UEFA Euro 2012 not improve; however, in the end, UEFA affirmed their selection. The draw for the UEFA Euro 2012 qualifying competition took place in Warsaw on 7 February 2010. Fifty-one teams entered to compete for the fourteen remaining places in the finals, alongside co-hosts Poland and Ukraine. The teams were divided into nine groups, with the draw using the new UEFA national team coefficient for the first time in order to determine the seedings. As defending champions, Spain was automatically top seeded. The qualifying process began in August 2010 and concluded in November 2011. At the conclusion of the qualifying group stage
Concerns and controversies related to UEFA Euro 2012 (which was not a host city). At least 29 people were injured in what was described as a terrorist attack. Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych said that there would be an "adequate" response. Hryhoriy Surkis, then head of the Ukrainian Football Federation, said that he "[thought] the people who committed this brutal crime...are also accomplices to an attack on the image of our country ahead of the Euro-2012." UEFA responded to the incident by saying that it was confident of having a "smooth and festive tournament," however, if the political situation were to become more unstable, UEFA was reported have been