UEFA EURO 2012 Qualifying Draw (top seeds in bold) Group A: Germany , Turkey, Austria, Belgium, Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan Group B: Russia , Slovakia, Eire, Macedonia, Armenia, Andorra Group C: Italy , Serbia, N.Ireland, Slovenia, Estonia, Faroe Islands Group D: France , Romania, Bosnia-Hrzg., Belarus, Albania, Luxembourg Group E: Netherlands , Sweden, Finland, Hungary, Moldova, S an M arino 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 Rep., Scotland, Lithuania, Liechtenstein The nine group winners and best runner-up qualify automatically . The eight remaining second-place teams play-off to decide the final four qualifiers. Ties take place between September 2010 and November 2011. PALACE OF CULTURE & SCIENCE, WARSAW - Like Georgia & Russia, Armenia & Azerbaijan could not be drawn against each other for political reasons, so it was a humorous moment when Polish soccer legend Zbigniew Boniek kick-started the afternoon by drawing the Caucasian neighbours against each other. Boniek picked the teams along with compatriot Andrzek Szarmach and Ukrainian legends Oleg Blokhin and Andriy Shevchenko. Little stirred amongst the watching press pack and UEFA blazers until the final pot containing Europe's big guns was opened. Germany will renew acquaintances with two familiar countries it knocked out of Euro 2008 - Austria and Turke y. The clash with Turkey is sure to be hot one given the huge Anatolian expat presence in Germany; Belgium will hope to sneak in behind these neighbourly disputes as it seeks to become one of the major Euro pean footballing nations again, as it was in the 1980s. Group B's drawing provided the biggest sighs in the hall as all neutrals were p raying for a repeat of France against the Republic of Ireland. Russia were drawn instead and wil l be eager to bounce back after missing the boat for South Africa; Slovakia, the only World Cup qualifier among them, provide the m ain opposition to those two. Italy's Marcello Lippi chose to stay at h ome, leaving Angelo Petruzzi to answer questions, and Lippi will be pleasantly surprised, although World Cup qualifiers Serbia and Slovenia will provide real tests for the Azzurri awa y from home. France in reality got lucky with a kind draw: Romania and Bosnia-Herzegovina are far from the worst teams they could have faced. Group E should be no trouble for the Netherlands, while Sweden and Hungary renew acquaintances after their mutually unsuccessful World Cup qualifying attempts. Sweden also have a Scandinavian border derby wi th Finland to look forward to. Euro 2004 winners Greece have an even chance of r eturning to the finals having been drawn into a balanced-looking group containing Croatia, Israel, Latvia and Georgia, while England will be confident of topping Group G ahead of Switzerland. Fabio Capello's men also have a mini return to the days of the Home Championship with Wales to play twice. Winning Group H looks tough for Portugal, who struggled in the World Cup qualifiers; Carlos Queiroz is surely hoping the local derbies between Denmark and Norway end in two ties. Finally, reigning champions Spain should have safe passage from Group I where the Czechs and the Scots will battle it out for second place. Europe's middle-ranking nations still provide the occasional shock such as Ukraine's quarter-final finish in the 2006 World Cup or Turkey's semi-final run at Euro 2008, but there do not seem to be enough sleeping giants to call any of the groups a group of death. As of now, the lineup for 2012 right now looks like being the cast of usual suspects. (c) Sean O'Conor & Soccerphile Tags Soccer News football

WARSAW, EURO 2012 Qualifying Draw As if worrying about Ukraine's hotels, roads and airports was not enough, UEFA President Michel Platini had other questions to answer in his press conference on the eve of the European Championship qualifying draw. Depressingly, four separate English journalists asked him the same question in different wording about John Terry's sex scandal, speciously implying a parallel with the one in 1982 when France sent Jean-Francois Larios home from the World Cup after he had been seeing Platini's wife. Thankfully the French legend was made of stronger stuff than to lower himself to those hacks' baiting, but seemed to lose patience eventually by replying 'I really don't care', which was met by applause by some non-Anglo writers. Platini did deflect a question about misbehaving rich stars by alluding to his plan to ban insolvent clubs from UEFA competitions. "What annoys me are the clubs who pay these high salaries when they don’t have the money," he made a point of telling the hall. Platini had started the press conference by referring to the continued uncertainly over the host nations' suitability in many eyes. "We are working on it...these things will develop," he semi-reassured the gathered media, whose experience of snowbound Warsaw has probably been a shock after the effortless charm of Vienna in the summer of 2008. After many deadlines, the eight venues are now at last "final" according to Platini, but o ne journalist still asked if Krakow, with its tourist infrastructure, might not yet replace one of the Ukrainian venues: The UEFA President said that was a matter for the national associations. The spread of stadia still looks daunting. In the media guide, train journey times are listed with the transfer between Gdansk and Donetsk taking a whopping 30hours at best... Then came the question of extra referees, with Platini defending his preference for more referees over more use of cameras. "I'm really a fan of the human method (of refereeing) rather than the technological method," he explained, adding he didn't want to let cameras run the officiating and noting that basketball had added extra officials over time. This led inevitably to Thierry Henry and Platini was quick to defend the referee in question from opprobrium: " The ref could not see a hand," he said. "It was a problem of refereeing rather than the referee – he is not to blame, though you could all see it on television." A rematch between the French and Irish in the qualifiers is one he would welcome, however. "Yes, I would love that," Platini smiled. In reality that would not produce anything like the sort of tension which led UEFA to extraordinarily add two political caveats to tomorrow's draw: Old enemies Armenia and Azerbaijan cannot meet each other and neither can Georgia and Russia, following their military fracas two years ago. The introduction of what he called "geopolitics" into football was interesting. Russia's looming presence as former guardian of Ukraine and the controller of Europe's gas supplies has allegedly been the reason Ukraine kept its hosting prize when it looks in no shape to be ready in time. "To avoid political problems, we don't want to mix sport up with politics," explained Platini, in self-conscious equivocation. What was that draw caveat if not political then? Platini has a lot on his plate all right, but seems well able to manage. Shortly having taken over the job from Lennart Johansson, Platini confessed, "I quickly realised I was dealing with different mindsets and different philosophies, from Siberia all the way to Portugal." 53 nations' coaches will assemble tomorrow in the Palace of Culture and Science, although Italy's Marcello Lippi will apparently not be there because he wants to watch Serie A games. Unusually, some qualifiers will be played on Fri/Tues instead of Sat/Weds for 2012, but otherwise the format is familiar with six graded pots of teams to select six groups of six and three of five. The nine group winners and best runners-up qualify automatically and the remaining eight runners-up have playoffs to decide four teams to go through. Poland and Ukraine qualify automatically as hosts. (c) Sean O'Conor & Soccerphile Tags Soccer News football

Poland and Ukraine will host the 2012 European Championships. Poland and Ukraine's joint bid beat out favorites Italy and the joint Croatia and Hungary bid. Despite a recent match-fixing scandal in Poland, 3rd favorites Poland and Ukraine's joint bid got the nod from UEFA in a major shock. The 2012 tournament will be played in four Ukrainian cities (Dnipropetrovsk, Donetsk, Kiev and Lviv) and among four of six possible Polish venues (Gdansk, Krakow, Poznan, Warsaw, Wroclaw and Chorzow). Kiev's Olympic Stadium with a capacity of 80,000 will be the venue for the final.