By Mike Collett
WARSAW, June 6 (Reuters) – Spain will try to become the
first team to win three successive major international titles
while Germany will hope to lift their first trophy since 1996
when Euro 2012 kicks off on Friday.
The backdrop of the three-week tournament being staged by
Poland and Ukraine across a vast stretch of eastern Europe has
already been partly defined by off-field events.
It will be the last Euros with 16 countries, often regarded
as the “perfect” formula for a knockout event, because UEFA has
agreed to expand the finals to 24 teams in France in 2016, an
awkward number that blighted World Cups between 1982 and 1994.
Also no other European Championship is likely to face the
infrastructure problems that have dogged this tournament since
it was awarded to the co-hosts in April 2007.
Ukraine has continually risked losing its right to stage its
half of the event and their hoteliers have been described by the
UEFA president Michel Platini as “bandits and crooks”.
Lastly, the social and political issues surrounding the
first major sporting event to be staged in former communist
countries since the 1980 Moscow Olympics, could still endanger
the tournament’s overall success.
There have already been diplomatic ructions between Ukraine
and some western European nations threatening to boycott the
event at government level over the jailing of former Ukraine
Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko.
On Tuesday, three days before the tournament starts, a crowd
of Ukrainians, angry over a parliamentary vote that would
increase the role of the Russian language in the country,
clashed with police at a fan zone set up in the capital Kiev.
RACIAL ABUSE
Fans in Poland and Ukraine already have a reputation for
racially abusing black players who will feature in matches from
Gdansk in the north of Poland to Donetsk in eastern Ukraine.
Italy striker Mario Balotelli said last week he will walk
off the pitch if he is abused, and European soccer’s governing
body UEFA will be expected to offer total support for the
players and team officials in the event of any trouble.
Nothing would be more damaging to the reputation of the host
nations if a match is abandoned in front of a global TV audience
of millions because players have walked off after suffering
racist abuse like that featured in a BBC documentary last week.
Away from the politics and off-field concerns, the finals
are full of potentially outstanding matches.
England’s Frank Lampard, who will miss the tournament
through injury, and fellow midfielder Wesley Sneijder, who was
part of the Netherlands team beaten by Spain in the World Cup
final two years ago, agreed that the Euros were harder to win
than the World Cup and were also of a higher standard.
“It will be very difficult because, for me, the Euros is
more difficult than the World Cup because you don’t have the
teams from Africa or wherever when you know you are going to
take three points,” Sneijder said.
OPEN TOURNAMENT
Current form would bear that out with 13 of FIFA’s top 20
ranked teams in the finals, including Spain, Germany, France and
the Netherlands who all look as if they could win the final at
the Olympic Stadium in Kiev on July 1.
Italy may be engulfed in a new match-fixing scandal but
their national team can also never be discounted when major
tournaments come around.
But as Denmark proved in 1992 when they were champions after
coming in as a late replacement for banned Yugoslavia, and as
Greece also showed in 2004 – winning the tournament after
starting as 100-1 outsiders – no team can be entirely discarded.
Spain, with the backbone of their Euro 2008 winning side
still in place, meet Italy in an intriguing opening Group C game
in Gdansk on Sunday. If they win they should have no trouble
qualifying from a group that includes Croatia and Ireland.
Germany, who won the last of their three European crowns 16
years ago, were impressive in the qualifiers, winning 10
straight matches, and on current form should advance from Group
B with the Dutch ahead of Portugal and Denmark.
Co-hosts Poland, who at 65 in the FIFA rankings are the
lowest ranked in the tournament, will rely on a trio of Borussia
Dortmund players, including striker Robert Lewandowski.
The will seek to win a match at the European Championship
finals for the first time and advance from a group that includes
Russia, Greece and the Czech Republic.
They get the ball rolling with the opening game against
Greece in Group A at the National stadium in Warsaw on Friday.
Ukraine will, like their co-hosts, be spurred on by a
passionate crowd against England, Sweden and France in Group D.
The French, European champions in 1984 and 2000, head into
the finals on the back of a 21-match unbeaten run and look
likely to advance from the group though who will join them is
anyone’s guess.
(Reporting by Mike Collett; Editing by Ken Ferris)
