Euro 2012

Martin Kallen, the UEFA Director responsible for the organization of the Euro 2012 finals, strolled through the Palace of Culture and Science – where the draw for European Football Championship qualifying groups was held – with pride.

He ensured that the draw, a test for Poland as co-host of the championships, was enjoyed by all participants.

- The draw was very successful – it was a great start of the tournament. All the guests felt a little Polish spirit. From what I heard, everyone was happy and satisfied. Now they are going home and will battle it out on football pitches for the chance to return to Poland with their teams in 2012,” said Kallen.

- It’s hard for me to judge the draw’s results. Traditionally, the A team travels far distances. And it will be the same this time. The German team will travel to Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan. I for one was anxious about Switzerland – he added.

(read more…)

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…)

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.

(read more…)

UEFA president Michel Platini confirmed that the final decision concerning EURO 2012 host cities will be taken in December.

During his of the western city of Poznan, Platini said that four Polish cities – Gdansk, Wroclaw, Poznan and Warsaw – as well as the Ukrainian capital, Kiev, have initial approval to host the event. The decision was conditional in the case of three remaining Ukrainian cities, however: “These cities have five more months to work on their progress,” he said.

The UEFA president denied reports that UEFA is planning to send incognito delegates to further check Poland’s preparations. “I have total trust in whatever Poles present to me. What’s more, what we are seeing now looks good,” he said.

(read more…)

The finals of the UEFA EURO 2012 championships may be held in Warsaw and not Kyiv, writes Gazeta Wyborcza, quoting recent decisions by UEFA.

The final match would be played at the new National Stadium in Warsaw.

Reportedly, UEFA is concerned over the number of hotels in Kyiv to accommodate fans, as well as problems with municipal transport and communications.

“We are very closely reconsidering changing the the venue of the final” says UEFA president Michel Platini.

“At the time being we are still closely monitoring this situation if there will be any improvements shown from Kyiv’s side.”

The ultimate decision on the venue for the finals is expected in December but UEFA has already decided to move the International Broadcasting Centre from Kyiv to Warsaw, and it has not happened in the history of the championships for the IBC to be in another city than the host of the final.

According to the requirements UEFA, the residential centers for teams are supposed to be ready in a year already, but actually will not be.

- We will ask for more time – announces Olkowicz Adam, vice-president of the Polish Football Association.

Up to 44 Polish towns would like to host 16 final groups of the European Championships, but for the time being any center meets UEFA requirements.

Representations have to have available at least a four-star hotel with 60 rooms, football field for thousand of spectators and three training places. The centers are to be located no more than an hour from the airport.

(read more…)

Poles are running ahead of schedule with their preparations.

Poland is ahead of schedule in its preparations for the 2012 European Soccer Championship. The UEFA commission recently visited Poland and Ukraine to assess the situation and approved the progress made in the Polish cities of Warsaw, Poznan, Gdansk, and Wroclaw, which will host the soccer games. Poland hopes that Ukraine will keep to its schedule and will clear the backlog, otherwise it will be denied the right to host the soccer championship.

Our Euro-2012 host cities are Kyiv, Donetsk, Lviv, and Kharkiv. However, if one compares the situation in Kharkiv and Poznan, one pair of the Euro-2012 partner host cities, in terms of renovation and construction of stadiums, maintenance of highways, the availability of European-standard hotels, etc., the picture here is lamentable. Masej Malewicz, a Poznan official and a Euro-2012 organization committee member, proudly displays a business card that says “Poznan. It’s worth living here.”

(read more…)

‘We have visited all the construction sites. I think that Taylor was impressed’, says Marcin Herra

Chief of the PL2012 partnership which coordinates the arrangements for Euro 2012- in the interview ‘Polski The Times’ about the visit of UEFA Secretary General

Herra does not hide that David Taylor was extremely satisfied with the progress of arrangements for the championships in our country. He saw, for the first time, genuine, tangible building sites He saw that there is a lot going on. In Warsaw the construction works on the National Stadium are 5 weeks ahead than it was planned in the schedule. We have a complete executive project , even the handles are chosen. The procedure of choosing the main investor is coming to the end. In Gdansk you won’t find anybody who wouldn’t be impressed by the huge 30 hectare building site with dozens of people and machines – said the chief of PL2012

(read more…)

After a stuttering start, Poland has, unlike Ukraine, finally gained the confidence of UEFA, the governing body of European football, which recently confirmed that four Polish cities will host matches during the Euro 2012 football championships.

Following early delays, Poland is likely to have acceptable stadiums in six cities, and the airport and hotel infrastructure looks to be in good shape as well. The problem, as ever in Poland, is with building a modern system of highways and expressways that would allow fans to move easily from venue to venue.

When UEFA took the unusual and risky step of awarding the championships to Poland and Ukraine two years ago, the right-wing government of the time promised to build 3,000 km of highways and less expensive and slightly slower expressways by 2012. The man in the hot seat now is infrastructure minister Cezary Grabarczyk, who is coming under increasingly intense pressure from Donald Tusk, the prime minister, to ensure that the road programme is not a disaster. Grabarczyk has already toned down his predecessor’s promises, admitting that 2,000 km is more realistic, but even getting that amount completed by 2012 would break Poland’s longstanding inability to build roads speedily.

(read more…)

Following UEFA’s selection of four Polish cities as hosts for Euro 2012, Lokale Immobilia takes a brief look at the state of preparedness of the winning urban centers.

After months of doubt and sharp criticism, the four Polish cities chosen by UEFA to host games in the Euro 2012 soccer championship – Warsaw, Gdańsk, Poznań and Wrocław – have much of their preparation on track.

Indeed, though Kraków and Chorzów were officially discounted, hope remains that a slip-up elsewhere in Poland or in Ukraine could still offer the opportunity to participate in the international event. Preparations in those cities are continuing apace.

Preparations on track

In announcing the decision, UEFA president Michel Platini stressed that all the six candidate cities had met the criteria necessary to organize the tournament. He said that the exclusion of Kraków and Chorzów resulted from their alternate location status.

(read more…)