Background	Poland and Ukraine would host the European Championship finals in 2012 after UEFA surprisingly awarded them the tournament ahead of Italy and another joint bid from Hungary and Croatia yesterday.  Despite the Italian game being blighted by match fixing and crowd violence in the last year, Italy were favourites to be awarded the finals for the third time in their history.  Instead, UEFA has gambled by awarding the second largest football tournament in the world to two countries who have never previously hosted anything of this magnitude.  Earlier, their bid appeared to have been undermined on two fronts. FIFA had threatened to ban Poland from international competition after its government removed the country's football association from power in January following a scandal involving corrupt referees.  And the unstable political climate in Ukraine, with a presidential decree having dissolved parliament and called for a new election next month, had also raised doubts.  Italian delegates at Cardiff's City Hall, where UEFA president Michel Platini announced the decision, were stunned while the Polish and Ukrainian officials leapt and hugged each other in rapturous delight. The draw took place at the Palace of Culture and Science in Warsaw, Poland, on 7 February 2010.  England and Wales and either Scotland or Northern Ireland could have been placed in the same group after Sunday's Euro 2012 qualifying draw.  England are in pot one with the top seeds, Wales are in pot four, Scotland and Northern Ireland are in pot three.  Three groups will have a team from each of the first five pots. Six more groups will also have a team from pot six.  Holders Spain and Italy are also among the top seeds, as 51 teams battle to reach the finals in Poland and Ukraine.  There are 14 places available alongside co-hosts Poland and Ukraine for the tournament, which runs between 8 June to 1 July.  The road to the finals kicks off in September. Each team in the qualifying groups will play one another on a home and away basis, with matches taking place up to October 2011.  The nine group winners will automatically qualify for the tournament together with the runner-up with the best overall record against the teams finishing first, third, fourth, fifth and sixth in their group.  The eight other runners-up will then face play-offs over two legs in November 2011. Poland and Ukraine will be only the third co-hosts of the European Championship, following in the footsteps of Belgium and the Netherlands in 2000 and Austria and Switzerland in 2008.
European Championship 2012 Preliminary Groups	Group A Group B Group C Group D Group E A1 - Germany B1 - Russia C1 - Italy D1 - France E1 - Netherlands A2 - Turkey B2 - Slovakia C2 - Serbia D2 - Romania E2 - Sweden A3 - Austria B3 - Republic of Ireland C3 - Northern Ireland D3 - Bosnia-Herzegovina E3 - Finland A4 - Belgium B4 - FYR Macedonia C4 - Slovenia D4 - Belarus E4 - Hungary A5 - Kazakhstan B5 - Armenia (drawn into Group A) C5 - Estonia D5 - Albania E5 - Moldova A6 - Azerbaijan B6 - Andorra C6 - Faroe Islands D6 - Luxembourg E6 - San Marino Group F Group G Group H Group I   F1 - Croatia G1 - England H1 - Portugal I1 - Spain F2 - Greece G2 - Switzerland H2 - Denmark I2 - Czech Republic F3 - Israel G3 - Bulgaria H3 - Norway I3 - Scotland F4 - Latvia G4 - Wales H4 - Cyprus I4 - Lithuania F5 - Georgia G5 - Montenegro H5 - Iceland I5 - Liechtenstein F6 - Malta
Final Tournament Venues and Matches	31 matches will be played during Euro 2012, with Ukraine hosting 16 matches and Poland 15. Stadion Narodowy, Warsaw: 3 group matches including the opening match, quarter-final, and semi-final (5 matches in total). Polska Grupa Energetyczna Arena, Gdańsk: 3 group matches and a quarter-final Stadion Miejski we Wrocławiu, Wrocław: 3 group matches. Stadion Miejski, Poznań: 3 group matches Natsional’nyĭ Sportyvnyĭ Kompleks, Kyiv: 3 group matches, quarter-final, semi-final, and final (6 matches in total) Arena Lviv (to be renamed), Lviv: 3 group matches Oblasny SportKomplex Metalist, Kharkiv: 3 group matches Donbass Arena, Donetsk: 3 group matches and a quarter-final

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