Donetsk, an industrial city in Ukraine, is a long way, in more ways than one, from the likes of Vienna and Zurich. Austria and Switzerland hosted this year’s European Football Championships to general acclaim, with Spain eventually triumphing amid a feast of attacking soccer.

Michel Platini, president of European football’s governing body Uefa, had decided a year earlier that eastern Europe should for the first time be allowed to host the next party and as a result Ukraine and Poland were awarded Euro 2012.