Atlanta Soccer News: Art, Music and Culture: Euro 2012 Draw Friday

The road to who will be crowned Euro 2012 Champion will get a lot clearer on Friday.

The draw to determine the four pools for the tournament offers an early insight into who could have the easiest road to the Final and often leaves some teams looking ahead to a steep uphill battle.

The procedure is designed to be a random and fair pooling of the 16 qualified teams, but there are often quirks that appear in the rankings. This draw, especially, offers a couple that will could to one or even two Groups of Death as well as a wealth of other intriguing pooling possibilities.

The largest quirk to the draw is the fact that the two host nations – Poland and Ukraine – have been granted top-seed status to ensure home-field play throughout the group stage and into the knockout rounds, should the two teams advance.

The run-off effect is that the pool of 'second seeds' is rife with teams that could otherwise have been in the first pot, such as Germany, Italy and England. That trend continues down the line, with powerful teams like Croatia and Portugal residing in the third pot.

So, what are the possibilities?

The most intriguing would be a true 'group of Death'. The most glaring example, based on pedigree and star-power would feature a possible quartet of Spain, England, Portugal and France. With each team in separate pots, it could actually happen.

Even after a super-group of those four, there would be room for another 'group of death' featuring The Netherlands, Germany, Croatia and The Czech Republic.

Or how about a group comprised of the last four teams to win the tournament? Spain, Germany, Greece and France could conceivably be lumped together with only two spots to be had.

Even looking beyond the group (or groups) of death scenarios, there are still plenty of potentially intriguing match-ups to be drawn.

Regional rivalries could boil over if, for example Ukraine and Russia should wind up in the same group. The same could be said for a potential Spain-Portugal pairing or England and Ireland.

One of the more topical scenarios presents the possibility of the 'Group of Debt' with the economically-troubled nations of Spain, Portugal, Greece and Ireland all winding up in one pool.

Even after the groupings are complete, there's always a team that surprises once the tournament kicks off. If one team falters or another surprises, it could make even the most underwhelming groups exciting to watch once the tournament begins.

One need only to look at France's performance at the 2002 World Cup or Italy's showing in South Africa two years ago to see how a defending Champion can come up short.

The Euro tournament is especially tough on defending champions. Consider that no defending Champion has won a game in the knock-out phase of the tournament since the play-off round was added to the tournament's format in 1984.

Should Spain falter it could bust the brackets wide open, especially if the draw produces surprising results.

In the end, however, the speculation could all be for naught. The host teams could wind up with some of the higher-ranked teams from the lower pots and each group could have two clear favourites alongside two contending nations.

But that's why they call it the luck of the draw.