The 2009 UEFA European Under-21 Championship began on 15 June 2009, and was the 17th UEFA European Under-21 Championship. This was the first tournament after the competition reverted to a two-year format, following the single-year 2006–07 competition, which allowed the change to odd-numbered years. Sweden hosted the final tournament in June 2009; therefore, their under-21 team qualified automatically. Players born on or after 1 January 1986 were eligible to play in this competition.
Qualification
The qualifying draw split the nations onto 10 groups of 5 or 6 teams. The seeding pots are formed on the basis of former performance in the tournament. Ten group winners along with four best-ranked runners-up advanced to the play-offs. Seven winners of the play-off pairs qualified for the final tournament.
Qualified teams as host nation
The finals' tournament draw took place on 3 December 2008 at the Svenska Mässan exhibition centre, Gothenburg. Prior to the final draw, Sweden had been seeded first in Group A as hosts of the tournament, while Spain were seeded first in Group B.
Final draw Pot A assigned to A1 assigned to B1
Pot B
Pot C
The first pot contained the top seeds, these would have been host nation Sweden and the reigning champions, The Netherlands. However, The Netherlands did not qualify meaning that the team with the best qualifying record, Spain, took their place. Sweden and Spain were then automatically assigned to A1 and B1 respectively. The second pot contained the teams with the next two best records in qualifying: these were England and Italy. England were drawn into position B3 and Italy into A3. The final pot contained the other four qualified teams: Serbia, Finland, Germany and Belarus. Belarus were drawn first into position A2, Germany went into B2, Serbia into A4 and Finland into B4.
Venues
The following venues were chosen to hold the final tournament matches:
Stadium Location Normal capacity Tournament capacity Swedbank Stadion Malmö 24,000 21,000 Gamla Ullevi Gothenburg 18,800 16,700 Olympia Helsingborg 17,000 12,000 Örjans Vall Halmstad 15,500 8,000
Sponsorship issues
Following the refusal of the Swedish hamburger chain Max to close their restaurant at Borås Arena during the tournament (as they are not an official UEFA sponsor), UEFA disqualified Borås Arena from hosting games during the tournament. There is a contract between UEFA and the city and between UEFA and its sponsors saying that the UEFA sponsors shall have monopoly around the arena. A city cannot force Max to close down even if it happened to sign a contract with someone saying so, as Max have a tenancy agreement with the city. The first news on the issue was published on 1 April 2008, making many believe it was an April fools joke.
On 2 September 2008, the Swedish Football Association nominated Örjans Vall in Halmstad as a replacement venue for Borås Arena, and they officially became the fourth host city a few days later. They were awarded the three group stage games that were to be hosted by Borås Arena, while the second semi-final was moved from Borås to Helsingborg and Olympia.
Swedbank Stadion was referred to as Malmö New Stadium during the tournament, as Swedbank – which owned the naming rights to the stadium at the time – were not official UEFA sponsors.
Squads
Matches All times are Central European Summer Time (UTC+2).
Group stage
Group A Team321042+27320194+56302113−22301227−51
Group B Team321052+37312031+2531112204300316−50
Knockout stage
Semi-finals
Final
GK1 Manuel NeuerCB4 Benedikt HöwedesCB15Mats Hummels CB5 Jérôme BoatengRWB2 Andreas BeckLWB3 Sebastian Boenisch DM8 Sami Khedira (c)RM10Mesut Özil CM20Gonzalo CastroLM14Fabian Johnson CF13Sandro Wagner Substitutions:DF16Daniel Schwaab DF6 Dennis Aogo DF19Marcel Schmelzer Coach: Horst Hrubesch GK22Scott LoachRB2 Martin Cranie CB17Micah RichardsCB6 Nedum Onuoha LB19Kieran GibbsDM4 Lee CattermoleRM12Fabrice Muamba CM10Mark Noble (c)LM7 James MilnerCF14Theo WalcottCF11Adam JohnsonSubstitutions:DF18Michael MancienneMF15Jack Rodwell MF8 Craig Gardner Coach: Stuart Pearce Man of the Match: Mesut Özil (Germany)
Assistant referees: Joël De Bruyn (Belgium) György Ring (Hungary) Fourth official: Pedro Proença (Portugal)
Goalscorers
7 goals Marcus Berg 3 goals Robert Acquafresca Ola Toivonen 2 goals Syarhey Kislyak Gonzalo Castro Sandro Wagner 1 goal Fraizer Campbell Lee Cattermole Martin Cranie James Milner Nedum Onuoha Micah Richards Jack Rodwell
1 goal, cont. Tim Sparv Andreas Beck Ashkan Dejagah Benedikt Höwedes Mesut Özil Mario Balotelli Gojko Kačar Pedro León Marc Torrejón Gustav Svensson Own goals Alyaksandr Martynovich (for Sweden) Mattias Bjärsmyr (for England)
Match ball The match ball for the competition is called the Adidas Terrapass, which was unveiled at the tournament draw in Gothenburg on 3 December. The ball is bright blue and yellow, the colours of the Swedish flag. It features 12 watermarks including one containing a map of Europe and one of the tournament logo. It is composed of 14 thermally bonded panels, which are claimed to improve the ball's accuracy and swerve.
References
External links
Official site uefa.com – UEFA European U-21 Championship uefa.com – Regulations of the UEFA European Under-21 Championship 2007/09