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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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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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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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.”

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