Euro 2012

National Stadium in Warsaw, the main arena of the Polish part of the European Football Championships in 2012 will be ready as planned in June 2011 in spite of the problems related to severe winter – ensures National Sports Centre.

Polish-Ukrainian championships will start in two years on Monday.

The facility, estimated to invite 55,000 spectators, will become a sport card of the capital. During Euro 2012 an opening match, one quarterfinal and one semifinal match will be held. Here, in the future official matches will be played by the Polish team.
Very difficult weather conditions during the last winter hampered the construction of steel structure of the stadium and, as a result of this, the deadline of this stage of works was moved by a month, from June to July this year.

- Taking into account expert’s reports we accepted to postpone the deadline of the completion of the steel structure. At the same time we expect full mobilization of contractor and designers and we want to other works go quicker – stressed the President of the National Sports Centre Rafal Kapler.

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On April 18, 2007, the head of UEFA, Michel Platini mentioned Poland and Ukraine as the hosts of the European Championships in football to be held in 2012. Below we present the current status of works concerning major facilities being prepared for Euro 2012. We mean stadiums.

Three years ago euphoria broke out in Poland when Michel Platini took out from an envelope a card with the words “Poland and Ukraine.” The joy in Poland, resulting from granting such a prestigious event did quickly turned into fear. Questions “whether Poland will manage to prepare everything for Euro 2012 on time?” went hand in hand with the voices of “eurosceptics” who argued that we would not have managed to prepare an adequate infrastructure.

The voices doubting that Poland would bear the burden of preparations for the championships have practically disappeared after the start of construction of stadiums, prepared specially for the championships. Arenas constructed very quickly, subsequent resolved tenders and voices of the UEFA representative ensuring that in Poland all works run in a satisfactory way, resulted in a change in the attitude of Poles to organize the tournament. And the question “whether Poland will manage to prepare everything for Euro 2012 on time?” was replaced with the question “how will Poland organize Euro 2012?”.

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One of the most modern, the largest and the most functional facilities in Poland. Football stadium in Letnica, the best one.

Football stadium in Letnica was designed as a multi-functional facility, in which apart from international league and cup matches, there will take place concerts, conferences, congresses etc.

It is all possible thanks to the sizes the stadium is going to have, materials used when building and functional rooms.

The stadium is located on the plot with the surface area 33,9 ha, of which the usable area is 36,600 m2 and after finishing the construction it will reach sizes: 236 x 203 x 45 m. The cost of building the stadium is assessed at 645 million PLN. The cost of its equipment will be also added.
During the league matches the stadium will be able to accpet 44 839 spectators whereas during the concerts – 45 319. (read more…)

The new contractor, Max Boegl company has taken over officially and formally the construction site in Wroclaw stadium.

According to the contract regulations, the substitute investor, Wrocław 2012 company has formally handed over the construction site to a new contractor – Max Boegl company.

The note of construction site handover for Max Boegl company was signed by Astrid Wardemann, the contract’s director. The company undertook to begin preparations to further building works, which was start at the beginning of March, immediately after the takeover.

Up to that time the new contractor will prepare its own temporary facilities and indispensable documentation – schedules or detailed designs. The declared date of stadium commissioning has not changed – June 2011. (read more…)

Wrocław, despite the delay in construction of the stadium not only will not lose the possibility to organize Euro 2012, but apart from three group matches it may obtain right to play one of the championships quarter-final meetings.

For the time being, UEFA decided that the Euro 2012 opening match will be played in Warsaw, and the final of championships in Kiev. It is also settled that semi-finals will also take place in these cities. However, the unsettled question is still the place of four quarter-final matches. At some websites devoted to Euro 2012 it is said that Gdansk is supposed to be one of these cities but this information is out of date and not officially confirmed by UEFA.

It was initially assumed that UEFA authorities would indicate cities which will be given the right to organize quarter-final matches during the meeting of the UEFA Executive Committee on Madera in December 2009. However, at that time, they postponed the decision. Finally, UEFA was to inform about it on last Sunday in Warsaw during the draw for qualifying groups. But it did not happen – the decision has not been taken again and it is not known when it will.

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Preparations for the construction of the stadium’s roof are underway: the first of 72 huge elements has arrived from Italy.

On Thursday the first of 72 elements of the inner ring truss arrived from Italy, one of the main elements of the roof. The element is over 12.5 meters long and weighs 48 tons.

First attempts at laying out the concrete for the floor construction on level +1 have begun, over the main entrance to the stadium. Work on the foundations under the columns of the steel roof is being done under a heated tent.

48 out of 72 steel support pillars for the roof’s construction have also arrived. Each element weighs 3.5 tons. The steel construction’s assembly will begin in March.

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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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On Monday morning, lifting of the 400-tonne truss, one on the elements of roof structure, was supposed to begin.

The construction has to be lifted by three cranes excavators at the height of 58 meters and placed on two already mounted trusses. Meanwhile, works have not yet begun because builders of the Poznan stadium again have problems with the installation of roof construction.

Ryszard Dembinski, chief executive of Euro Poznan 2012, states that such a situation will no affect the deadline of returning Lech players to the stadium at Byłgarska street. Lech players were supposed to play their first match at the end of September, then it was 21 November and finally Kolejorz in Poznan is to play in March next year.

On Saturday, in Kharkiv in eastern Ukraine the modernized stadium of the Metalist club was opened. Matches of the European football championships will take place here in 2012.

I am convinced that Euro 2012 matches will take place at the facility – said the Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko at a ceremony. In his brief speech he stressed that Ukraine organizes the finals together with Poland. “The hosts of Euro 2012 can only be Ukraine and Poland.”

Although, in view of the championships Ukraine has opened two stadiums so far (in September in Donetsk) it is still not known how many Ukrainian cities will be granted the right to host the tournament.

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UEFA is delighted with the progress of Ukraine in preparations to organize the European football championships in 2012 in recent months – assessed on Wednesday in Kiev, Martin Kallen, UEFA chief executive for Euro 2012.

- Now, the situation looks good, works are being made, so we are pleased with the progress made by Ukraine – said Kallen at the press conference.

When asked by journalists how he assess the level of preparations in Poland and Ukraine Kallen said that “it is equal.”
He also pointed out that the Ukrainians still have a lot to catch up but if they deal with it, the division of host cities for Euro 2012 in Poland and Ukraine according to the 4×4 formula will be maintained. (read more…)