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Overview-
The up and coming U21 European Championship 2007 that
is going to be held in Holland is in its 16th year. The qualifiers for the competition
started in May 2006. UEFA are the sponsors of this competition. The tournament
is a smaller version of the European Championships that the first teams play
in. The tournament is played out of season, at the end of the season in fact.
Ahead of the competition a host for the tournament was chosen. This was Holland.
So, because they are hosting the tournament, they didn't have to go through
the qualifying groups to make it to the tournament proper. This is the same
for any country who hosts this tournament. As well as hosting the tournament
and being entered into the tournament because of this, they have the honor of
being the defending champions in this tournament. The Dutch fought off strong
competition from other countries like, England, Sweden Italy, Portugal and Turkey
who also submitted bids to be the host of this tournament. Bids for hosting
of the tournament are submitted by countries in December, 2 years before the
tournament. This is so that the host that is chosen are given time to get facilities
sorted and so that they can be excluded from qualifiers. In this years qualifying
rounds only one team did not enter. That was the Faroe Islands, which meant
that 50 out of the 52 nations in Europe were left to compete for the 7 remaining
qualifying spots at the finals. This year the finals are held between the 10th
June and 23rd June 2007. The tournament is roughly a month after the domestic
league finished for most of these young players. For the next 13 days you can
catch all the coverage of the tournament live streamed on your pc. An interesting
fact about this year's tournament is that for the first time the tournament
is being held in an odd numbered year.
Structure of the Tournament
The lucky nations that made it through to the final in Holland are to play
the football over 13 days. The first match being played on the 10th June and
live football streaming is available. The even teams who qualified from the
play-offs, and went through to the finals, along with Holland, have being split
into two groups of four and the teams in both groups will play each other once.
The two top teams from each group will go through to the semi finals. There
will be no last 16, or quarterfinals to be played, just straight to the semi
finals. The four teams will compete for a place in the final. The two teams
who win the semi final matches will go through to the final and play each other
on the 23rd June. The final will be shown live so you don't have to miss a thing.
Italy and England are the favorites to win the tournament,
but this tournament can provide many shocks for the teams. That is why we have
provided you with the ability to watch all live football from Holland
on your PC.
As Italy and England are the top two favorites to win the tournament, it makes
it an even bigger climax as they were both drawn to play each other in the group
stages. Could this be a warm up before the final?
Whatever the outcome of the tournament you can be sure that the teams entertain
you. Every single player who is competing this year is under 21, very young
and have a chance of going on to play for the proper national sides. So there
will be a lot at stake for players, teams and managers to get results perform
well and win the tournament. See live streams of the tournament, and never miss
a single ball being kicked.
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