Euro 2012
The Euro 2012
The 2012 European Championship for men’s national football teams was the biggest sports event in Poland and in the whole Europe as well. It was organized by UEFA. This kind of events are organized every four years in different countries, chosen five years before the event. Executive Committee chose Ukraine and Poland’s offer in 2007, so they have time to prepare this country to organize such a huge event.
The mission statement sounded
“Together We Create Future”.
The logo was :
Logo of Euro 2012
The official mascots was:
Mascots of Euro 2012
The official hymn was Oceana – Endless Summer
The European Championship was co-hosted by Poland and Ukraine. Some games took place in Warsaw, Poznan, Gdansk, Wroclaw, and of course Kiev and Lviv. Krakow was the town, where football teams were accommodated.
This was huge undertaking for Poland and Ukraine. This was also the first time, when Poland had the responsibility of organizing this kind of event. It was the big challenge for sure and for some people it was even unreachable. However, Poland and Ukraine managed to do that very well. Although their teams didn’t score the high position, they were excellent hosts for sure.
There were 31 matches during the all football tournaments. There were 16 teams taking part.
It started on the 8th of June and finished on the 1st of July 2012. All matches took place in eight venues in hosting cities, Ukraine and Poland. The first game – opener, took place in Poland at National Stadium in Warsaw and the final match was in Ukraine in Kiev.
Of course, this was very important event for many reasons.
Football is one of the most popular sport discipline in Europe. Even in primary school children do this sport. It’s not surprising, that this kind of event like Euro 2012 involved so many people. Of course, most of Polish people were glad to have the opportunity to co-host European Championship. However, there were negative comments about the championship as well. The opponents said that it’s too much work and, what is the most important, money to invest. Actually, investments were necessary to organize in Poland this tournament. They involved many things like infrastructures, to have functional transport. The host cities had to be prepared for football fans, visitors, tourist who were coming to Poland. The increase of the tourism was very important for the whole country. The private transport developed a lot. Poland and Ukraine can still feel the influence of the Euro 2012 today.