Factbox: Euro 2012 cities

WARSAW:

POPULATION: 2 million. The capital is located on the Vistula River in the centre of the country.

2012 STADIUM: National Stadium. Scheduled for completion in May 2011, it will have a capacity of 55,000 and be the largest in Poland. No football club is booked to play at the stadium.

- Warsaw, Poland's capital since 1596, was almost completely destroyed during World War Two. Many of its historical buildings were painstakingly reconstructed in the communist post-war period.

- It has a booming economy and lively cultural scene, a good public transport network and an international airport close to the city centre. However, its lack of a good circular road system exacerbates traffic congestion.

TEAMS:

- Warsaw's Legia Warszawa, eight times champion, is one of the strongest Polish teams, but the team has underperformed in European tournaments. Most recently the club won Poland's championship in 2002 amd 2006.

- Polonia Warszawa, Legia's local rival, champion in 1946, has played for more than 40 years in lower divisions before making it back to the highest league in 1992/93. Since then the club has won the championship once, in 2000, but mostly underperformed in the league.

GDANSK:

POPULATION: 450,000. Gdansk is at the mouth of the Vistula River on the Baltic Sea. Shipping has long been at the centre of its industry and it was first mentioned as a Polish city more than 1,000 years ago. Gdansk was the birthplace of the Solidarity trade union which helped topple communism in 1989.

2012 STADIUM: Gdansk has only just begun work on its 41,000-seat Baltic Arena stadium, slated for completion at the end of 2010. The stadium will be a home of Lechia Gdansk.

- Gdansk - Danzig in German - has a long and colourful history in which Poles and Germans have vied for domination. The first shots of World War Two were fired here in 1939.

- It is the home city of former Solidarity leader and ex-president Lech Walesa and also of Poland's current prime minister Donald Tusk.

TEAMS:

- The local club is a newcomer to Poland's Ekstraklasa, fighting not to be relegated this season. Previously the club played in the highest league briefly in the 1980s and '90s.

WROCLAW:

Population 650,000. Wroclaw is capital of the industrial region of Lower Silesia in southwest Poland near the German and Czech borders.

2012 STADIUM: The city signed a deal in April to build a new stadium that will seat 44,000. It will be ready by the end of 2010. The city is also working on hotels and roads to a nearby airport. The stadium will become home of Slask Wroclaw.

- Wroclaw was part of Germany for much of its modern history, coming back under Polish rule only after World War Two.

Known in German as Breslau, it boasts a picturesque historic centre. Wroclaw has strong political backing from Deputy Prime Minister and Interior Minister Grzegorz Schetyna, a native of the city.

TEAMS:

- Slask Wroclaw, which played for 30 seasons on and off in the premier league, has most of its glory days behind it, with its last major success winning Poland's FA Cup in 1987.

POZNAN:

Population 560,000. Located in western Poland near the German border.

2012 STADIUM: The existing Lech stadium (pictured) is due to be expanded by 2010 to seat 41,000.

- Poznan is an important commercial and industrial hub as well as one of the oldest cities in Poland whose mediaeval cathedral contains the tombs of the country's first rulers. It hosted a major U.N. conference on climate change in Dec. 2008.

TEAMS:

Lech Poznan, five-times Polish champions, has underperformed in recent years, though this season it remains in contention for the championship title. The team also made it to a third round of the UEFA Cup - the first Polish team to make it past the group stage in recent years.