It is bittersweet. By this time, the Netherlands will for sure be the 3rd favorite after France and Germany, and they will absolutely host the best tournament to date. Without doubt, the emergence of Miedema was a factor. She will be a great marketing tool to follow not just in Netherlands, but across Europe. On the other hand, it would have been fun to see her score 6 goals a game against the weakest of the weak during qualification.
Germany *barely* won in 2013, I'm seriously hoping and somewhat expecting someone to finally get the better of them this coming Euro.
Instead, they will have to seek friendly matches against a strong team somewhere in the world that is not busy with Euro quals
On another note, Andorra has entered the tournament for the first time ever. 47 nations have entered the tournament. My guess is they have a 12 team preliminary round divided into 3 groups of 4. The top two from each group move on to join the 34 other countries entered(expect hosts Netherlands) for the next round where they be divided into 8 groups of 5 teams each.
I don't know if anyone else saw the news but on the French website footofemin, they say that netherlands were the only possible choice as all other candidates had withdrawn or not presented their bid... "Seul candidat en lice, les Pays-Bas ont été désignés pays hôte du championnat d'Europe féminin de l'UEFA 2017, dont les éliminatoires débuteront en avril 2015."
Yeah, the situation is not like we have other candidates piling up. Some of them with women's programs are not good enough, some have bid or plan to bid for other tourneys, some were recently hosts, some are in financial trouble due to the crisis etc. But Denmark, Poland, Belgium, Austria would have been decent choices too.
How come when FIFA has one bid it's a conspiracy, but when it happens in UEFA there are natural reasons for it? Surely this is all political machinations.
UEFA is far from perfection but it is no where near as good in corruption and faking tourneys as those rural shit-kickers supporting FIFA. And when they dared to pull a Canada-like fake then people would riot in the streets instead of "bending forward" for the big bogeyman.
UEFA did a great U19 on turf in Norway. Not a single person ever referred to it as a fake tourney. Maybe I missed the riot but I actually don't remember anyone even saying anything about the turf.
Cause nobody cares about U19ies - we know your opinion about youth football. With the attribute fake in this case I refered to the bidding and awarding process of tourneys as bidding was the talking point. As in Fifa giving the WC to some subarctic backwater who cant fulfill the minimum requirements. But still, the Sweden case showed if UEFA dared to do so with major tourneys then only with ensuring they would fulfill the requirements. We have seen Sweden and Finland and no one at UEFA even thought of faking it. Im sure we had seen some good rioting if they had. There's also no reason for UEFA since all members are more or less developed footy countries that gnerally pile up for hosting tourneys whilst FIFA in order to print even more money ensures it goes where's still money to be made inestead of awarding it to the best bid. I hope you see the difference now.
Shhhh. Don't tell anyone but if you don't meet the requirements you don't get to host. Let's keep that on the down low. When you have one bid the bid you have is the best bid
The question you should be asking yourselves is like Trappatoni once put it: "if the opponent has the ball, the question always has to be: why?" Why is Canada allowed to host without meeting the minimum standards of decency, professionalism, etc. Why was Canada the only one to bid? Best then not neccessarily equals good but rather "miserable rest".
LOL. The reason we're hosting what will be a fantastic tournament is because we're the real deal. And let's stop polluting this Euro thread with it...
Becuase but USA and the UEFA countries where told they had it recently and they should let someone else have it now. Leaving hardly anyone capable to run it, and of those few left Canada was the only ones interested (Zimbabe may have been interested but hardly capable) .
Exactly. That leads you to the question "why" did they or what was FIFAs motive for crying it out loud to do that. The answer has to do with the sound that goes "ching ching" - not with a sudden "hey look there's a new country, why dont we just play there?" That Euro17 goes to where old Europe plunges into the North Sea instead has nothing to do with it. Since UEFAs primary objective is different, they are willing to mandate minimum requirements. Like it happened with Sweden.
If only we could call the World Cup the EURO and always run it in Europe according to the European way of doing things and never have to deal with the issues of a larger world. Scary.
Yeah and why do we play the game according to association rules? Everybody could do as they like e.g we could carry the ball with our hands over the goal line. Yeah, why not?
I've been to both a men's and women's EURO. Great tournaments, great fun. I spend a month a year in the Netherlands and am looking forward to catching as many of the matches as possible. Great move by the federation. If they can move even 2% of the field hockey players into football it will have a major impact. Hup Holland Hup.
Are you sure youve been to the Netherlands and not just Amsterdam in Saskatchewan? But yes Holland is great. Been there, liked it. Weird is people dont have curtains. Could be the first Women's tourney Ill go to.
The preliminary tournament has been set-up. Tournament will run from April 4-9. Group A: Moldova(hosts), Latvia, Luxembourg & Lithuania. Group B: Malta(hosts), Andorra, Georgia & Faroe Islands. Group winners advance to next round. Netherlands have qualified for the final tournament as hosts. The other 38 participating countries plus the two qualifiers will be divided up into 8 groups of 5 teams each. The other 38 nations participating are: Germany, France, Sweden, Norway, England, Italy, Spain, Iceland, Russia, Denmark, Finland, Switzerland, Scotland, Austria, Ukraine, Belgium, Poland, Czech Republic, Ireland, Wales, Romania, Hungary, Serbia, Belarus, Portugal, Slovakia, Northern Ireland, Bosnia, Turkey, Israel, Slovenia, Greece, Estonia, Croatia, Kazakhstan, Albania, Macedonia & Montenegro. Not participating: Azerbaijan, Cyprus, Bulgaria, Gibraltar, Armenia, San Marino & Liechtenstein.
According to someone I have met in Croatia, the attitude towards women's football there is still in the dark ages ...
Preliminary Round April 4 GROUP A Moldova 2 - Lithuania 0 Luxembourg 4 - Latvia 3 GROUP B Georgia 2 - Faroe Islands 0 Malta 5 - Andorra 3