Soccer Instructions

As the Spanish were crowned World Cup winners in Soweto, the curtain came down on the very first World Cup to be organised in Africa. European countries completed a 1-2-3 with Spain beating Holland in the World Cup final along with Germany taking third place with a 3-2 victory over Uruguay.

This mostly goes to strengthen the theory that European football is the most effective on the planet and that the European Championships are a exceptional tournament. Qualifiers for the Euro 2012 finals will start in September and regardless of finishing third, Germany will most likely be amongst the favourites to win the title. Their more youthful players manufactured some stunning football throughout the World Cup Tournament with Thomas Muller winning lifting the Golden Boot with 5 goals and 3 assists. With the help of additional young starlets like Ozil, Boateng and Kediera, the Germans will be among the nations to beat.

As present World and European champions, Spain will undoubtedly be a really difficult opponent. The majority of their players will still be young enough in 2012 to give strong opposition and they should certainly be wanting to defend their title.

For once Netherlands managed to leave their individual egos at home at the World Cup tournament and for that reason, they got to their 3rd World Cup final conquering numerous peoples favourite, Brazil, on the way. With better finishing from Robben, Holland may well have won the match instead of Spain and they will hope to continue in the same vein for the duration of Euro 2012.

The traditionally powerful nations of France, England and Italy all failed miserably in South Africa and consequently, the curtain will definitely come down on a great many of the older players careers. England have numerous fantastic young players to take to the international stage and if they can copy the Germans, there will be huge hopes between the English fans.

The Euro 2012 host nations of Poland and Ukraine will both see massive support but inevitably, they possibly accomplish not have the quality to seriously challenge for the title.

As England left these shores for South Africa a few weeks ago, there was much hope that at long last, the team could well bring the trophy home. Even so, that dream was destroyed in no uncertain terms by the old enemy Germany in Bloemfontein as England crashed out of the tournament losing 4-1. How could such an experienced team who qualified so effortlessly fail to perform? Not surprisingly, the English media has come up with no dearth of scape goats and causes for what was England’s worst defeat at a World Cup. There has been a good amount of talk about the Italian manager, formations and more but the troubles are far deeper.

Since its formation in 1992, the EPL has achieved amazing success as an international brand. The cost of this success has been felt by English football. Improved television income has forced wages higher and higher. Therefore this has meant there has been a growing gulf among club and country. Teams pay their footballers a good deal of money and are ever more hesitant to let their footballers appear for their countries.

In turn, footballers get hugely rewarded by EPL clubs to the extent that success is categorized by getting rewarding contracts as opposed to anything they accomplish on the field. Typical players who rarely turn out for their clubs are still millionaires and after these footballers put money ahead of playing matches at club level, there can be little doubt they don’t have the mental strength or hunger to play international football.

In the past, there was always a regional reserve league which ensured young players from lower league teams could possibly be guaranteed to play against decent reserve sides from bigger clubs like Arsenal, Tottenham Hotspurs and Manchester United. Nonetheless, in recent years, the Premier League has changed hence they will only play versus other Premier League reserve clubs. This means that Championship reserve teams no longer get to play against Premiership sides. For clubs like Ipswich Town, it means their reserve team now plays against Stevenage as opposed to Tottenham and this drop in standard in opposition undoubtedly has a negative effect on the learning curve of young footballers.

With so much wealth at stake, things are geared to EPL survival. Teams spend large sums of money securing allegedly first-class foreign managers and players in a bid to preserve their Premiership status. The ambition of promoted clubs to the Premiership extends no further than finished 4th bottom. The EPL cash bonanza means that Premier League clubs can provide £1-2m for young footballers at lower division teams. The players are keen to move and secure their financial futures but it may well also signal the end of their careers. The young Crystal Palace star signed for Spurs but seldom made an appearance and was last heard of on loan at Brentford, a league lower than when he was at Crystal Palace. From a football outlook, Bostock would have been best served staying at Palace and learning his trade. How many more young footballers careers are cut down like this chasing the money instead of playing the fixture?  It’s difficult to blame the young players for taking the money.

There is also the usual accusation that teams play too many games in England and an increasing number of managers want a winter break. Having said that, players don’t seem to be tired the minute asked to fly off to the Usa or Far East on pre-season tours. Or how about England’s friendly match next June away in Thailand?

There are too many ready made excuses for failure that players are ready to accept. They live a life well away from the real world with their mansions, flashy cars and trophy wives. Basically, there is not enough hunger or desire.

The fixture in Thailand also shows another problem. Together with the Premiership being an international brand, so are the England team. Supporters want to view the big Premier League stars play for England and in friendlies like this, those stars will be expected, if not contracted, to turn out.  Even so, it is not the case that the very best 11 players make the leading team. Too the majority of players are in the team based on reputation rather than performances. Young footballers should be promoted into the senior squad sooner.

For the imminent Euro 2012 campaign, England should do away with the services of all players aged 30 or over. None of them have played to their ability in South Africa thus why should we persist with them. It would be much better to promote younger footballers who may still be hungry for success. Nevertheless, while the worshiping of the Premiership persists, things are unlikely to improve anytime quickly.

The UEFA Euro 2012 Finals  will be co-hosted by Poland and Ukraine. The event is the last one to be 16 teams as the subsequent one in 2016 will increase in size to 24 teams. Poland and Ukraine defeated Italy and Croatia/Hungary for the right to host the tournament.

 

The matches will basically be split 50/50 between the two hosts. Polish cities to host games will be Warsaw, Gdansk, Wroclaw and Poznan. The Ukrainian towns will be Kiev, Lviv, Kharkiv and Donetsk.

 

The final will take place in Kiev which will also hold a semi-final. This will be at the Olimpiysky National Sports Complex which after construction will be one of the best stadiums and sporting complexes on earth. The new venue in Warsaw is also being built and guarantees to be a state of the art venue.

 

The draw for the tournament has been carried out and qualifying fixtures will commence just after the 2010 World Cup. Each of the nine group winners and the best runner-up will gain direct entry into the finals. Following that the remaining eight runner-up will be drawn into two-legged playoffs.

 

From Group A you would suppose Germany and Turkey would be too powerful with Austria and Belgium being the contenders.

Group B looks to be a 3 way contest with Russia, Slovakia and Ireland.

 

In Group C it looks like it will be comfortable for Italy and Serbia. France is the most likely from Group D with Romania looking at the one to take runner-up.

 

There is a northern European vibe to Group E where it should be Netherlands and Sweden.

 

Croatia and Greece are the favorites in terms of Group F as are England and Switzerland for Group G.

 

From Group H it looks like Portugal and Denmark and finally from Group I it would look like Spain and the Czech Republic.

 

Qualifying ends in October 2011 by which time enthusiasm and expectation for the UEFA Euro 2012 Championships will be well and truly underway.