Euro 2012: The Beautiful Game

In less than an hour the Euro 2012 Football Championships in Poland and the Ukraine will kick off with a game between Poland and the 2004 winners, Greece. The coming three weeks will provide football fans the world over with a steady diet of games, goals and shots of WAGs in the crowd. During the group stages some very interesting games will be played sucvh as France vs England, Italy vs Spain and Holland vs Germany. What happens afterwards is anyone’s guess, but we’ll be watching the beautiful game.

1Players compete in mud at the Swamp Soccer World Championships in Hyrynsalmi. Lehtikuva Lehtikuva/ 

Reuters

2Children play football in a flooded field in Palakkad. Dipak Kumar/ Reuters

3Prison warden watches inmate stop ball during soccer match in Volnovakha prison near Donetsk. Alexander 

Khudotioply/ Reuters

4Two young men play football on dried up ground on West Common in Gerrard's Cross as heatwave continues.

 Toby Melville/ Reuters

5Afghan boys play football on the snow in front of a damaged palace in Kabul. STRINGER/AFGHANISTAN

/REUTERS

6Afghan boys play soccer in front of the gaping niche where a giant Buddha statue used to stand in the central 

town of Bamiyan. Goran Tomasevic/ Reuters

7Children attend a football training session near Cote D'Ivoire's capital Abidjan September 17, 2007.The pitch 

is riven with gullies gouged by rain and stray balls sometimes splash into cauldrons of stew steaming in nearby 

 street kitchens. Despite the shortcomings, the Future Talent Academy hopes to discover the next Didier Drogba.

 The Chelsea striker and the Ivory Coast Elephants he captains are leading a soccer renaissance in the West 

African country, their spirited if unsuccessful World Cup finals debut and African Nations Cup hopes offering 

relief to a nation divided for years by civil war. Thierry Gouegnon/ Reuters

8Brazilian dwarf soccer team the Gigantes do Norte listen to a pep talk from their coach Lucena. STRINGER 

Brazil/ Reuters

9Children play with a soccer ball on an Indian Ocean beach near Somalia's capital Mogadishu. Feisal Omar/ 

Reuters

10Children play soccer at the Manguang township outside Bloemfontein. Jorge Silva/ Reuters

11A girl controls a soccer ball in Ipanema beach in Rio de Janeiro. Ricardo Moraes/ Reuters

12A boy holds a soccer ball as players of Nova Olinda EC pray after a Peladao Verde championship match 

against Amigos do Kidao in Manaus. Ricardo Moraes/ Reuters

13Boys juggle soccer balls during the opening ceremony of the Premier Skills referee development programme

 in Khartoum. Mohamed Nureldin Abdallah/ Reuters

14Locals dressed in swimming costumes play football on snow-covered shore of Songhuajiang River in Jilin,

 China.. China Daily China Daily Information Corp - CDIC/ Reuters

15Goalkeeper prepares to throw the ball in as players warm up for their match at the World Swamp Soccer

 championships in Hyrynsalmi. Bob Strong/ Reuters

16Players from the mixed division stand on the stage during medals presentation at the World Swamp Soccer 

championships in Hyrynsalmi. Bob Strong/ Reuters

17Children play soccer during sunset at a beach in Lima. Enrique Castro-Mendivil/ Reuters

18Internally displaced boys play inside a recreational centre at the UNHCR Yar Hussain camp in Swabi

 district. STR New/ Reuters

19A boy plays with a soccer ball in a public square in Buenos Aires. Enrique Marcarian/ Reuters

20A child plays on a dusty field at sunset in Lobito, outside Benguela. Amr Dalsh/ Reuters

21A disabled soccer player belonging to a Turkish amputee football team, whose members are soldiers 

wounded in the line of duty, goes for the ball during a practice session in Ankara. Umit Bektas/ Reuters

22A boy jumps for the ball during a soccer game on a beach in the capital Luanda. Mike Hutchings/ Reuters

23An Angolan youth plays soccer in the streets of the capital Luanda. Rafael Marchante/ Reuters

24Residents play soccer outside the collapsed justice palace in Port-au-Prince. Kena Betancur/ Reuters

25Afghan orphans play football in northern city of Mazar-i-Shariff. Ahmad Masood/ Reuters

26A Uros woman plays soccer with children near their reed homes at a Uros island on Lake Titicaca. 

 Mariana Bazo/ Reuters

27Erotic actresses from Austria and Germany play a five a side beach soccer match on the Danube river 

island in downtown Vienna. Kai Pfaffenbach/ Reuters

28Young Northern Ireland fan Samual Stewart kicks a soccer ball in front of a mural in Belfast. Stringer 

UK/ Reuters

29Boys play soccer with U.S. soldiers with 1st Platoon, Alpha Company in Baiji. Stefano Rellandini/ Reuters

30Players compete in Euro of Mountian Villages soccer tournament in Gspon in Swiss Alps. Denis Balibouse/

 Reuters

31Andean women wait before playing a game at the national native women soccer championship in Lima.

 Enrique Castro-Mendivil/ Reuters

32Andean women pose for the media before playing a game at the national native women soccer 

championship in Lima. Enrique Castro-Mendivil/ Reuters

33Winter swimmers wearing Santa Claus hats, play with a ball on a snow-covered river in Shenyang. China

 Daily China Daily Information Corp - CDIC/ Reuters

34A member of an amputee soccer team hits the ball during a training session for an upcoming exhibition

 match in Port-au-Prince. Kena Betancur/ Reuters

35People practice soccer in a slum on outskirts of Sao Paulo. Paulo Whitaker/ Reuters