UEFA Euro 2012 in October 2011, the nine group winners qualified automatically, along with the highest ranked second placed team. The remaining eight-second placed teams contested two-legged play-offs, and the four winners qualified for the finals. Twelve of the sixteen finalists participated at the previous tournament in 2008. England and Denmark made their return to the Euro, having last participated in 2004, while Republic of Ireland returned after a twenty-four-year absence to make their second appearance at a European Championship. One of the co-hosts, Ukraine, made their debut as an independent nation (before 1992 Ukraine participated as part of the Soviet Union). With
UEFA Euro 2004 markets. To celebrate Portugal's hosting of the Euro 2004 finals, commemorative coin and stamp collections were issued by the Imprensa Nacional-Casa da Moeda, the Portuguese national mint and printing house, and CTT, the national postal service. UEFA distinguishes between global sponsors and national sponsors. Global Euro sponsors can come from any country and have together exclusive worldwide sponsorship rights for a UEFA European Football Championship. National sponsors come from the host country and do only have sponsorship rights within that country. Eight sponsors were announced by UEFA in December 2002. Nineteen cameras were used in each of the ten venues