EURO 2021

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

The head of UEFA Michel Platini did not rule out the possibility of deprivation Ukraine of hosting EURO 2012, which is to be organized together with Poland, if Ukraine fails to catch up with the preparations until the end of the year. Such an opinion was expressed in an interview with French sports daily L’Equipe.” – The decision will be made at the beginning of December during the meeting of ourr (UEFA) Executive Committee in Madeira. December is the deadline. Now there is a fight with time, but at this […]

The construction of the stadium is delayed and the money for it stolen – announced a select committee appointed by the Ukrainian parliament to investigate the uncertainties concerning rebuilding of the final arena of Euro 2012. The head of the select committee, Rawil Safiullin has no illusions. – Everything points to the fact that the money is stolen – said Rawil in the Ukrainian newspaper “Today”. According to him, millions of ‘hrywien’ which flow from the country’s budget spreads “somewhere” on its way. Last year, the main contractor promised to […]

President Viktor Juszczenko accused the Ukrainian government of breaking promises concerning the financing of EURO 2012, calling into question the progress of preparations criticized recently by the UEFA. According to Juszczenko, the government has provided so far only 5 percent of 945 million dollars which were to be devoted to the organization budget of Euro 2012 this year. – The programme of financing Championships is at risk – announced the president. – Together with the head of the central bank and the finance minister we have to consider ways to […]

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. […]

Ukraine’s preparations to co-host the European Football Championship in 2012 have fallen badly behind schedule. Uefa, Europe’s football governing body, has given the country until 30 November to show significant improvement, or face losing most of the matches to the co-hosts, Poland. In the eastern city of Donetsk, people are riding high on a tide of football fever. In May their team, Shakhtar, won the Uefa cup. Thousands came out onto the streets to celebrate and welcome the players home. The crowd seemed oblivious to the brooding presence of a […]

The ground for construction of the Public stadium in Wrocław was the first one to be prepared among all of the stadium for Euro 2012. After seemingly difficult tasks which included removing several thousands of terraces , dehydration of the ground and replacement of the grounds, the authorities of Wrocław had to face much more harder task. The complexity of the bidding procedure and intrigues of the competing for this prestigious investment resulted in the fact that the Cort will have to select the company who will build the facility […]