EURO 2021

More and more politics, less and less sports. There is a real danger that European politicians will boycott the championships in Ukraine. Will EURO 2012 be the repetition from 1980 when West Europeans countries boycotted Olympic Games in Moscow due to the Soviet military intervention in Afghanistan? The president of Germany Joachim Gauck was the first to cancel his participation at matches in Ukraine within the framework of EURO 2012; after that Angela Merkel and her ministers announced boycott of the Ukrainian part of EURO. Ukrainian Foreign Office shakes fists […]

A group of Polish folk-singing grandmothers on Wednesday won the race to choose Poland’s official team anthem for the looming European championships on home soil. The 18-member group “Jarzebina” – Polish for rowanberry – swept aside established opponents including established rock and pop names, a ska band and a rapper with their upbeat ethno-tune “Koko Euro Spoko”, which translates loosely as “Clucking Cool Euro”. Poland’s football association had opened its “White and Red Hit” competition to all comers, with the list honed down to 10 ahead of a live concert […]

Numerous sites in Poland and Ukraine begin to display the symbol of Inclusive Zones contributing to a friendly multi-cultural atmosphere at EURO 2012. Schools, NGOs, local authorities, cultural institutions, community centres, sports clubs as well as businesses, shops and pubs have all been invited to join the initiative. The Inclusive Zones initiative is a part of the multi-faceted ‘RESPECT Diversity – Football Unites’ project in frames of the official UEFA EURO 2012 Social Responsibility programme. The project is delivered on behalf of the FARE network by by its long-established regional […]

The ‘NEVER AGAIN’ Association will this week host a conference to launch the Football Against Racism in Europe (FARE) programme to challenge extremism and racism at next year’s UEFA European Championships in Poland and Ukraine. An audience of Polish government ministers, European activists, former players and representatives of governing bodies of football will attend the Polish Parliament and the Polish Foreign Ministry Palace for an expert seminar on Tuesday and Wednesday. The seminar will set out the issues facing the host countries of the Euro 2012. The ‘NEVER AGAIN’ Association, […]

UEFA has expressed concerns with Polish accommodation facilities before Euro 2012. Fortunately, this problem does not apply to Gdańsk. Within two hours’ drive away from the football stadium in Letnica, where four Euro 2012 matches will be played, there are 225 hotels with over 10,000 rooms and 20,000 accommodation places available. Most places are available in three-star hotels – 8991; two-star hotels offer 6303 places, four-star hotels – 3349 places, and the most luxurious five-star hotels – 1305 places. What is interesting, and alarming at the same time, one-star hotels […]

All the Polish parties involved in organising UEFA EURO 2012 met in Warsaw and spoke positively of the state of preparations for a tournament that can help drive the country forward. “There is no risk that we will delay any of the important EURO investments. Everything is going fine, including the construction of the stadiums – the four Polish stadiums will be ready on time, in the summer of 2011.” That was the message from Adam Giersz, Polish minister for sport and tourism during a special meeting of all the […]

Matches of young adherers of football, former stars of Lech Poznan and clubs in Lodz – Widzew and LKS, and then a party with the music of Mezo, Mucha band and Acid Drinkers band – so looked the next opening of the Poznan stadium, the arena of Euro 2012. Stadion Miejski (Municipal Stadium) had its official opening on Sept. 20 where Sting played for more than 30,000 people. On the other hand, sport opening was the meeting of the European League Lech Poznań from FC Salzburg. For both of these […]

A Football Against Racism in Europe (FARE) consultation meeting took place in Kiev on 2 May. The informal meeting was well attended, which illustrates a strong interest in common activities against racism in football among Ukrainian FARE partners. It is also a testimony to the networking work in Ukraine conducted by the ‘NEVER AGAIN’ Association in frames of the FARE East European Development Project. Among others, the following groups and organizations were represented: the Football Against Prejudices coalition, African and Indian migrant communities, the Congress of National Minorities in Ukraine, […]

Polish Energetic Group paid 35 million PLN for the takeover of the name of the stadium which is being built for Euro in Gdansk. Lotos competed with PEG until the very end. Polish companies are slowly discovering naming rights – the sale of rights to name real estate, which is norm in Western countries. In hockey NHL league as much as 90 % of clubs have facilities with sponsored names. In basketball NBA league it is 79 %. The club of American football league, Houston Texans gets $10 billion annually […]

UEFA decided to organize Euro 2012 in eight cities. Poland and Ukraine applied for expanding the list of host-cities to 10-12. The decision of UEFA can mean that the European Championships will pass over Chorzow and Krakow. – We have reached an agreement with Poland – said the head of Ukrainian football Hryhorij Surkis – Euro will be held in four Polish cities and four Ukrainian ones. The final list of the city-hosts will have been prepared by UEFA by May. Michal Listkiewicz the former head of PZPN (Polish National […]