The UEFA Euro 2012 Championships  will be jointly hosted by Poland and Ukraine. The competition is the last one to be 16 teams as the following one in 2016 will increase to 24 teams. Poland and Ukraine overcome Italy and Croatia/Hungary for the right to have the event.
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The games will basically be split 50/50 between the two hosts. Polish venues to put on games will be Warsaw, Gdansk, Wroclaw and Poznan. The Ukrainian cities will be Kiev, Lviv, Kharkiv and Donetsk.
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The final will be held in Kiev which will also hold a semi-final. This will be at the Olimpiysky National Sports Complex which after development will be one of the top stadiums and sporting complexes on earth. The new arena in Warsaw is also being built and guarantees to be a state of the art stadium.
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The draw for the competition has already been held and qualifying games will start just after the 2010 FIFA World Cup. All of the nine group winners and the best runner-up will have direct entry into the championships. Following that the other eight runner-up will be drawn into two-legged playoffs.
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From Group A you would guess Germany and Turkey would be too resilient with Austria and Belgium being the contenders.
Group B looks to be a 3 way race between Russia, Slovakia and Ireland.
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In Group C it looks like it will be effortless for Italy and Serbia. France is the most likely from Group D with Romania looking at the one to take runner-up.
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There is a northern European feel to Group E where it should be Netherlands and Sweden.
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Croatia and Greece are the favorites by way of Group F as are England and Switzerland for Group G.
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From Group H it looks like Portugal and Denmark and finally from Group I it would seem to be Spain and the Czech Republic.
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Qualifying finishes in October 2011 by which time excitement and expectation for the Euro 2012 Championships will be well and truly underway.
Tags: euro 2012, euro 2012 poland, uefa euro 2012, Ukraine euro 2012