European Football Championship 2011-2012

The European Football Championship was first celebrated in France in 1960 and was won by Russia.

The Euro Cup 2012 will be held in Poland and the Ukraine in June.

The sixteen national teams that will be taking part in theEuro Cup 2012 Finals are:

Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, England, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Republic of Ireland, Russia, Spain, Sweden, Ukraine.

The current European Football Championship title holders are Spain.

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Euro Cup Qualifiers Format

The hosts qualify automatically but all the other national teams have to go through the Group Stage.

The groups for qualification are drawn by a UEFA committee using seeding. Seeded teams include reigning champions, and other team seeding is based on performance in the preceding FIFA World Cup and European Football Championship.

The ranking is calculated by taking the total number of points won by a particular team and dividing it by the number of games played.

If a National Side has hosted one of the two previous competitions and has therefore qualified automatically, the results from the single most recent qualifying competition are used. If two teams have equal points per game, the committee then bases their ranking on:

1. Coefficient from the matches played in its most recent qualifying competition.
2. Average goal difference.
3. Average number of goals scored.
4. Average number of away goals scored.
5. Drawing of lots.

For UEFA Euro 2012, the group qualifying phase consists of nine groups; six of six teams and the remainder of five teams each.

Each group has a league format with teams playing each other home and away. Teams then either qualify for the final tournament or to further playoffs depending on their position in the group.

As with most leagues, the points are awarded as three for a win, one for a draw, and none for a loss. In the event of one or more teams having equal points after all matches have been played, the following criteria are used to decide the qualifier:

1. Higher number of points obtained in group matches played between the teams in question.
2. Higher goal difference from the group matches played between the teams in question.
3. Higher number of goals scored in the group matches played among the teams in question.
4. Higher number of goals scored away from home in the group matches played among the teams in question.
5. Results of all group matches:
   • Goal difference
   • Number of goals scored
   • Number of away goals scored
   • Fair play conduct.
6. Drawing of lots.

Euro Cup Final Tournament Format

These sixteen teams are divided equally into four groups, A, B, C and D, each consisting of four teams.

The groups are drawn up by the UEFA administration, again using seeding. The seeded teams being the host nations, the reigning champions, and subject to qualification, the teams with the best points per game coefficients over the qualifying phase of the tournament and the previous World Cup.

Other finalists will be assigned to by means of a draw, using coefficients as a basis.

The four groups are again played in a league format, where a team plays its opponents once each. The same points system is used (three points for a win, one point for a draw, no points for a defeat).

A schedule for the group matches is drawn up, but the last two matches in a group must kick off simultaneously.

The winner and runner-up of each group progresses to the quarter-finals, where a knockout system is used (the two teams play each other once, the winner progresses), this is used in all subsequent rounds as well.

The winners of the quarter-finals matches progress to the semi-finals, where the winners play in the final.

If in any of the knockout rounds, the scores are still equal after normal playing time, extra time and penalties are employed to separate the two teams.

This tournament, unlike the FIFA World Cup does not have a 3rd place play-off.