Euro 2012: Award it to Spain

This article was originally on a blog post platform and may be missing photos, graphics or links. See About archive blog posts.

In the summer gone by, Austria and Switzerland put on an excellent European Championship. In fact, Euro 2008 was one of the finest on record, with sellout crowds and dazzling soccer.

Only the weather, on occasion, failed to cooperate. But even the rain didn’t spoil things too much, and organizers walked away with huge smiles and a whopping $368-million profit.

In 2012, the next championship is supposed to be jointly staged by Poland and Ukraine, but it has been beset by problems from the outset. The sad economic state of affairs is one reason, but political bickering and general inefficiency in both countries also seem to be undermining the plan.

As a result, UEFA, the sport’s governing body in Europe, is in two minds about whether to allow the Poles and Ukrainians to keep Euro 2012, which was awarded to them in April of 2007. So far, no decision has been reached.

Here’s a quick bit of advice for Michel Platini, UEFA’s president, and the rest of the movers and shakers: Yank it out of there right now and award the event to Spain.

No one could argue that the Spanish would not be superb hosts. They are the reigning European champions, having won in fine style in June, and have not played host to a major international tournament since the 1982 World Cup.

Spain has the stadiums, it has the infrastructure, it has the fans, it has the climate, it has everything, in fact, to put on an excellent Euro 2012, the last 16-team event before the field is increased to 24 for Euro 2016.

Sure, Italy was one of the losers when Poland and Ukraine won the bid. But Italy is still a loser. It can’t even control its own hooligan element never mind those of all Europe. A joint bid by Croatia and Hungary also lost out in the bidding, but their claims cannot match what Spain has to offer.

At first, it was only Ukraine that seemed unable to rise to the challenge of staging a top-flight international event, but now the Poles are quietly having second thoughts.

‘If the European Championships took place in 2016, we would have no problem to be ready then,’ Michal Listkiewicz, president of the Polish soccer federation, told a German newspaper earlier this week.

‘If things don’t go well now, and UEFA has another suggestion, then that would be in order.’

In other words, there would be no huge outcry in Warsaw or Kiev if UEFA simply gave the two countries an extra four years to get their act together and moved Euro 2012 to a more salubrious location.

Spain is the answer. It couldn’t be more obvious.

-- Grahame L. Jones