HWCI EURO 2012 Pool - Albert's A to the Z SPORTS! Column

With Euro 2012 only hours away it’s only fitting that we take at look at the teams that will be hosting the month long football fest, Poland and Ukraine.

Poland will be playing in only its second Euro; it played its first one four years ago. Ukraine will be participating in its first ever Euro since it started competing as an independent football nation in 1992.

The former Soviet Union republic will be the third national team in Euro history to play in its first final tournament due to automatic qualification as a host nation. Sweden in 1992 and Austria in 2008 are the other teams.

Out of the two nations, Poland has participated in more major international tournaments in the past decade. It has played in the 2002 and 2006 FIFA World Cups and Euro 2008. Ukraine has only played in one tournament which was the 2006 FIFA World Cup, the only major international tournament they have participated in before this upcoming Euro.

According to the numbers things don’t look too promising for the home teams this summer.

Since the group stage was instituted for Euro 1980, eight out of eleven host nations have moved on to the next phase. While this shows that the host nations have made it past the group stage 73% of the times, things don’t necessarily bode well for Poland and Ukraine.

The three host teams that have been eliminated in the group stage were also joint host nations! At Euro 2000 Belgium said goodbye early while at Euro 2008 both co-hosts, Austria and Switzerland, went three and out. Netherlands is the only Euro co-host out of the previous four to move on from the group stage. It should be noted that out of the six countries that have been selected as Euro co-hosts, Netherlands is the only nation to have won a Euro title before co-hosting the tournament.

Letting our imaginations run wild for bit let’s say either Poland or Ukraine or even both manage make it to the knockout stage where they will be three wins away from hoisting the Henri Delaunay Trophy. The reality is that the odds of them shocking the world like Greece did in 2004 are pretty much insurmountable.

In the previous thirteen Euro tournaments only three host nations have won the title. Spain won in 1964, Italy in 1968 and France in 1984. Out of the three, France is the only host nation that has won the title in a final tournament with a group stage.

At the end it just seems that Poland and Ukraine have a better chance of organizing a heck of a tournament than doing anything of note on the pitch.

Inaugural Quadrennial HWCI UEFA European Championship Soccer Tournament Pool
	HWCI EURO 2012 Pool - Albert's A to the Z SPORTS!