Euro 2012

How to fight racism in sport?

A practical guide for football clubs published in Poland

News from the ‘NEVER AGAIN’ Association

26.02.2010

The ‘NEVER AGAIN’ Association has released a toolkit entitled How to fight racism? It contains practical guidelines and advice concerning the elimination of racist and xenophobic behaviour from stadiums and pitches. The toolkit is tailor-made for Polish football clubs.
The manual has been prepared with the support of UEFA and the Football Against Racism in Europe (FARE) network. The Council of Europe, the Polish Football Association and the Polish Former Football Players’ Association have also expressed their support for the project.

-’We have prepared the toolkit in a CD format, we have drawn from the best European experiences, and adapted them for use by Polish clubs. It is supposed to be a powerful instrument in the combat against discrimination, racism and prejudice. We propose good solutions and show how to promote multiculturalism in sport and in the stadiums’ – explains Jacek Purski, a representative of the ‘Let’s Kick Racism Out of the Stadiums’ campaign.

The toolkit ‘How to fight racism?’ contains explanations of what is racism in sport, what are its most common manifestations as well as information on how to face it successfully. It presents advices and tips, which have already proved to be successful in many Western European and Polish football clubs.

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Martin Kallen, the UEFA Director responsible for the organization of the Euro 2012 finals, strolled through the Palace of Culture and Science – where the draw for European Football Championship qualifying groups was held – with pride.

He ensured that the draw, a test for Poland as co-host of the championships, was enjoyed by all participants.

- The draw was very successful – it was a great start of the tournament. All the guests felt a little Polish spirit. From what I heard, everyone was happy and satisfied. Now they are going home and will battle it out on football pitches for the chance to return to Poland with their teams in 2012,” said Kallen.

- It’s hard for me to judge the draw’s results. Traditionally, the A team travels far distances. And it will be the same this time. The German team will travel to Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan. I for one was anxious about Switzerland – he added.

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мебель в болгарииSunday’s draw for the Euro 2012 Championships qualifying competition was finished.

Each team in the qualifying groups will play one another on a home and away basis, with matches taking place up to October 2011.

The nine group winners and the best runner-up qualify directly for the final tournament. The eight remaining runners-up will contest two-legged play-offs to decide who gets the four remaining places.

Euro 2012 qualifying draw:

Group A: Germany, Turkey, Austria, Belgium, Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan
Group B: Russia, Slovakia, Republic of Ireland, Macedonia, Armenia, Andorra
Group C: Italy, Serbia, Northern Ireland, Slovenia, Estonia, Faroe Islands
Group D: France, Romania, Bosnia Herzegovina, Belarus, Albania, Luxembourg
Group E: Netherlands, Sweden, Finland, Hungary, Moldova, San Marino
Group F: Croatia, Greece, Israel, Latvia, Georgia, Malta
Group G: England, Switzerland, Bulgaria, Wales, Montenegro
Group H: Portugal, Denmark, Norway, Cyprus, Iceland
Group I: Spain, Czech Republic, Scotland, Lithuania, Liechtenstein

Preparations for the Euro 2012 football tournament in Poland and Ukraine are well on track, the ruling body UEFA said on Friday with nine days left until the qualifying group draw.

The February 7 draw in Warsaw is the first big event around the tournament which created various problems in the early stages after the two Eastern European nations were elected hosts in 2007.

‘Preparations for Euro 2012 are going well,’ UEFA general secretary Gianni Infantino told the body’s website after an executive board meeting on Thursday in Malta.

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The final tournament of European football championships in 2012 will start one day earlier than originally planned.

The opening match at the National Stadium in Warsaw will take place on 8 June, not 9 June. Information about the change of the date was confirmed by PAP spokesman of the company Euro 2012 Poland Julius Głuski.

The decision, which was formally approved at the meeting of the UEFA Executive Committee in December, is justified by the need to extend the period of rest between the group phase and quarterfinals.

According to the new schedule, team players advancing to the next phase of tournaments will have three days of rest before the next meeting.

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Euro 2012 will take place in four Polish and four Ukrainian cities with the final match in Kiev – decided UEFA Executive Committee, which finishes deliberations on the Portuguese island, Madera.

Recent decisions of the government, which granted additional means for preparations and approved financial plan, decided about such division – admitted Michael Platini.

- It’s victory of Ukraine – said, with relief, the Prime Minister Julia Tymoszenko at a special press conference. – I’m happy that the championships will take place in all four Ukrainian cities!

Likewise most of the Ukrainians who were anxiously waiting for UEFA’s decisions. Now Ukraine may breathe a sigh of relief – we got everything we’ve been concerned about since May.

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The European Football Union announced on Wednesday a division into six baskets before eliminations of the 2012 European Championships in Poland and Ukraine.

The ceremony will be held on 7 February 2010 in the Congress Hall in Warsaw.

UEFA made the division based on the team ranking, which incorporates the results in qualifications and tournaments of the World Cup finals in 2006 and ME 2008, as well as eliminations for next year’s World Cup in South Africa.

In the first basket, which is made up of nine top teams, the following ones are included: Spain – European Champion, Germany, the Netherlands, Italy – World Champion, England, Croatia, Portugal, France and Russia.

Poland and Ukraine, as owners, are guaranteed a place in EURO 2012, but taking into account the ranking they would be found in the third basket. (read more…)

Poles are running ahead of schedule with their preparations.

Poland is ahead of schedule in its preparations for the 2012 European Soccer Championship. The UEFA commission recently visited Poland and Ukraine to assess the situation and approved the progress made in the Polish cities of Warsaw, Poznan, Gdansk, and Wroclaw, which will host the soccer games. Poland hopes that Ukraine will keep to its schedule and will clear the backlog, otherwise it will be denied the right to host the soccer championship.

Our Euro-2012 host cities are Kyiv, Donetsk, Lviv, and Kharkiv. However, if one compares the situation in Kharkiv and Poznan, one pair of the Euro-2012 partner host cities, in terms of renovation and construction of stadiums, maintenance of highways, the availability of European-standard hotels, etc., the picture here is lamentable. Masej Malewicz, a Poznan official and a Euro-2012 organization committee member, proudly displays a business card that says “Poznan. It’s worth living here.”

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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 participate in the international event. Preparations in those cities are continuing apace.

Preparations on track

In announcing the decision, UEFA president Michel Platini stressed that all the six candidate cities had met the criteria necessary to organize the tournament. He said that the exclusion of Kraków and Chorzów resulted from their alternate location status.

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During meeting today in Bucharest, the UEFA Executive Committee examined and discussed the state of infrastructure preparations for the final tournament of the 2012 UEFA European Championship due to be held in Poland and Ukraine from 9 June until 1 July 2012.

After careful consideration of the evaluation reports prepared by the UEFA administration and consultation with the host associations, the UEFA Executive Committee took the following decisions concerning the selection of host cities for UEFA EURO 2012™:

Host cities in Poland

Progress has been made in the preparation of infrastructure in all four proposed and two reserve cities in Poland. UEFA considers that all six cities are currently in a position to fulfil the conditions for hosting matches at UEFA EURO 2012™ despite the huge amount of work that still must be undertaken to guarantee the full and proper implementation of the tournament requirements.

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