UEFA Euro 2012

the sporting event
14th edition of the UEFA European Football Championship

The 2012 UEFA European Football Championship, commonly referred to as UEFA Euro 2012 or simply Euro 2012, was the 14th European Championship for men's national football teams organised by UEFA. The final tournament, held between 8 June and 1 July 2012, was co hosted by Poland and Ukraine (both first time hosts), and was won by Spain, who beat Italy in the final at the Olympic Stadium, Kyiv, Ukraine. Poland and Ukraine's bid was chosen by the UEFA Executive Committee on 18 April 2007. The two host teams qualified automatically while the remaining 14 finalists were decided through a qualifying competition, featuring 51 teams, from August 2010 to November 2011. This was the last European Championship to employ the 16 team finals format in use since 1996; from Euro 2016 onward, it was expanded to 24 finalists. Euro 2012 was played at eight venues, four in each host country. Five new stadiums were built for the tournament, and the hosts invested heavily in improving infrastructure such as railways and roads at UEFA's request. Euro 2012 set attendance records for the 16 team format, for the highest aggregate attendance (1,440,896) and average per game (46,481). Spain became the first team to win two consecutive European Championships, and also three straight major tournaments (Euro 2008, 2010 World Cup and Euro 2012). Spain had already gained entry to the 2013 Confederations Cup by winning the World Cup, so runners up Italy qualified instead. As at Euro 2008 in Austria and Switzerland, both 2012 host nations were eliminated in the group stage. There were several players ending on a total of 3 goals but because Fernando Torres made an assist and played the fewest minutes of the players who scored three goals, he was named as the Golden Boot winner for the tournament.

The hosting of the event was initially contested by five bids representing seven countries: Croatia–Hungary, Greece, Italy, Poland–Ukraine, and Turkey. In November 2005, after an initial consideration of the bid data by UEFA, both the Greek and Turkish bids were eliminated from the process, to leave three candidates. In May 2006, this was followed by a second round of the selection process, which included visits by UEFA to all candidates. The final decision was due to be announced on 8 December 2006 in Nyon, but this was postponed to "give bidding associations more time for the fine tuning of their bids". On 18 April 2007, the Poland–Ukraine bid was chosen by a vote of the UEFA Executive Committee, at a meeting in Cardiff. 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,

There were some later alterations from the initial bid plan, regarding the venues, before UEFA confirmed the eight host cities in 2009. During the preparation process in Poland and Ukraine, UEFA repeatedly expressed concern about their preparation to host the event, with different candidates reported as being alternative hosts if they did not improve; however, in the end, UEFA affirmed their selection.

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. Twelve of the sixteen finalists participated at the previous tournament in 2008. England and Denmark made their return to the Euro after missing out on 2008, while Republic of Ireland returned after a twenty four year absence to make their second appearance at a European Championship. One of the co hosts, Ukraine, made their debut as an independent nation (before 1992 Ukraine participated as part of the Soviet Union). With the exception of Serbia – according to UEFA's ranking at the end of the qualifying stage – Europe's sixteen highest ranked teams all qualified for the tournament. Romania and Turkey were the only teams failing to qualify for the final tournament after qualifying to UEFA Euro 2008. (Austria and Switzerland also failed to qualify, but, as hosts of the previous tournament, they did not need to take part in qualifying.) As of 2024, this was the last time Greece qualified for the European Championship finals, and the last time Austria, Belgium, Hungary, Slovakia, Switzerland and Turkey failed to qualify.

Tickets for the venues were sold directly by UEFA via its website, or distributed by the football associations of the 16 finalists. Applications had to be made during March 2011 for the 1.4 million tickets available for the 31 tournament matches. Over 20,000 were forecast to cross the Poland–Ukraine border each day during the tournament. Over 12 million applications were received, which represented a 17% increase on the 2008 finals, and an all time record for the UEFA European Championship. Owing to this over subscription for the matches, lotteries were carried out to allocate tickets. Prices varied from €30 (£25) (for a seat behind the goals at a group match) to €600 (£513) (for a seat in the main stand at the final). In addition to individual match tickets, fans could buy packages to see either all matches played by one team, or all matches at one specific venue.

Each team had a "team base camp" for its stay between the matches. From an initial list of thirty eight potential locations (twenty one in Poland, seventeen in Ukraine), the national associations chose their locations in 2011. The teams trained and resided in these locations throughout the tournament, travelling to games staged away from their bases. Thirteen teams stayed in Poland and three in Ukraine. The ball is named after the original Adidas Tango family of footballs; however, the Tango 12 and its variations have a completely new design. Variations of the ball have been used in other contemporary competitions including the Africa Cup of Nations and the Summer Olympics. It is designed to be easier to dribble and control than the reportedly unpredictable Adidas Jabulani used at the 2010 FIFA World Cup.

Each national team had to submit a squad of 23 players, three of whom must be goalkeepers, at least ten days before the opening match of the tournament. If a player became injured or ill severely enough to prevent his participation in the tournament before his team's first match, he would be replaced by another player. On 27 March 2012, UEFA issued the full list of 80 referees to be used in Euro 2012, including the assistant referees, the additional assistant referees, and the four reserve assistant referees. Each refereeing team consisted of five match officials from the same country: one main referee, two assistant referees, and two additional assistant referees. All of the main referees, additional assistant referees, and fourth officials were FIFA referees, and the assistant referees (including the four reserve assistant referees) were FIFA assistant referees. For each refereeing team, a third assistant referee from each country was named to remain on standby until the start of the tournament to take the place of a colleague if required. with the final confirmation of kick offs times being affirmed following the tournament draw in December 2011. The teams finishing in the top two positions in each of the four groups progressed to the quarter finals, while the bottom two teams were eliminated from the tournament.

