The final preparations are underway at the eight lucky venues, across Poland and Ukraine, to host the 2012 UEFA European Championships, which will kick off on June 8 next year.

While five of the eight chosen stadiums were built specifically for next summer's tournament, the other three have undergone extensive renovations. The tournament will kick off at the National Stadium in Warsaw, Poland, which is also where the final match of the month-long competition will also be held.

Meanwhile, the 16 competing nations and soccer fans across the world are eagerly awaiting the results of the main draw, scheduled for 1700 GMT, on Dec. 2.

There are several interesting possible groups, including local rivals England and Ireland being drawn together. Pre-tournament favorites like Spain, Germany and Netherlands will be teams, however, that almost everyone else will want to avoid. As joint hosts, Poland and Ukraine have been pre-drawn, in Groups A and D, respectively.

The pre-draw seedings for Euro 2012 are:

Pot 1: Spain, Netherlands, Poland, Ukraine

Pot 2: Germany, Italy, England, Russia

Pot 3: Croatia, Greece, Portugal, Sweden

Pot 4: Denmark, France, Czech Republic, Republic of Ireland

The matches from Group A will be played in either Warsaw or Wroclaw, both of which are about 150 miles from the Polish city of Krakow, the place England have already chosen as their base.

The other group based in Poland is C. The matches in Group C will be staged in either Poznan (200 miles from Krakow) or Gdansk (300 miles away).

The matches in Group B and D will be hosted by Ukraine. The venues for Group B include Kharkiv (700 miles from Krakow) and Lviv (200 miles), while the matches in Group D will be played in Kiev (540 miles) and Donetsk (930 miles).

Start the slideshow for more details about Euro 2012 venues:

Russia Germany Portugal Poland