185 replies to this topic

[Olympian2004]

I've noted that we're only two-and-a-half months away from the election of the EURO 2012 host country. It is scheduled for December 8.

Meanwhile, UEFA is obviously currently conducting its inspection visits in the five bid countries, Italy, Hungary, Croatia, Poland and Ukraine. Does anyone know something about the results of those visits -- have the inspectors revealed in any sense which bid they are favouring?

I guess that Italy as experienced World Cup and EURO host has the best chances. But I'd also be glad if the EURO would be given to Hungary and Croatia. Especially Hungary deserves it so much -- after having never staged one of the biggest international sports events, neither the Olympics nor the World Cup nor the EURO nor the World Championships in Athletics. Hungary was always an important nation in sports so that I don't understand why they've always been ignored for the larger sports events.

What do you think? Who will win and who should win?

[Rei]

UEFA has just finished their ispection in Italy these days.. the italians stadium reached the approval by UEFA staff, most of venues need a restyling
Milan, Rome, Naples, Torino, Palermo, Bari, Udine and Florence will bid for sure.. there are some optional cities in the lists: Bologna, Verona, Cagliari and Genoa

I personally don't care so much who will win.. Italy should head for bigger sport events than a soccer euro cup but at least it could be a serious opportunity to refresh our '90 stadiums..

[Quintana]

The current riots in Budapest and the match fixing scandal in Italy can't have hurt the Poland/Ukraine bid. I hope Croatia/Hungary wins though.

[Goethe]

I hope Poland wins.

[cesco_82]

tsk!

[arwebb]

Match fixing scandals and political unrest certainly can't be helping the chances of the Italy and Croatia-Hungary bids respectively. However, I've felt for some time that Poland and Ukraine could, and perhaps should be bidding separately for this tournament. I also feel that Italy is using this as a stepping stone to another World Cup bid when it really doesn't need to. For those reasons, I would prefer Croatia-Hungary to win.

[Rei]

arwebb, on Sep 23 2006, 07:12 PM, said:

I also feel that Italy is using this as a stepping stone to another World Cup bid when it really doesn't need to.

Can I ask WHY we REALLY needn't to host a WC in the next futre as probably it will be the only big sport event we could host in the next 50 years.. ?

[NYCD 2012]

Ukraine and Poland are my clear favs so far .

[arwebb]

Rei, on Sep 24 2006, 07:34 AM, said:

Can I ask WHY we REALLY needn't to host a WC in the next futre as probably it will be the only big sport event we could host in the next 50 years.. ?

You misunderstand my point. What I was saying was that I felt this bid was a stepping stone to a future World Cup bid. Given that everyone knows about the Italian stadia and the strength of Italian football, I would prefer such a major footballing nation to concentrate on bidding for a World Cup, and not a European Championship, particularly when the World Cup is probably out of the reach of the smaller nations who bid for the Euros.

[cesco_82]

As we already discussed b4 here's coming out that EURO is a second level event, just for "little" States..i am not so sure about that, but it's an interesting point to discuss about.