sentences:  A football match was chosen as the showpiece event as the way football brings people of all different nationalities together was viewed as a symbolic representation of how Europe was brought together politically.José Manuel Barroso, the president of the European Commission, said, "The best of European football will be on show in Manchester next March to mark the 50th anniversary of the creation of the European Union.There is no better way to showcase the European Union at 50 than through Europe's favourite sport that unites Europeans in a unique way, through a passion we all share and a language we all speak."