Page 1 of 1
Italy miss out - Euro 2012
Posted:
Wed Apr 18, 2007 11:58 amby 112-1077774096
italy have missed out on hosting euro 2012, the tournement has gone to the joint bid from poland and ukraine.
no doubt this has something to do with the recent troubles in italy, lets hope it not the only penalty they have to pay
Posted:
Wed Apr 18, 2007 12:01 pmby 112-1077774096
bbc
Poland and Ukraine have been chosen to host the 2012 European Championships.
Italy were widely expected to win the Uefa vote in Cardiff, with another joint bid from Croatia and Hungary also in the running.
However, Italy's bid was overshadowed by last season's referee corruption scandal and their on-going problems with football-related crowd trouble.
It will be the first time that either Poland or Ukraine have hosted a major football championship.
"Finally, the big event is going to the countries which have had no opportunities to improve football," said Polish Football Association chairman Michal Listkiewicz.
"This big tournament will be a milestone in the common history of two Slavic nations."
Poland and Ukraine's bid team staged an impressive presentation on Tuesday, featuring Chelsea striker Andriy Shevchenko, Liverpool keeper Jerzy Dudek as well as boxer Vitali Klitschko, former Olympic champion Sergei Bubka and Ukraine president Victor Yushchenko.
Nonetheless, the bid was still considered the outsider of the three.
Poland is still recovering from a match-fixing scandal and its government has been warned by Uefa and Fifa about political interference in the country's football governing body.
Meanwhile, Ukraine has been hit by a political crisis, with the president trying to dissolve parliament.
Nigel Adderley, BBC Five Live's reporter in Cardiff, said: "It's a massive slap in the face to Italian football. The complete outsiders will host Euro 2012, and Italy are beaten. "Michel Platini looked shocked when he announced the decision.
"Only last night, members of the Uefa executive committee seemed to be saying they would go for a safe pair of hands.
"They were hinting that although Italy has had problems, they still felt it is place that can develop a tournament and has the experience."
Uefa chief executive Platini is known to be keen to redress the balance of power in football throughout Europe and he appears to be supported by Uefa's 14-man executive committee.
According to Uefa sources, Poland and Ukraine won in the first round of voting with eight of the 12 votes while four went to Italy and none to Croatia and Hungary.
It will be first time the former eastern bloc has hosted the tournament since Yugoslavia in 1976.
Poland's Dutch head coach Leo Beenhakker said the decision was hugely important for the game in the winning countries.
Beenhakker said: "Eastern Europe has a great history in sport and in football and they still have great players but what they have been missing has been good infrastructure, stadiums and training facilities.
"Now the governments and the football federations are obliged to realise all their promises within the next five years and make these improvements.
"This is fundamental for football in Poland and Ukraine."
Games will be played in four Ukrainian cities (Dnipropetrovsk, Donetsk, Kiev and Lviv) and six Polish venues (Gdansk, Krakow, Poznan, Warsaw, Wroclaw and Chorzow).
Kiev's Olympic Stadium, used to host football at the 1980 Moscow Olympics, is the proposed venue for the final.
The tournament will feature 16 teams, although Uefa is looking into increasing that to 24 from 2016 onwards.
Posted:
Wed Apr 18, 2007 12:05 pmby SouthCoastShankly
peewee wrote:italy have missed out on hosting euro 2012, the tournement has gone to the joint bid from poland and ukraine.
no doubt this has something to do with the recent troubles in italy, lets hope it not the only penalty they have to pay
No lets hope its the start of more punishment. Italy and Spain for years have got away with crowd trouble and racism that England would have been banned for twice over.
Italian fans have always been a problem at home, especially in Europe, mainly because they know they have the police on their side. There needs to be fundamental changes at both government and club level for the likes of Italy and Spain to host a multinational tournament.
I'm more shocked that FIFA have actually made a good decision
Posted:
Wed Apr 18, 2007 12:08 pmby 112-1077774096
too true mate, they do get away with an awful lot over there, they are a disaster waiting to happen
Posted:
Thu Apr 19, 2007 10:11 amby Ace Ventura
It would of been an absolute travesty if Italy had been given the tournament.
After all that has gone on in the last few years, the lack of the italian fa dealing with crowd trouble and the treatment of there police with foreign fans, it would of been a disgrace if the tournament was to be there.
Until massive strides are made regarding safety of foreign supporters both inside and outside there grounds they shouldnt even be putting themselves forward to host major events.
I also think that they should be made to play there European matches behind closed doors for the first few months of next season and warned that it will be extended if there are any future signs of trouble.
Posted:
Fri Apr 20, 2007 8:46 amby Dundalk
No harm in Italy missing out
Posted:
Fri Apr 20, 2007 9:24 amby The Manhattan Project
Good. Serves them right.
Hopefully Poland and the Ukraine will do a good job.
Posted:
Fri Apr 20, 2007 9:35 amby 112-1077774096
slightly off topic but now 7 refs have been suspended in italy
Seven referees were temporarily suspended by the Italian referees association Thursday in Italy's ongoing soccer scandal.
The suspensions were made in response to the conclusion of an investigation by prosecutors in Naples last week, which uncovered new match-fixing allegations.
"The decision was made in light of the recommendations at the end of the preliminary investigation by the Naples court," the Italian referees association said in a statement.
The referees were suspended pending an investigation by Italian sports authorities. They are Paolo Bertini, Stefano Cassara, Antonio Dattilo, Marco Gabriele, Gianluca Paparesta, Tiziano Pieri and Salvatore Racalbuto. Two linesmen, Marcello Ambrosino and Duccio Baglioni, were also suspended.
Juventus was relegated to Serie B and four clubs were penalized in Serie A this season for conspiring with referees to fix games in the 2004-05 season.
Posted:
Tue May 29, 2007 11:00 pmby The Manhattan Project
Manhattan is sick and tired of Eastern Europe.
First they stiff Western Europe at Eurovision, even though we pay for it.
Then they beat up the guy from Right Said Fred for fighting for gay rights in the now "democratic" (LOL!!!!) Russia.
And yesterday a member of the absurdly homophobic Polish government wants to investigate poor old Tinky Winky for being a bit gay.
Now several Robocops in the Ukraine beat up a little girl who looks oddly like Daniel Radcliffe from Harry Potter.
Time for a new Iron Curtain. Only this time, let's build a water moat on both sides.
