Euro 2012

Scotland is able to take charge of EURO 2012 instead of Poland and Ukraine - declared Gordon Smith, the general director of the Scothish Football Association.

During the interview for ‘Sunday Herald’ Smith asserted that the championship could be held in Scotland in case Poland and Ukraine did not manage to take care of the event.

In his opinion, there are three stadiums in Glasgow where international matches could be organized: Celtic Park, Hampden Park and Ibrox Park.

For every zloty which was placed on bit- if Euro doesn’t take place in Poland- we will receive 3 zlotys.

If everything goes according to plan we will earn only 30 percent of invested sum. On Monday to editorial office of “Gazeta” phoned a football fan from Sosnowiec, and he complained that none of bookmakers want to take from him a bet that UEFA takes away from Poland the right to organize European Championships in 2012. The football fan was going to bet 100 zlotys and he claimed that he knew at least few people who would like to do the same. (more…)

Poles and Ukrainians have serious technical problems, but Italians can relieve them and take over duties of the organizer of Euro 2012 at any time- we read in today’s edition of the “Dziennik”.

These words were said by Giancarlo Abete, chairman of FIGC (Italian Football Federation). After Wednesday’s match of Ukraine with Italy Abete announced:- Problems of Poland and Ukraine are well-known for us. We are constantly outdistancing them because we do not count on politicians but we do our job- we build stadiums, develop infrastructure. If UEFA appreciates our effort and figures out that Poland and Ukraine won’t manage, we will be ready. (more…)

Poland is considering enlisting as many as 20,000 prisoners to help build the stadiums, roads and hotels that it desperately needs to co-host the Euro 2012 soccer tournament.

Pawel Nasilowski, deputy chief of Poland’s prisons, was quoted by the PAP news agency yesterday as saying that use of the inmates was being considered as part of an EU program to rehabilitate prisoners.

Poland is grappling with a shortage of manual labour, particularly of construction workers, amid a booming economy and the departure of hundreds of thousands of Poles to better-paying jobs in Ireland, Britain, and elsewhere in Western Europe.

Nasilowski that the convicts would leave their prisons only in supervised convoys, and stressed that it would also give them a chance at rehabilitation.

He recalled the words of the late Polish-born Pope John Paul II, saying “you are sentenced, but you are not condemned.”

Poland and neighbouring Ukraine won their bid to co-host the sporting event in 2012, but are still struggling with a shortage and crumbling condition of roads and stadiums, a legacy of the communist era.