World Football: 10 Reasons 2012 Is Going to Be Epic

With a new year might come new football designs, new rules and new players, but most definitely new tournaments.

In this slideshow I'll highlight ten things on the World Football agenda that we've got to look forward to in 2012.

If you're a footballing nut then you might be aware of a few of these already, but if not then that's even better.

So have your diary or smartphone at the ready and get set to key in some dates that sees an almost non-stop footballing calendar rolling through the year.

It looks like it might be a great one.

FIFA Interactive World Cup

2012 sees the FIFA Interactive World Cup continue to snowball - as long as you own a Playstation 3 that is.

Players from all over the world go online in order to be ultimately crowned the world's greatest EA Sports FIFA player.

The winner will receive $20,000 and a trip to the FIFA Ballon d'or Gala.

If you play FIFA and own a Playstation then what are you waiting for? Get twiddling those thumbs!

Below is a list of the online qualification dates:-

"

Season One	1 to 31 December 2011
Season Two	5 to 25 January 2012
Season Three	1 to 25 February 2012
Season Four	1 to 25 March 2012
Season Five	1 to 25 April 2012
Season Six	1 to 18 May 2012

"

We Might See Goal Line Technology

The FA has declared that goal line technology could be in place for the beginning of the 2012/13 season. Which is excellent news for the likes of Frank Lampard.

The technology should put an end to the debate of whether a shot has crossed the line and would give referees a much needed tool in decision making.

In this modern age the technology has likely existed for a while, but only now has it finally been given the go ahead to be tested.

FIFA have laid out criteria for the technology which must do the following things:-

"

1. The technology applies solely to the goal line and only to determine whether a goal has been scored

2. The system must be accurate

3. The indication of whether a goal has been scored must be immediate and automatically confirmed within one second

4. The indication of whether a goal has been scored will only be communicated to the match officials (via the referee's watch, by vibration and visual signal)

"

African Cup of Nations

The 2012 African Cup of Nations will be played from 21st January until 12th February 2012, and is hosted in a joint venture by Gabon and Equatorial Guinea.

Under the rules concerning players in the ACON, all clubs must release their players two weeks prior to their countries first match.

The likes of Manchester City have lost brothers Kolo and Ya Ya Toure, Chelsea are without Didier Drogba and Soloman Kalou, whilst Arsenal have lost Gervinho,

Blue Stars/FIFA Youth Cup 2012

The Blue Stars FIFA Youth Cup 2012 is on show 16th - 17th May 2012 and features some of the most exciting young talent in the footballing world.

Blue Stars are a Zurich based team that initially started the competition which FIFA took over in 1991.

Last Years winners were FC Porto, and a full run down of the history of the previous winners can be found here.

Champions League Final

The Champions League final is set to take place at the Allianz Arena in Germany on Saturday 19th May 2012.

The arena is home to both Bayern and TSV 1860 Munich who play in the Bundesliga one and two divisions respectively.

The Allianz arena can hold just under 70,000 people and it has a transparent outer wall which can be altered to suit the colour of the teams playing there (see above photo).

It is not known who will be contesting the final yet, but Barcelona will be looking to defend their crown.

Euro 2012

Following on from the African Cup of Nations, Poland and Ukraine will host this years UEFA Euro 2012 competition and it is the first time either nation have played host.

The tournament runs from Friday 8th June until Sunday 1st July 2012 and will ensure that Premier League players won't get much of a Summer break.

You can click here for a full fixture list for all the teams involved.

Team GB at the Olympics

London is hosting the 2012 Olympics and will see the first Team Great Britain football team in over 50 years.

The Olympic Football tournament will be held between 26th July and August 11th 2012 and a nations final squad must consist of 18 under 23 players and three any age players.

David Beckham and Ryan Giggs have shown interest in the any age positions and The FA has stated that any player who features in Euro 2012 will not be called up to the Olympic squad.

The Summer Transfer Window

If you enjoy the January transfer window, then you probably love the Summer transfer window.

Premier League teams most of their main transfer wheeling and dealing throughout the Summer in order to make sure they are fit to compete at the beginning of the season.

It is generally regarded that player prices are less inflated in the Summer than in the Winter.

2012 FIFA Futsal World Cup

November 2nd - 18th sees the Futsal World Cup head to Thailand for it's 7th tournament.

24 teams will be competing for the cup and Thailand automatically qualify as host nation.

2012 FIFA Club World Cup

The 2012 FIFA Club World Cup will be played between December 6th and December 16th 2012.

The tournament will be in it's 9th year and is due to be hosted by Japan.

The winner of the 2012 Copa Liberdatores will enter the competition in the semifinals along with the winner of the 2012 UEFA Champions League.

David Villa famously broke his shin bone playing in the recent 2011 Club World Cup and is currently recovering after surgery.

After Thoughts

So there you have 10 interesting prospects for the 2012 calendar that should keep your football brain stimulated if nothing else.

If all these football tournaments make you want to see some goals then click here to see 8 great ones by a World Cup legend.

As always thanks for reading, and if you'd like to read more of my articles then click here to go to my homepage where you can find all the content I've ever written for b/r.

Have I missed anything?

I'm always looking for things to improve my knowledge of the game - particularly outside of Europe - so let me know if there's anything I've missed by leaving your comments below.

Thanks again.

On twitter? Follow me @petercwebster