On Wednesday a cornerstone was built in under the construction of the stadium in Gdansk for the Football European Championships in 2012.
Lech Walesa, the former President, Miroslaw Drzewiecki, minister of sport and tourism, Marcin Herra, chief-executive of PL.2012 and Grzegorz Lato, chief-executive of PZPN took part in the event.
The facility, which will host three group matches and the Poland-Ukraine quarter-final is a cost of more than 600 million zlotys. Its tribune will have space for 44 thousand of spectators.
The event of building-in the cornerstone was held exactly 7 months after the first stage of works – ground works – in the construction of the stadium and two months after starting works of the facility body by the contractor.
The head of UEFA Michel Platini did not rule out the possibility of deprivation Ukraine of hosting EURO 2012, which is to be organized together with Poland, if Ukraine fails to catch up with the preparations until the end of the year. Such an opinion was expressed in an interview with French sports daily L’Equipe.”
- The decision will be made at the beginning of December during the meeting of ourr (UEFA) Executive Committee in Madeira. December is the deadline. Now there is a fight with time, but at this time it does not actually exist. Over the time we will meet the wall – said Platini.
The construction of the stadium is delayed and the money for it stolen – announced a select committee appointed by the Ukrainian parliament to investigate the uncertainties concerning rebuilding of the final arena of Euro 2012.
The head of the select committee, Rawil Safiullin has no illusions. – Everything points to the fact that the money is stolen – said Rawil in the Ukrainian newspaper “Today”. According to him, millions of ‘hrywien’ which flow from the country’s budget spreads “somewhere” on its way. Last year, the main contractor promised to build the stadium in July 2010 for 1.5 billion of ‘hrywien’ – says Safiullin.
Now, it appears that until this time there will only be prepared a project documentation. The final cost of the stadium is still unknown although the government devoted to the construction 2.114 billion of ‘hrywien’. We are dealing with the apparent theft of public money!
The head of the select committee called for quick laying off those people who are responsible for the supervision of investments. He added that they are responsible for the delay and abuse. – Otherwise we may lose Euro 2012 and it will be a shame to the whole world!.
This is not the only problem of the hosts of Euro 2012. In fact, the country still does not have an accepted plan of preparations for the championships. – The plan is not yet ready, there is no a settled position as to the amount of means that we can be devoted to the preparations – confessed Minister of Economy Piotr Krupko to ‘Dieło’.
In particular the focus is on the variations in the construction and modification required by UEFA 135 hotels. And without that, as previously warned the head of UEFA , Michel Platini, Euro 2012 in Ukraine can not take place.
President Viktor Juszczenko accused the Ukrainian government of breaking promises concerning the financing of EURO 2012, calling into question the progress of preparations criticized recently by the UEFA.
According to Juszczenko, the government has provided so far only 5 percent of 945 million dollars which were to be devoted to the organization budget of Euro 2012 this year. – The programme of financing Championships is at risk – announced the president. – Together with the head of the central bank and the finance minister we have to consider ways to find needed resources – he added.
Juszczenko called on the above-mentioned institutions to submit within a week a detailed plan of giving money for financing the construction of stadiums and other investments.
According to the requirements UEFA, the residential centers for teams are supposed to be ready in a year already, but actually will not be.
- We will ask for more time – announces Olkowicz Adam, vice-president of the Polish Football Association.
Up to 44 Polish towns would like to host 16 final groups of the European Championships, but for the time being any center meets UEFA requirements.
Representations have to have available at least a four-star hotel with 60 rooms, football field for thousand of spectators and three training places. The centers are to be located no more than an hour from the airport.
