. Poland quickly coped with its economic problems, so she throughout the period of preparation did not have any problems with UEFA. The Ukrainian side experienced financial and organizational problems, since in 2009 there was no budget financing for infrastructure modernization. In 2010, with the coming to power of President Viktor Yanukovych, all problems were solved, and the country met the deadline for preparation.

2012: European Football Championship. Participating countries

The tournament was attended by teams from 16 European countries. Before the draw of the group stage, which took place in Warsaw in December 2011, the rating teams were divided into 4 groups. The first were: Ukraine and Poland as host countries, as well as Spain and the Netherlands. Composition of the second group: Germany, Italy, England, Russia. In the third group, the teams from Croatia, Greece, Portugal and Sweden came in the draw. From the weakest starting position, the tournament was started by teams from Denmark, France, the Czech Republic and Ireland. The interest of this "Euro" was that the finalists of "Euro-2004" Greece and Portugal in the draw were already in the third group. This indicates that such teams as Spain, Germany, Holland have so raised their rating that they were able to oust Greeks and Portuguese from Olympus.

Stadiums - hosts of the tournament

The organizers of the championship for the matches were chosen by the cities with the most developed tourist infrastructure. In addition, the factor of the presence of a developed sports infrastructure was taken into account, which could be reconstructed if necessary. In each of the countries, 4 cities were chosen. In 2012, the European Football Championship in Poland hosted: Gdansk, Poznan, Wroclaw and Warsaw. Cities - the owners of the Ukrainian part of "Euro-2012" were, in principle, predictable: Kiev, Kharkiv, Donetsk, Lviv.

Let's compare the stadiums in Poland and Ukraine in capacity. The capital's National Stadium of Warsaw can host 58145 fans at its stands. Arena club "Lech" (Poznan) is designed for 41609 fans. In Gdansk, 40,818 people can watch a football match at the same time. Arena in the city of Wroclaw - the second in capacity - 42771. Matches in Ukrainian cities could visit more fans. For example, the NSC "Olympic", which ended the European Football Championship 2012 (final Spain - Italy) holds 70050 people. The second place is occupied by the stadium, where now, due to the armed conflict in Donbass, no matches are held. "Donbass-Arena" accommodates 51,504 people. Kharkov and Lviv stadiums can receive 38,633 and 34,915 fans respectively.

2012: European Championships. Judging errors that prevented Ukraine from withdrawing from the group

All the main mistakes of the judges were held at the group stage of the championship. Probably, we will distinguish three "bloopers", two of which were directed against one of the hosts of the championship - the Ukrainian team. The match of the third round of Ukraine - France, held in Donetsk, dreamed the fans of Ukraine long after its completion. At the 59th minute, an episode occurred that practically put an end to the international career of the famous Hungarian arbitrator Victor Kashshai.

After striker striker at that time Kharkiv "Metalist" Marco Devich ball hit the crossbar of the gate of the British and then dropped to the lawn. The referee considered that the ball hit the grass not behind the goal line, but in the field. All the viewers on the first replay saw that the goal was clear. The match ended with the score 1: 0 in favor of the British, and they bypassed Ukraine in the standings. With a draw result, the Ukrainian team would have reached the quarter finals. In the match Ukraine-France Frenchman Menez rudely broke the rules, speaking against Ruslan Rotan. The violation was drawn to a yellow card (this was later admitted even by the arbitrator from the Netherlands Kuipers), which would have been the second for Jeremy. It is important that 10 minutes after this foul, he scored a goal in Ukraine's goal, opening an account in a duel.

Perhaps, someone was hindered by the Ukrainian team at the later stages of the competition? While watching these two scandalous fights, all the fans got the impression that the arbitrators' mistakes were deliberate, that is, Victor Kashshai and Björn Kuipers had the task to prevent the Ukrainian team from leaving the group.

Soon will begin the "Euro-2016" in France. Let's hope that such errors in the upcoming matches of the continental championship referees will not be allowed.