Zbigniew Boniek met the UEFA president Michel Platini at the game between Roma and Chelsea in the Master League.
Both gentlemen had the opportunity to talk about the Polish football, elections in the Polish Football Association and about Euro 2012. It was in connection with the last one that Boniek brings good news for the cities of Krakow and Chorzow back from the meeting.
„Michel opened my eyes to certain matters. In Poland no one realizes that, but it is as many as six cities that have equal chances for holding the Euro 2012 games. Chorzów and Krakow are not just reserve locations,” Zbigniew Boniek told the daily Przegląd Sportowy. He stressed that such cities as Gdansk or Wroclaw are not more likely to hold the games than the others. The ex-national team player said that Poland is to „prepare six top-notch football stadiums, and UEFA will pick four of these”. It has not been said, though, that it will not decide to pick all six.
“Germans have been negotiating with the UEFA to take over the Euro 2012 organization from the Ukraine”, said Franz Beckenbauer to Sueddeutsche Zeitung.
Beckenbauer, FIFA and the German Football Coalition vice-president admitted that the Ukraine’s troubles with organizing the tournament, due to the global economic crisis and the political turmoil in the Ukraine have forced UEFA to come out with a plan B. „It is not a mystery that we have been running talks in Zurich concerning our actions in case the Ukraine does not meet the deadlines. One such solution could be holding Euro2012 by Poland and Germany.”, the “Emperor” said.
The president of the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) Michel Platini warned again Poland and Ukraine on Wednesday that should one of these two countries not build a stadium in its capital, both will lose the right to organize the Europe championships in 2012.
Platini, was is staying in Sofia, stressed that the championships will not be transferred to only one of the two countries in case the other is not ready to host them.
”There will be no championships there if the Ukraine fails to build the stadium in Kiev, or Poland is not ready with the Warsaw stadium” Platini stated, adding that both countries may count on help and support of UEFA. “We are determined to finish what we started together.”, he remarked.
The Minister of Sport visited Pomerania on Saturday, where he participated in the opening of next two playgrounds included in the program “My Playground Eaglet 2012”.
Asked about an opinion on the state of preparations to Europe football championships in Poland Minister Drzewiecki stated, that he recently participated in a cycle of meetings of organizer cities’ representatives.
„I can say that today the best situation, unlike at the beginning, is in Warsaw, since that stadium is actually under construction, even though it all started at last. The tender was successfully finalized. The old stadium-turned-marketplace is gone, the rubbish take away and currently piling and groundwork are being done, everything is going fine and it seems that they will be ready before the deadline.”, the minister told the journalists.
In Gdansk the company to complete the first stage of groundwork at the construction of the Euro 2012 stadium was chosen. The works are to set off in December 2008 and last for six months.
The Tender Commission of the company BIEG 2012, after a detailed analysis of the provided documents, chose the contractor to execute the groundwork and land reclamation works. Among the seven offers, the most advantageous one turned out to be that of the Wakoz company, informed the spokesman of the supervising company at the Gdansk stadium construction, Michał Kruszyński.
He addend, that the company had declared it would finalize the contract within six months for the charge of 102 million Zlotys net. The same company is responsible for the preparatory ground works at the stadium construction site in Wroclaw.
The Baltic Arena (Polish: Arena Bałtycka) is a multi-use stadium in Gdańsk’s Letnica neighborhood, Poland, which is going to be constructed for the 2012 UEFA European Football Championship. The stadiums’ exterior is designed to resemble amber; which has long been extracted on the Baltic coast. Construction started in 2008. Once completed in 2010, it will be used mostly for football matches. The stadium will have a capacity of 44,000 people.
The Mayor of Lvov Andrey Sadovyi expressed his happiness this Wednesday with the preparations his city has been making towards Euro 2012.
He informed that the preparatory works before the construction of the stadium started a few days before and that a company to modernize the city airport would be hired in the next few days.
Sadovyi’s critics, on the contrary, claim that the situation with the stadium has not been properly dealt with. The problem concerns especially the financial side of the construction and the conflicts about the ownership of the land where the stadium is being constructed. „I am fully satisfied with the speed of preparations Lvov has taken before an event of such importance as Euro 2012.” said Sadovyi at a press conference in Kiev.
The Polish and Ukrainian national football associations’ presidents, Grzegorz Lato and Hrihoryi Surkis, argued on Friday in Kiev that these two countries would meet the Euro 2012 deadlines.
„I am fully convinced that the Ukraine will be on time and that we will be on time” said Lato after a joint press conference with Surkis.
The head of the Polish Football Association visited Ukraine as the first country after his election to the position. „I am making my first steps here (as the PFA president) and the visit (to Ukraine) had to be the first, as we are organizing Euro 2012 together”, Lato stressed. He described the preparations’ progress status as “comparable” in both countries.
