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some websites devoted to Euro 2012 it is said that Gdansk is supposed to be one of these cities but this information is out of date and not officially confirmed by UEFA.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.
Platini has made it clear that UEFA’s decision to award Euro 2012 to Poland and Ukraine was far from a safe bet…
The focus of the football world is at the African Nations Cup at the moment and will be shifted to the 2010 World Cup come June, but UEFA president Michel Platini is already thinking about Euro 2012.
The tournament will be co-hosted by Poland and Ukraine, and both nations have been criticised more than once for the slow progress in infrastructure improvements and stadium construction projects.
Euro 2012 will take place in four Polish and four Ukrainian cities with the final match in Kiev – decided UEFA Executive Committee, which finishes deliberations on the Portuguese island, Madera.
Recent decisions of the government, which granted additional means for preparations and approved financial plan, decided about such division – admitted Michael Platini.
- It’s victory of Ukraine – said, with relief, the Prime Minister Julia Tymoszenko at a special press conference. – I’m happy that the championships will take place in all four Ukrainian cities!
Likewise most of the Ukrainians who were anxiously waiting for UEFA’s decisions. Now Ukraine may breathe a sigh of relief – we got everything we’ve been concerned about since May.
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.
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…)
UEFA president Michel Platini has announced that he is pleased with Poland’s progress towards hosting the for coming UEFA EURO 2012™.
Platini believes that the UEFA EURO 2012™ organizing committee is operating successfully and the whole process of preparing the tournament is under control – such conclusions were reached by UEFA officials who have been following the situation in Poland to date.
“Preparations for UEFA EURO 2012™ in Poland are being realized according to schedule, but the situation in Ukraine is quite complex,” stated Platini after meeting the President of the EU Parliament, Jerzy Buzek.
In contrast, the decision on which cities in Ukraine can hold UEFA EURO 2012™ matches is yet to be made in December. Currently, observers are working on a complete report of Ukraine’s preparations.
Last May, UEFA stated that only Kiev meets all the football association’s required conditions and expectations. Three other cities – Donetsk, Lviv and Kharkiv – have been given a chance to convince UEFA they will be able to organize championship matches until December 2009.
Finally, Michel Platini was also asked about the UEFA EURO 2012™ final, scheduled to be played in Kyiv, and the UEFA head confirmed that the city still needs to improve the hotel and transportation situation.
Poland have appointed local Franciszek Smuda as coach in place of sacked Dutchman Leo Beenhakker.
Having missed out on a World Cup berth and qualifying automatically as hosts for Euro 2012, Smuda’s first competitive game is more than two and a half years away.
Smuda, who is the national team’s 44th coach, has a contract until the end of the European Championship in which Poland are guaranteed an automatic place as co-hosts with Ukraine.
Smuda replaces temporary coach Stefan Majewski, whose team lost the last two games of the 2010 World Cup qualifiers. (read more…)
Over the next few months the construction of a football stadium in Lvov, which is to host the European Football Championships of 2012, will be carried out in the system of a 24-hour period – informed Ukrinform, the Ukrainian news agency.
Speeding up the works is the result of a general contractor’s agreement Azovintex from Mariumpola with the city authorities. According to the new work schedule, the delay of construction in relation to the deadlines set by the UEFA is to be eliminated during the two months before the announced visit of the stadium by the UEFA representatives.
The total cost of building a stadium in Lvov is to be close at 609.5 million hryvnias (about 78 million dollars) and the completion of the work is planned for June 2010.
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.
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.
