Euro 2012

“The delays in construction have been made up, and the reconstruction of the stadium in Kiev, together with adapting it to the requirements of EURO 2012, sticks to the schedule that was agreed on with UEFA.“, said the Minister of Sport in Ukraine, Rawil Safiullin, after he visited the stadium.

Safiullin during his visit to the Olympic Stadium was accompanied by Wasilij Mozar, the chief of “Kijewgorstroj” company, which is the general contractor for the reconstruction.

Mozar ensured that there are no more arrears towards the subcontractors and the construction workers. “Last week we received funds, we paid for the work that was done during last months, we bought all necessary supplies, and the work is being done according to the schedule. There are no problems.”, said Mozar during his meeting with the Minister of Sport.

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We will not have problems with hotels for Euro 2012. We already meet UEFA requirements – according to a report prepared by the international consultancy company in the property market, Cushman & Wakefield.

According to the company calculations in Polish cities in which the European Championships in football in 2012 will be held, there are currently about 38 870 accommodations at hotels (about 20 170 rooms). More than half of them falls to Warsaw, where an opening match and quarterfinal and semifinal matches will be played.

- Tourists who will use the Polish base of hotels during Euro, can be divided into three groups: the so-called UEFA family, football teams and fans. Taking into consideration the current state of the hotel base in Poland and investment projects which will executed before the start of the Championships, it can be assumed that Poland will meet the criteria of UEFA concerning accommodation base for organizers, activists and VIPs, this is the so-called family – says Dorota Malinowska, hotel property consultant from Cushman & Wakefield.

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CNN’s new series i-List takes you to a different country each month. In June, we visit Poland focusing on changes shaping the country’s economy, culture and its social fabric.

Warsaw, Poland (CNN) — Football fever is already gripping Poland ahead of co-hosting the European Championships in 2012.

Despite the national team’s absence from the World Cup in South Africa, the country’s sports fields are packed with children and amateur footballers getting into the mood.

When Poland and Ukraine host Euro 2012, they will be the first Eastern European countries to do so.

Four cities in Poland will host matches: Warsaw, Gdansk, Wroclaw and Poznan. Warsaw has the largest stadium with a 55,000 capacity.
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In Poznan, Gdansk and Wroclaw people are happy that thanks to Euro 2012 they will have a modern stadium for 40 thousands of spectators.

At the same time, activists of the Lech, Lechia and Silesia clubs are worried and wonder what to do so as not to make the tribunes empty during the top league matches.

A 40-thousandth facility occupied in the middle looks pretty gloomily. It will be better if all seats of the 15-thousandth stadium are occupied with spectators – said Michael Lipczyński, marketing director of Lech. In the last season Ruch Chorzow played at the Silesian Stadium.

Over 40 thousands of people watched the match only with Górnik Zabrze, others had lower results.

Will the tribunes of new stadiums after Euro 2012 be occupied at all during the matches of Lech, Lechia or Silesia?

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The Ukrainian war between the president, prime minister and parliament and Euro 2012 in the background is gaining in strength.

Viktor Yushchenko has once again refused to sign the law on the preparations for the tournament, and thus he blocked the payment of the money. Local authorities throw down their arms and state that without government support there will not be a cup-final in Kiev.

The Government of Ukraine, which bears the results of the economic crisis is seeking money wherever to save the Euro 2012. There are not so many opportunities. One of the most serious opportunity was to be a national bank, or rather its financial reserves. Of these, the Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko wanted to “snatch” almost 10 billion hryvnia in order that the biggest sport event in this country not resulted in a failure but without success.

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Gianni Infantino, Secretary General of the UEFA has warned that Ukraine can lose the right to co-organize championships in 2012 with Poland.

- At present, nothing can be ruled out but Ukraine knows what has to be done to not to make such situation happen – said Infantino in Florence during discussions of the organization of European champions leagues.

He added that he is concerned with delays in the infrastructure. He reminded that until the end of November, the Ukrainians have time to convince UEFA that they are able to organize the championships.

The final decision on Euro 2012 will be made in 9-11 December at a meeting of the UEFA Executive Committee. It is known that there is no risk when it comes to the organization of the tournament in four Polish cities – Warsaw, Poznan, Wroclaw and Gdansk. (read more…)

Engineers of the technical office of the contractor of the national stadium construction have changed the system of constructing ten of the twelve staircases in order to speed up part of the construction works – announced on Sunday the construction manager on behalf of the contractor of the consortium Alpine Construction Poland, Marcin Zareba.

- From Saturday, one of 12 staircases is built at a speed of 2 cm per hour – Zareba said. – We decided to construct staircases in the sliding system, rather than, as originally planned, in a traditional system – explained the construction manager. He added that the sliding system is the technology used in the construction of chimneys and it is a continuous concreting along with simultaneous lifting of formworks (a temporary form used to give shape of the concrete mass) for the total and target height of the staircase – about 40 m.

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Where even soccer is politics, infrastructure improvements have fallen behind.

KIEV — In Ukraine, soccer is simply politics pursued through other means.
The vicious and sometimes petty power struggle at the highest reaches of the country’s government has spilled over to its sports fields.

Two years ago, UEFA, Europe’s governing soccer body, awarded Ukraine and its Slavic neighbor Poland the prestigious designation as co-hosts of the European soccer championships in 2012. The European championship, held every four years, is the largest international soccer tournament after the World Cup and one of the world’s largest sporting events.

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Polish Minister of Sports and Tourism Mirosław Drzewiecki and Andrzej Bogucki, Board Member of PL 2012 have met with a visiting trade mission from Saudi Arabia.

The visit of potential investors is the result of Minster Drzewiecki’s, Treasury Minister’s Aleksander Grad’s and Prime Minister’s Donald Tusk’s visit to Saudi Arabia last March.

The main subject of the talks were possible investments ahead of the UEFA EURO 2012 Football Championship which will begin in Poland and Ukraine in 1045 days.

Andrzej Bogucki of PL 2012, the coordinator of preparatory undertakings for Euro 2012 in Poland, outlined the financing framework for the Championship. ‘A sum of PLN 1 billion is earmarked by the Polish government for airports, PLN 121 billion for accelerating the preparations and PLN 126 billion for road construction. EUR 67 billion comes from the EU. The National Stadium in Warsaw is 100% funded from Poland’s central budget but private contributions are still needed, also in other host-cities’ Bogucki said. ‘The sectors reserved for private investors are: hotel and team base camps construction, telecom and IT. The Master Plan naming all the constructions is available on the PL 2012 website’ he added.

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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.