Euro U21 finals set

Qualification for next summer's UEFA U21 Tournament in Israel has finished with only England and Spain returning from the 2011 finals in Denmark.

All the big Euro guns have made it through this time, with the exception of France, eliminated by Norway in the playoffs.

Spain will be looking to regain their crown and erase the memory of their Olympic failure in London and Germany will be aiming to maintain the youth revolution which saw the likes of Mesut Ozil and Sami Khedira take the stage at U21 level in 2009.

England offer Stuart Pearce a final chance to audition for the England senior job, while the Netherlands, winners in 2006 and 2007, are back having missed out on the last two finals.

Qualifiers:

England
Germany
Israel (hosts)
Italy
Netherlands
Norway
Russia
Spain (holders)

In 2013 the tournament travels to the far eastern reach of UEFA, Israel with games scheduled for four stadia:

Jerusalem (33,500), Tel Aviv (14,413), Netanya (13,800) and Petah Tikva (11,500) will host the finals from  the 5th to the 18th of June 2013.

Whilst Israel is in Europe for footballing purposes because the Arab nations in the AFC refuse to play them, the scheduling of a UEFA tournament in a high-profile trouble-spot has not gone all smoothly.

Eric Cantona was one of many who have spoken out against awarding a competition to Israel while certain footballers are imprisoned without trial, a protest echoed by the Palestinian F.A.

Next summer is sure to be another hot one for Michel Platini.

The draw for the finals takes place on the 28th of November.

(c) Sean O'Conor & Soccerphile

Tags

World Soccer football

Turkish delight mixed with regret

Germany has announced it will not bid for Euro 2020, leaving Turkey with a clear field to host the tournament.

Tuesday the 15th of May is the deadline for bids to be received at UEFA headquarters, but if no other nation submits an application, it is probable the announcement of the winning Turkish bid will be brought forward from December 2013 or January 2014.

Having missed out on Euro 2016 by a single vote, in an election UEFA President Michel Platini was strongly rumoured to have influenced in favour of his home nation, Turkey should be celebrating winning the rights to host 2020.

However, Istanbul is also in the running for that summer's Olympic Games, yet the city's bid, which the Turkish government is understood to prefer to the European Championships, will be shot down in flames should no other European nation bid for Euro 2020. UEFA and the IOC have made it clear that no country will host both major tournaments within the space of a couple of months.

Bulgaria-Romania and the Netherlands ruled themselves out last month, apparently in the belief Turkey was a shoe-in, while the Deutscher Fussball Bund implied the same as it withdrew its bid this week, claiming it was time for other nations to host the competition.


The opposition now looks non-existent. Italy is beset with fan violence and match-fixing, while Spain's acute economic woes mean the country has more pressing concerns with an unemployment rate of 24.4%.

Noises about joint bids from Hungary & Romania and from Bosnia-Herzegovina, Croatia and Serbia have gone quiet recently, leaving Azerbaijan & Georgia as the last potential challengers.

The Azerbaijani capital Baku however, is also bidding for the 2020 Olympics, the deadline for whose bids falls on the 23rd of May, a week after that of Euro 2012.



Hosts since 1980
Euro 1980: Italy
Euro 1984: France
Euro 1988: West Germany
Euro 1992: Sweden
Euro 1996: England
Euro 2000: Belgium & Netherlands
Euro 2004: Portugal
Euro 2008: Austria & Switzerland
Euro 2012: Poland & Ukraine
Euro 2016: France


(c) Sean O'Conor & Soccerphile

Tags

Euro 2012 football