In 2012, the European Football Championship was a pretty big event in sports life. By the way, “Euro” in the hierarchy of sporting events is considered the third most important in the world after the Summer Olympics and the World Cup.
Where was the tournament held?
For the third time in the history of European Championships, the tournament was held in two countries - Poland and Ukraine. The preparation of these states for the tournament took place in the difficult conditions of the global economic crisis of 2008-2010. Poland quickly dealt with its economic problems, therefore, during the entire period of preparation, it did not have any problems with UEFA. The Ukrainian side experienced financial and organizational problems, since in 2009 there was no budget funding for infrastructure modernization. In 2010, when President Viktor Yanukovych came to power, all problems were resolved, and the country met the deadlines for preparation.
2012: European Football Championship. Member countries
The tournament was attended by national teams of 16 European countries. Before the group stage draw, which took place in Warsaw in December 2011, the rating teams were divided into 4 groups. The first hit: Ukraine and Poland as the organizing countries, as well as Spain and the Netherlands. The composition of the second group: Germany, Italy, England, Russia. The third group at the draw included teams from Croatia, Greece, Portugal and Sweden. The teams from Denmark, France, the Czech Republic and Ireland started the tournament with the weakest starting position. The interest of this Euro was that the finalists of Euro 2004 Greece and Portugal were already in the third group during the draw. This suggests that teams such as Spain, Germany, Holland have raised their rating so much that they were able to oust the Greeks and Portuguese from Olympus.
Stadiums - the hosts of the tournament
The organizers of the championship for the matches chose the city 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 country, 4 cities were selected. In 2012, the European Football Championship in Poland was hosted by: Gdansk, Poznan, Wroclaw and Warsaw. The host cities of the Euro 2012 Ukrainian part were, in principle, predictable: Kiev, Kharkov, Donetsk, Lviv.
Compare the stadiums of Poland and Ukraine in capacity. The capital's national stadium in Warsaw can host 58,145 fans in its stands. Arena club "Lech" (Poznan) is designed for 41609 fans. In Gdansk, 40,818 people can watch a football match simultaneously. Arena in Wroclaw - the second largest in capacity - 42771. Matches in Ukrainian cities could be visited by more fans. For example, the NSC Olimpiyskiy, at which the European Football Championship 2012 ended (Spain-Italy final) accommodates 70,050 people. The second place is occupied by the stadium, where matches are not held now because of the armed conflict in the Donbass. The Donbass Arena seats 51,504 people. Kharkiv and Lviv stadiums can host 38633 and 34915 fans, respectively.
2012: European Championship. Judicial mistakes that prevented Ukraine from leaving the group
All the main errors of the judges took place at the group stage of the championship. Probably, we will single out three “mistakes”, two of which were directed against one of the hosts of the championship - the national team of Ukraine. The match of the third round, Ukraine - France, held in Donetsk, was dreamed by fans of Ukraine long after its completion. In the 59th minute, an episode occurred that practically put an end to the international career of the famous Hungarian referee Viktor Kashshai.
After striking a striker at that time, Kharkiv Metalist Marko Devic, the ball hit the crossbar of the English goal and after that fell to the lawn. The referee considered that the ball hit the grass not in the goal line, but in the field. All viewers in the first replay saw that the goal was clean. The match ended with a score 1: 0 in favor of the British, and they went around Ukraine in the standings. With a tie, the Ukrainian team would reach the quarter finals. In the match Ukraine - France, the Frenchman Menez flagrantly violated the rules by speaking out against Ruslan Rotan. The violation was drawn to a yellow card (the arbiter from the Netherlands, Capers, later acknowledged it), which would be second for Jeremy. It is important that 10 minutes after this foul, he scored a goal against Ukraine, opening an account in a duel.
Perhaps someone was hindered by the Ukrainian team in the later stages of the competition? While watching these two scandalous fights, all the fans got the impression that the referees' mistakes were intentional, that is, Viktor Kashshai and Bjorn Kaypers had the task of preventing the Ukrainian team from leaving the group.
Euro 2016 is about to begin in France. Let's hope that the referees will not make such mistakes in the upcoming matches of the continental championship.