EURO 2021

Franz Beckenbauer said he believes manager Joachim Loew is in charge of the best Germany squad in the nation’s football history. The Bayern Munich legend lifted the World Cup as a player in 1974 and then as a manager in 1990, but he is of the opinion that neither group had the same strength in depth as the squad Loew is leading into Euro 2012. “We have always had a high level of quality in the national team squad,” Beckenbauer told Bild am Sonntag. “But Jogi, he now has the […]

Fellow managers on Friday tipped defending European champions Spain and Euro 2008 second-placers Germany as hot favorites to win this year’s tournament. After wrapping up a two-day meeting of all 16 Euro 2012 qualifier nations in tournament co-hosts Poland, managers were pressed by reporters to give their forecasts for the final outcome. “I think everyone knows who the favorites are. For me, they are Germany and Spain,” Poland manager Franciszek Smuda said. Even Germany boss Joachim Loew said the 2008 victors were the team to beat. “It’s Spain, in any […]

Bonuses for winning the title of a champion for Euro-2012 should be maintained at the same level as for the World Cup 2010 and Euro-2008, this is 250.000 EUR for each player – stated Oliver Bierhoof, chairman of the German Football Association. 250.000 EUR will get every player of the German team. The amount of the bonus is negotiated, but Bierhoff does not think that the amount will be higher than a year and three years ago. Funds provided by the UEFA for the European Championship for all teams is […]

Joachim Loew, Germany’s national team coach, assured during an interview with the Polish Press Agency that the friendly match with Poland on 6 September in Gdansk was of great importance for him. On Friday his team, as the first one from eliminations, may secure promotion to the Euro 2012. For Polish fans and players the match with the German team is very important due to, among others, the history and proximity of Germany and the fact that Poland has never won with the team. Does the German team also have […]

The 2012 Euro 2012 qualifiers resume this week after the usual long international football summer break in Europe. We are roughly half way through the qualifying process and most big European teams are aiming to secure their participation to the tournament co-organised by Poland & Ukraine asap, hence the importance of this week’s matches. Germany v Austria (kick-off 20:45) Germany could become the first team to qualify for the Euro 2012 finals if they beat neighbours Austria on Friday. Joachim Loew’s side are unbeaten so far in group A, with […]

Where even soccer is politics, infrastructure improvements have fallen behind. KIEV — In Ukraine, soccer is simply politics pursued through other means. The vicious and sometimes petty power struggle at the highest reaches of the country’s government has spilled over to its sports fields. Two years ago, UEFA, Europe’s governing soccer body, awarded Ukraine and its Slavic neighbor Poland the prestigious designation as co-hosts of the European soccer championships in 2012. The European championship, held every four years, is the largest international soccer tournament after the World Cup and one […]

President Viktor Juszczenko accused the Ukrainian government of breaking promises concerning the financing of EURO 2012, calling into question the progress of preparations criticized recently by the UEFA. According to Juszczenko, the government has provided so far only 5 percent of 945 million dollars which were to be devoted to the organization budget of Euro 2012 this year. – The programme of financing Championships is at risk – announced the president. – Together with the head of the central bank and the finance minister we have to consider ways to […]

Following UEFA’s selection of four Polish cities as hosts for Euro 2012, Lokale Immobilia takes a brief look at the state of preparedness of the winning urban centers. After months of doubt and sharp criticism, the four Polish cities chosen by UEFA to host games in the Euro 2012 soccer championship – Warsaw, Gdańsk, Poznań and Wrocław – have much of their preparation on track. Indeed, though Kraków and Chorzów were officially discounted, hope remains that a slip-up elsewhere in Poland or in Ukraine could still offer the opportunity to […]

“Germans have been negotiating with the UEFA to take over the Euro 2012 organization from the Ukraine”, said Franz Beckenbauer to Sueddeutsche Zeitung. Beckenbauer, FIFA and the German Football Coalition vice-president admitted that the Ukraine’s troubles with organizing the tournament, due to the global economic crisis and the political turmoil in the Ukraine have forced UEFA to come out with a plan B. „It is not a mystery that we have been running talks in Zurich concerning our actions in case the Ukraine does not meet the deadlines. One such […]

UEFA left us the right to organize Euro 2012 – emphasize the Saturday Ukrainian newspapers after the session of the Executive Committee of the European Football Association that took place in Bordeaux. They decided that Poland and Ukraine would host the event. “There really were reasons to worry about. Practically, during the whole past year the preparations for Euro 2012 have not gone ahead: great plans stopped on the paper only. The event did not sleep as well – Italy, Germany one after another declared that they are even now […]