On Saturday evening in Donieck a new stadium for Euro 2012 was opened.
This fact increases the chances of equal sharing of host-cities for the championships in Ukraine and Poland – says the Director of the Ukrainian national organizing committee of Euro 2012, Markiyan Łubkiwski
- The formula of four host-cities of Euro 2012 in Ukraine and four in Poland is the most probable one – said Łubkiwski just before the ceremony of opening the stadium Donbass Arena in Donieck.
Director of the Ukrainian part of the tournament does not hide the fact that apart from the ready stadium, Donieck should deal with the delays in preparing the infrastructure, but he is convinced that the city authorities will manage to do it.
The anti-racist East Europe Monitoring Centre starts its operation in Warsaw this month.
The newly launched centre is going to monitor, research and document cases of racism and xenophobia across the region, with a special emphasis on Poland and Ukraine.
‘The growing social significance of football in Poland and Ukraine before 2012 provides an excellent opportunity to highlight the pressing issues of xenophobia and racism in Eastern Europe’ – said sociologist Dr Rafal Pankowski, the Monitoring Centre coordinator. ‘Our starting point is racism in football, but we see it in a more general context of discrimination in broader society’ – explains the assistant coordinator Jacek Purski.
Many Eastern European states have witnessed a rise in racism, antisemitism and far right political activities over the past two decades. Over the same period football, which mirrors so many social developments, has also seen overt examples of these problems across the region. (read more…)
On Saturday evening in Donieck a new stadium for Euro 2012 was opened.