The draw for the UEFA Euro 2012 qualifying competition took place in Warsaw on 7 February
2010. 51 teams entered to compete for the 14 remaining places in the finals, alongside
co-hosts Poland and Ukraine. These teams were divided into nine groups, with the draw using
the new UEFA national team coefficient for the first time in order to determine the
seedings.
The qualifying process began in August 2010 and concluded in November 2011. At the
conclusion of the qualifying group stage in October 2011, the nine group winners qualified
automatically, with the second placed team with the best ranking also doing so. The
remaining eight teams who finished second in their respective groups contested two-legged
play-offs, with the winner of each tie qualifying for the finals.
Participating teams
Euro 2012 hosts - Poland & Ukraine
The defending champions
Qualified
Failed to qualify
Country is not a UEFA member
The finals will feature sixteen national teams, as has been the format since 1996. Some
European football associations were in favour of expanding the tournament to 24 teams,
although the number of UEFA members had hardly increased since the last tournament extension
in 1996 (53 in April 2006 compared to 48 for Euro 1996). In April 2007, UEFA's Executive
Committee formally decided against an expansion for 2012.
Twelve of the sixteen finalists participated at the previous tournament in 2008, with
England and Denmark returning having last participated in 2004. The Republic of Ireland
return after an absence of 24 years to make their second appearance at a European finals.
One of the co-hosts, Ukraine, make their debut as an independent nation, having previously
won the inaugural competition in 1960 as part of the Soviet Union.
Many of the medicines taken were anti-inflammatory drugs such as NSAIDs (non-steroidal
anti-inflammatories, such as ibuprofen) or injected corticosteroids and local anaesthetics.
What has caused concern amongst health professionals, the Daily Mail notes, is that the
level of drugs taken represents an increase in use compared with previous World Cups in 2006
in Germany and 2002 in Japan and South Korea.
To put the study into context, though, the research was purely an observational study and it
did not look at specific reasons for the prescribing of painkillers.
The research was funded by FIFA (Fédération Internationale de Football Association) and
carried out by the FIFA Medical Assessment and Research Center in Switzerland. The study was
published in the peer reviewed British Journal of Sports Medicine.
The Guardian quotes Dr Jiri Dvorak, the chief medical officer of football's ruling body, who
expresses his concern: "I think we can use the word 'abuse' because the dimension is just
too much. Unfortunately there is the trend to increase the intake of medication. It is
something that we have to take seriously and ask what is behind it?"
The concern is not only with the amount of pills popped as a statement on FIFA's website
indicates, some players may use painkillers to mask the pain of an existing problem and that
this may be "dangerous".
Euro 2008 winners, Spain have qualified to defend their title. They will compete to win an
unprecedented third consecutive major tournament, having won both UEFA Euro 2008 and the
2010 FIFA World Cup.
The sixteen finalists who will participate in the final tournament are:
Croatia
Czech Republic
Denmark
England
France
Germany
Greece
Italy
Netherlands
Poland (co-hosts)
Portugal
Republic of Ireland
Russia
Spain (defending champions)
Sweden
Ukraine (co-hosts)
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