Football refers to a number of sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball with the foot to score a goal.Various forms of "football" can be identified in history, often as popular peasant games

Early Ball History

Through out history, humans have enjoyed kicking a ball or something like a ball. South American Indians were known to use a light elasticized ball. However; rubber was not to be practically manufactured until a few thousand years later. According to historical references and legend, early balls ranged from human heads, stitched up cloth, animal and human skulls to pig or cow bladders.

It is known for a fact that "soccer" was played in 600 A.D. in Kyoto, Japan. Later, football was played in the United Kingdom by people of all sorts. The king of England thought that Football should be banned because of how dangerous it was, but no one could stop soccer because it had become too popular of a sport. Today Football is all over the world and considered to be the most popular sport of all.

The 2012 UEFA European Football Championship, commonly referred to as Euro 2012, will be the 14th European Championship for national football teams sanctioned by UEFA. The final tournament will be hosted by Poland and Ukraine between 8 June and 1 July 2012.This will be the last European Championship finals tournament to contain 16 nations; 24 will compete from Euro 2016 onward. Qualification will be contested by 51 nations between August 2010 and November 2011 to join the two host nations in the tournament.

Match ballAdidas Tango 12The official match ball for UEFA Euro 2012 is the Adidas Tango 12, which is designed to be easier to dribble and control than the reportedly unpredictable Adidas Jabulani used at the 2010 FIFA World Cup.

Host Countries

Cities Hosts

Euro 2012 will be spread over four cities in Poland: Warsaw, Gdansk, Poznan, Wroclaw; and four cities in Ukraine: Kiev, Lviv, Kharkiv and Donetsk. Kyiv is the capital of Ukraine and one of the largest cities in Europe. Its territory is 839 km2. The city population is over 4 mln citizens. Of them, around 2.7 mln live in Kyiv on a constant basis. The city itself and the neighbouring area constitute an agglomeration with total population of 5 mln. Kyiv is the main political centre of the country.

Lviv is a city in the west of Ukraine. It is the seventh in terms of population in Ukraine. In 2007, 735,000 inhabitants lived in Lviv. The city`s area is 171 square кm.

Donetsk is a city in the east of Ukraine, the heart of strong industrial centre Donbass. The city population is about 1 million. The city`s area is 996 square кm. From the north to the south, the city stretches for 38 km, and from the east to the west – for 55 km. Total length of its streets exceeds 2,500 km.

Kharkiv is a city in the North-East of Ukraine, administrative center of Kharkiv region. Its population is 1 470 900 inhabitants, city area is 306 839 km2. It is the second Ukrainian city by population number.

Warsaw is the capital of Poland. It is located on the Vistula River. Nowadays the population of Warsaw numbers 1.7 mln of inhabitants. The area of the city covers 516.9 square kilometres.Gdansk is the city in the North of Poland. The area of the city is 261. 6 km². Its population is 463 thousand people. Wroclaw is the main city in south-western Poland, situated on the River Oder. Wrocław was the historical capital of Silesia. It is one of the largest (forth by population size) and oldest Polish cities. The area of the city is 293 km². Its population is 632,996 inhabitants. Poznan is the city in the central part of Western Poland, on the Warta river, large business, industrial and educational center of Poland. Its population is 556 022 inhabitants. The area of the city is 261.85 km².

Stadiums

Warsaw-National Stadium Capacity: 50,000[10] ,

3 matches in Group A:

opening match, quarter-final, semi-final

Warsaw, National Stadium Capacity

Poznań

Municipal Stadium

Capacity: 40,000

3 matches in Group C

Gdańsk

PGE Arena Capacity: 40,000

3 matches in Group C

quarter-final

“Baltic Arena“ Gdansk

WroсławMunicipal Stadium

Capacity: 40,000

3 matches in Group A

Stadion « Miejski «

Kiev

Olympic Stadium Capacity: 60,000

3 matches in Group D

quarter-final, final

NSC « Olimpiyskiy»

Donetsk

Donbass Arena

Capacity: 50,000

3 matches in Group D

quarter-final, semi-final

«Donbass Arena»

LvivArena Lviv

Capacity: 30,000

3 matches in Group B

"Arena Lviv"

Kharkiv

Metalist Stadium

Capacity: 35,000

3 matches in Group B

Metalist Stadium

Logo and slogan• The official logo for the tournament was unveiled at a special event

at Mykhailivska Square, Kiev, on 14 December 2009.

• The logo is shows the stalk of a flower with three branches. A ball is depicted around the central flower, with the left flower being red and white (the colors of Poland’s flag) and the right flower being yellow and blue (the colors of Ukraine’s flag).

• The competition slogan, “Creating History Together” (Polish: Razem tworzymy przyszłość, Ukrainian: Творимо історію разом / Tvorymo istoriyu razom), was announced along with the logo. The slogan reflects the fact that Poland and Ukraine represent the easternmost host nations in European Championship history.

Mascots Polish and Ukrainian twins Slavek & Slavko

Slavek and Slavko are the official mascots of the UEFA Euro 2012. They are twins and represent Polish and Ukrainian footballers in national colours. The mascots were announced in December 2010.[38] Similarly as in 2008 names Slavek and Slavko were chosen in the web voting, over "Siemko and Strimko" and "Klemek and Ladko". They were designed by Warner Bros.

Official songs ,Official anthem UEFA EURO 2012

• It was announced that "Endless Summer" by German singer Oceana would be the official song of the Official tournament.

Participating teams

• The finals will feature sixteen national teams, as has been the format since 1996

• The sixteen finalists who will participate in the final tournament are:

• Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark,England,• France, Germany,Greece, Italy ,the Netherlands,• Poland (co-hosts), Portugal, Republic of Ireland,• Russia, Spain,Sweden ,Ukraine (co-hosts).

Group A

Team Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts Poland 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

0 Greece 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

0 Russia 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Czech Republic

Group B

Team Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts Netherlands 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

0 Denmark 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

0 Germany 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

0 Portugal 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

0

Group C

Team Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts Spain 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Italy 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Republic of Ireland 0 0 0 0 0 0

0 0 Croatia 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

0

Group D

Team Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts Ukraine 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

0 Sweden 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

0 France0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 England 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

0

Quarter-finals21 June 2012 20:45 UTC+2 Winner Group A Match 25 Runner-up Group B National Stadium, Warsaw

22 June 2012 20:45 UTC+2 Winner Group B Match 26 Runner-up Group A PGE Arena, Gdańsk

23 June 2012 21:45 UTC+3 Winner Group C Match 27 Runner-up Group D Donbass Arena, Donetsk

24 June 2012 21:45 UTC+3 Winner Group D Match 28 Runner-up Group C Olympic Stadium, Kiev

Semi-finals27 June 2012 21:45 UTC+3Winner Match 25 Match 29 Winner Match 27 Donbass Arena,Donetsk

28 June 2012 20:45 UTC+2 Winner Match 26 Match 30 Winner Match 28 National Stadium, Warsaw

FinalFinal: 1 July 2012 21:45 UTC+3 Winner Match 29 Match 31 Winner Match 30 Olympic Stadium, Kiev