In the knockout phase, extra time and a penalty shoot out were used to decide the winner if necessary. As with every tournament since UEFA Euro 1984, there was no third place play off.

The Henri Delaunay Trophy began a journey through the host cities seven weeks before the start of the tournament. A hundred days before the first match a hot air balloon in the shape of the trophy was flown in Nyon, Switzerland and visited 14 cities throughout the host countries, reminding spectators of the impending tournament. On 20 April 2012, the trophy tour started and visited the Polish cities of Warsaw, Wrocław, Gdańsk, Poznań, Kraków, Katowice and Łódź. After the Polish cities, the trophy visited seven Ukrainian cities: Kyiv, Ivano Frankivsk, Kharkiv, Donetsk, Dnipropetrovsk, Lviv, and Odesa.

The competition slogan, Creating History Together (Razem tworzymy przyszłość, literally, "Together we are creating the future", Творимо історію разом, Tvorymo istoriyu razom), was announced along with the logo. The official logo for the tournament was unveiled at a special event at Mykhailivska Square, Kyiv, on 14 December 2009 and was designed by Portuguese group Brandia Central. It took its visual identity from Wycinanki or Vytynanky, a traditional form of paper cutting practised in rural areas of Poland and Ukraine. The art form symbolises the nature of the rural areas of both countries. As part of the event, landmark buildings in the eight host cities were illuminated with the tournament logo. The official Euro 2012 song was "Endless Summer" by the German singer Oceana. In addition, UEFA retained the melody that was composed by Rollo Armstrong of Faithless on its behalf for the 2008 tournament. The Republic of Ireland also produced an official song: "The Rocky Road to Poland", recorded by a collaboration of Irish performers, quickly reached number 1 in Ireland and stayed there for three weeks. In Spain, the broadcasting company Mediaset España commissioned the song "No hay 2 sin 3", performed by David Bisbal and Cali & El Dandee and produced by RedOne. The tournament was also associated with the song "Heart of Courage" by Two Steps from Hell, which was played in the stadiums during the entrance of the players (before the national anthems); and also "Seven Nation Army" by The White Stripes, in this case after every goal.

UEFA signed a worldwide licensing agreement with Warner Brothers Consumer Products to help promote the tournament. The agreement involved licensing to third parties for a variety of other merchandising items. Also designed by Warner Bros. were the official tournament mascots, "Slavek and Slavko", twins that wore the national colours of the two host nations. The mascots were unveiled in December 2010, and named following an online poll.

The UEFA Euro 2012 video game was released by EA Sports as a downloadable expansion pack for FIFA 12.

According to UEFA requirements, TP ensured approximately 2х70 Gbit/s data communication speed from Polish stadiums and 2х140 Gbit/s between Poland and Ukraine. This was required due to the fact that the matches were broadcast in HD quality. The multilateral production utilised 31 cameras to cover the action on and around the pitch at every match, with additional cameras following activities around the game, such as team arrivals at the stadiums, interviews, and media conferences. The official Euro 2012 broadcasting centre was located at the Expo XXI International Centre in Warsaw. 150,000,000 people were expected to watch the matches each day.

After Poland and Ukraine were chosen by a vote of the UEFA Executive Committee as host countries for Euro 2012, several issues arose, which jeopardised the Polish/Ukrainian host status. In Ukraine there were financial difficulties related to stadium and infrastructure renovation related to the economic crisis. In Poland, issues arose related to corruption within the Polish Football Association. In April 2009 however, the president of UEFA, Michel Platini announced that all was on track and that he saw no major problems. After a UEFA delegation visited Ukraine in September 2011, he stated the country was "virtually ready for Euro 2012". In the UK, there were allegations of racism in football in both host countries. The main cause of discussion was the BBC current affairs programme Panorama, entitled Euro 2012: Stadiums of Hate, which included recent footage of supporters chanting various antisemitic slogans and displays of white power symbols and banners in Poland, plus Nazi salutes and the beating of South Asians in Ukraine. The documentary was first echoed in much of the British press, but was then attacked for being one sided and unethical: critics included other British media outlets; anti racism campaigners, black and Jewish community leaders in Poland; Polish and Ukrainian politicians and journalists; England fans visiting the host nations and Gary Lineker, a British football star. In response to Yulia Tymoshenko's hunger strike and her mistreatment in a Ukrainian prison some European politicians and governments announced that they would boycott the matches in Ukraine. Ukraine came under criticism from animal welfare organisations for killing stray cats and dogs in order to prepare for Euro 2012. Ukrainian Ministry of Ecology and Natural Resources and Minister of the Environment promised to take action to prevent killing animals but it still remains unclear how these measures were enforced. The ministry's comments also suggested this would only be a temporary measure, drawing further criticism. Bomb explosions took place in Dnipropetrovsk, Ukraine, on 27 April 2012 and were described as a terrorist attack that may jeopardise the organisation of the tournament in Ukraine. Other important issues were associated with FEMEN's group protests against prostitution and sex tourism in Ukraine, and enormous increases in hotel prices by many hoteliers in the country. In total, four nations were fined by UEFA for racist activities by their fans (none of them were hosts): Germany, Spain, Croatia and Russia.