The good
Spain won the European championship thereby becoming the first team to retain the Euros and also the first team to win three consecutive international titles cementing their status as the greatest international team of all time.
Since their victory there have been debates about which team is the greatest of all time.Brazil of the 70's, West Germany of the 70's France team of 1998 to 2000 on the current Spanish national team.No matter the debate, this Spanish team can lay claim to be one of the greatests ever. The Spanish team demonstrated good team spirit throughout the tournament.
There were reports before the tournament of rifts between the Barcelona and Real Madrid players but Vicente Del Bosque was able to bring the squad together.
The players put aside their individual differences all for the good of the team which was one of the major factors behind the successful retainment of the trophy. The 2014 World Cup is just two years away and most of the current players bar any injuries will definitely make the squad.
The core of the team is still young which is a frightening prospect for rivals ahead the next World Cup. No one can bet against them winning their fourth straight title and if they achieve that, they will be the greatest team of all time
One good thing about the tournament was the record number of attendances. Euro 2012 set the record for both the highest aggregate attendance (1,440,896) and the highest average attendance per game (46,481).Ukraine and Poland should be proud for hosting a magnificent tournament
The bad
One of the bad side of Euro 2012 was that it was the second consecutive European Championship (after Euro 2008 held in Austria and Switzerland) in which neither of the hosts emerged from the group stage, as both Poland and Ukraine got eliminated. But it didn't stop the fans thronging to the stadiums to watch the games.
Another bad of the tournament was the debate about goal line technology resurfaced after Ukraine scored a goal against England with replay showing that the ball crossed the line. UEFA used five officials for every game in the tournament and still the fifth official did not see the ball crossing the line.Now that goal line technology has been approved by FIFA, UEFA should follow suit to reduce game changing calls.
Holland is the definition of bad in this tournament. Despite boasting of world class players like Robben,Van Persie,Sneijder,Van Da Vaart,Huntelar and Affellay, they lost all their three games in the competition becoming the first time that the Dutch failed to win a single game in the group stage in any competition.
There were fights and divisions in the squad as some players publicly criticised the coach for his tactics and team selection,the egos in the team was too much for the coach to handle resulting to first round exit.
France also started the competiton on high playing a one all draw with England but fell apart from then.There was a reported training ground fight involving Nasir and Laurent Blanc lost control of the dressing room.
After their elimination in the hands of eventual winners Spain,Nasir publicly challenged a journalist to a fight to sum up his woeful tournament.It was also a tournament in which some big players failed to shine.Defenders were at the top of their game as the top scoreres in the competiton finished with just three goals.It was not a good tournament for the forwards.
The ugly
Even before the ball was kicked at the Euros ,racism was the focal point of attention.Most analysts argued that Ukraine and Poland should never have been given the hosting rights due to the incidence of racism and violence in the countries.
Racism reared its ugly head during the tournament, The Croatian Football Federation was fined €80,000 for racist chants and throwing a banana at Mario Balotelli.
Champions Spain has also been fined for fans' racist chants directed at Balotelli. Russia too has been fined for racist chanting, and leads the overall tally with €195,000 in fines for chanting, displaying nationalist flags, and setting off fireworks.
Germany was fined for displaying a Nazi banner stating "God is with us," the inscription on the belt buckles all of all Wehrmacht soldiers during World War II, and for Nazi chants.
It seems Racism is increasing daily in football. FIFA needs to clamp down and eliminate racism once and for all out of football.
Racism has always been and will always continue to be...what FIFA dosent understand is that they are the forerunners of racism..W̶̲̥̅̊ђγ̲̣̣̥ did they wait for too long before giving an African nation the hosting Right??abeg they should stop fighting what they protect joor