The UEFA Executive Committee decided in 2007 to allow Poland and the Ukraine to co-host this year’s European Football tournament, because they never have before, so maybe they’d try to impress. Sixteen teams will compete at Euro 12 from June 8 through July 1 at the Donbass Arena Stadium in Donetsk, Ukraine, and so far it seems that everything will be fine, so long as the players and fans don’t mind stepping over thousands of stray dogs.

German Princess Maja von Hohenzollern has joined forces with animal groups and shelters in the Ukraine to raise awareness to the country’s terrible stray pet population, so they can start rounding some of these pooches up at shelters instead of sending a kill squad to start putting them all down. And while some stray dogs and cats aren’t nearly as bad as soiled mattresses, streets overrun with garbage and wild, diseased monkeys attacking people, it is still upsetting to know that people don’t care about giving pooches like these guys or this fella some help.

In other Euro 2012 news – so I can get my soccer post quota covered in one fell swoop – team officials from all over Europe are blasting Ukraine’s hotels for spiking prices to ridiculous levels, even for people with longstanding reservations. Obviously they’ve never tried to book a Spring Break in Daytona.

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UEFA, the governing body of European soccer, has decided to ban the vuvuzela from all of its competitions, citing a desire to decrease fun by 30%. The ban will be enforced for all UEFA competitions, including the UEFA Champions League, Europa League, and Euro 2012 qualifiers. I don’t see what the problem is. It’s not like vuvuzelas are any more obnoxious than Eagles fans.

“European football’s governing body has informed its 53 member associations that it has taken the move for reasons related to Europe’s football culture and tradition, saying that the atmosphere at matches would be changed by the sound of the vuvuzela,” said UEFA in a statement.

“In the specific context of South Africa, the vuvuzela adds a touch of local flavour and folklore, but UEFA feels that the instrument’s widespread use would not be appropriate in Europe, where a continuous loud background noise would be emphasised.” –NBC Sports

“Continuous loud background noise,” you say? Since when were vuvuzelas replaced with Ron Jaworski? According to UEFA, the horn takes away from the pageantry of the game. Read the rest of this entry »