Tag: EURO2012

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EURO 2012

The EURO 2012 Draw at 5pm today

The great and good of European football are gathering in Kyiv for the UEFA EURO 2012 finals draw which takes place at the city’s Palace of Arts at 18.00CET (19.00 local time) on Friday with full coverage in UEFA.com’s DrawCentre.

The Story

Reigning champions Spain defeated Germany in the 2008 final, as well as overcoming Joachim Löw’s men en route to FIFA World Cup glory two summers ago. On the eve of the draw, Spain coach Vicente del Bosque said it is the Nationalmannschaft he is keeping an eye on. “On the face of it they will be the most dangerous team,” the former Real Madrid CF coach said. “They are keen to play us and they’ve improved a lot as we saw in their [recent friendly] wins against Brazil and the Netherlands.”

The draw

takes place in Ukraine’s capital, and while József Szabó, a former coach of the co-hosts, feels a group of “Russia, Greece and the Republic of Ireland” would be a good outcome, current boss Oleh Blokin has identified a renowned force within one of those teams. “Giovanni Trapattoni is one of the most respected managers in the world game,” he said of the Ireland coach. “He is known and liked in the world of football and it is no different in Ukraine. We know him as a great manager and we will respect his team.”

The tournament’s

other host nation, Poland, are taking part in their second consecutive EURO and striker Robert Lewandowski is excited about taking on the cream of the continent’s talent. “I’d prefer not to play Germany, Portugal and France, but we don’t fear any team. In November we lost against Italy, but that’s gone now. We could play them again and fight for the win.”

Draw process

The 16 teams will be drawn into four groups of four teams each (Groups A to D). Four seeding pots will be created, with the host associations Poland and Ukraine being top seeds. Poland will be automatically placed in Group A, as A1, Ukraine in Group D, as D1.

The remaining teams have been allocated to the four pots according to their respective national team coefficients.

Pot 1: Spain, Netherlands
Pot 2: Germany, Italy, England, Russia
Pot 3: Croatia, Greece, Portugal, Sweden
Pot 4: Denmark, France, Czech Republic, Republic of Ireland

National Team Coefficient Ranking

The draw will start with Pot 1 in order to fill position one in Groups B and C. The draw will continue with Pot 4, from which a team will be allocated to each group consecutively, from Group A to Group D. This procedure will then be repeated for Pot 3 and finally for Pot 2.

The position of each team within its group (2, 3 or 4) will also be determined during the draw.

UEFA General Secretary Gianni Infantino will conduct the draw, and the ceremony will be hosted by Olga Freimut and Piotr Sobczynski – two renowned TV presenters in the UEFA EURO 2012 host countries. The show will include three entertainment acts: the P. Virsky Ukrainian National Folk Dance Ensemble, Ukrainian singer Jamala and a surprise international artist.

Furthermore, and supporting the motto ‘Creating History Together’, UEFA has invited legendary players from all previous editions of the tournament to participate in the show. In addition, the official match ball

of UEFA EURO 2012 will be unveiled during the ceremony.

The draw will be shown live by more than 70 broadcast partners, covering more than 150 territories around the world

How the Groups will work?

Group A (Is Poland’s Group)

Games are played in Warsaw and Wroclaw, if we get this group we will most likely have 3 Games in Wroclaw.

Group B (Games in Ukraine)

Best outcome is to get 2 games in Lviv and the last one in Kharkiv

Group C (Games in Poland)

If we don’t get Group A then we want to be in this Group with the best outcome being 2 matches in Poznan and 1 in Gdansk for the last group game.

Group D (Is Ukraine’s Group)

Another group to avoid with games based in Kiev, Donetsk and then Kiev again….way to much travelling we don’t want that!

 

Even as group runners in Group A we get to stay in Poland!

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Ireland Irish Grassroots Football

Think Poland…..!

With only a week to go before the EURO 2012 draw, if we all think hard about getting Group A so that we are based in Wrocław for all 3 games, we really don’t want to be moving cities for different games and being in Pot 4 if we get GA we will be the only team that gets to stay in the same city!

At second best Group C with 2 matches in Poznan and 1 in Gdansk for the last group game. If we get Group B, that’s 2 games in Lviv and the last one in Kharkiv and then Group D is Kiev, Donetsk and then Kiev again….way to much travelling we don’t want that!

Even as group runner up we get to stay in Poland…

So big thoughts guys “What you think about can come about” We don’t want Ukraine….

Wrocław here we come…..!

Categories
Irish Grassroots Football

C’Mon IReland…

So you might be wondering how did we end up as top seed and what it all means. Well, to start…..winning this qualification means so much more then going to Poland/Ukraine next summer. I’ve been trying to figure out how we managed to secure a top seed, when all the conditions to be a seeded team were not in our favour.

For instance….

Each nation’s coefficient was generated by calculating the following:

  • 40% of the average ranking points per game earned in the UEFA Euro 2012 qualifying group stage.  40% of the average ranking points per game earned in the 2010 FIFA World Cup qualifying stage and final tournament. 20% of the average ranking points per game earned in the UEFA Euro 2008 qualifying stage and final tournament.
  • The seedings were as follows: Croatia 32,723 – Portugal 31,202 – Ireland 28,203 Czech 27,982 – Turkey 27,601 – Bosnia 27,199 – Montenegro 21,876 – Estonia 20,355.
  • Only Portugal Qualified for 2010 World Cup lost to Spain in the last 16
  • Euro 2008 Saw Portugal, Turkey, Czech and Croatia Qualify. Turkey got to the semi’s.

Strange, how we managed to be the 3rd placed team never mind being a seeded team..anyway, who cares!!!

Who Benefits if we Qualify

  • FAI Stand to gain over 12m – 8m to qualify – another 4m to come out of the group – Qualification would be a timely financial boost to Abbotstown, given the FAI’s approximate €40 million debt incurred on the rebuilding of Lansdowne Road. Also the Future of soccer in Irelands rest on them receiving this money. Many of the FAI’s future programmes need these funds to succeed so it is vital for the future of the game in this country that we get through these 2 ties.
  • In March, Uefa also announced a lucrative television rights pooling fund which would benefit their 53 member nations by a minimum of €40 million over its four-year term from its introduction in 2014.
  • So having the likes of Germany, Sweden, Austria in our WC qualifying group will also stand to us financially.

Do it for Ireland

All that said, lets give the boys in Green our full support, whether you like our style of play or Traps strange squad selections (he must be respected for all he has achieved so far in football but still believe he could be getting more out of this lot) or even the fact that our CEO John Delaney fat salary of 400k is and always was completely ridiculous. Someone recently told me that, It’s four times the prize money for the winners of the national league AND  it’s more than the entire prize fund for ENTIRE league and i’m sure there’s not many countries where the CASH PRIZE  for the top league is dwarfed by the salary of the head of the FA.

In fact he is paid more then Barrack Obama, Kenny and Cameron and 4 times the salary CEO of the Scottish FA!

Thats 2.6million for the CEO and senior management team….That is a lot cash…considering most young kids playing football have never experienced the feeling of supporting Ireland in a Euros or WC……

As you can see winning these games means so much more then a summer in Poland……it will dictate the development of the game in this country for the next 4-5 years, the intention fo this post was to take about the game, how did I end up talking about JD’s outrageous salary……………..?

C’Mon IREland!!!

I’ll have one eye on Portugal! 🙂