POLAND - The Polish cities where the 2012 UEFA Euro Championships will take place, have been the hosts for the Polish-Ukrainian Academic Football Tournament – StudentEuro 2011. The final games have been won by the Polish student teams.

The idea of this student competition arose when Ukraine and Poland were given the right to host the European Football Championships in 2012. At the initiative of the university sports organizations in both countries, with the support from the Ukrainian Universities and Sport Committee, the first tournament was organized. It took place in2010 infour Ukrainian Euro 2012 host cities.

The organizer of the second edition was the Polish University Sports Association (AZS). The student football players from 20 universities from both countries played in Gdansk, Poznan,Wroclaw and Warsaw. The main goal was to organize a tournament only for Polish-Ukrainian teams.

In the opinion of Secretary-General of AZS, Bartlomiej Korpak, both tournaments have been a big success, not only regarding sport aspects. ‘It was a big highlight for the Polish students to have the opportunity to visit such cities as Donetsk or Kharkov, which, due to the distance are not very often visited by Polish tourists. They saw there among other things the new built stadiums for Euro 2012, which were almost finished last year. We can observe in our student environment a rising interest in our west neighbor, the best proof of that is the high number of people who are learning Russian on their own initiative. Our Ukrainian guests were also very pleased about the tournament this year. They visited many Polish cities, they had the chance to have a look at our football stadiums, to see the living conditions in the student dormitories, to make contacts, and even friendships with Polish colleges.’ Mr. Korpak said.

Chairman of the Committee for Physical Education and Sport of Ukraine Wiaczeslav Gamov, honored the best teams with trophies and awards, he underlined that this Ukrainian-Polish academic sport event was a great success and that it is worth to continue these meetings in the future, maybe even just after the finals of the UEFA Euro Championships next year.

The final matches were held in Warsaw. The third place was taken by the Academy of Physical Education from Warsaw which beat Lviv Army Academy with 6:1. In the grand final the student team of Adam Mickiewicz University from Poznan won against the team from the Kharkov State Zooveterinary Academy 3:1.

During the closing ceremony the best athletes were awarded. The goalkeeper from the Academy of Physical Education, Jakub Szkopinski (also the team captain and playing coach) was chosen as the best Polish player. The best Ukrainian player was Artiom Broznikov from the Kharkov State Zooveterinary Academy. MVP of the tournament was Maciej Schober from the winning team.

(Source: Dariusz Sokolowski & Oskar Rosa, AZS)