Euro 2012 - Ukraine and Poland

The European Championship may be over but Michel Platini’s work is not. The Uefa president tomorrow begins a two-day inspection tour of Poland and Ukraine, the joint-hosts for Euro 2012, which is expected to conclude in a final warning for Ukraine in particular. On Saturday he said that a final decision on whether Poland and Ukraine will host the tournament will be made in September.

The decision to award the finals to the former Soviet Bloc countries was a bold and surprising one, driven by a combination of realpolitik and evangelism. The gamble is in danger of backfiring. Both countries have a huge amount of work to do on upgrading their infrastructure but progress has been slow.

In Ukraine the issue has become a political football with various factions using the situation to push their cause. There is plenty to blame to apportion. Only last week Ukraine’s sports ministry announced it was looking for a new contractor to renovate Kiev’s Olympic Stadium, which is scheduled to host the final, after a long dispute with the original Taiwanese builders. Four of the eight proposed venues need new stadia while the other four need significant refurbishment.

The sheer scale of the proposed competition is a problem. The 1,200-mile journey from Gdansk, one venue, to Donetsk, another, takes 43 hours by train, 22 hours plus border delays, by road – only 16 miles of which are on motorways. There are no direct flights. Warsaw is the only Polish city with direct flights to Ukraine, and there are none to Donetsk.

Earlier this year, Igor Miroshnychenko, of the Ukrainian FA, admitted: “It’s not a good situation here. We have no main stadium and there are problems with the roads. Can we host it? I really don’t know.” If the September deadline is not met, then Uefa will begin talking to possible replacements.

Spain, which has excellent stadia and a working infrastructure, missed out in 2004 and are favourites. The country last hosted in 1964. Italy, who lost in the bidding process, are another contender.

The Scottish and Irish will pitch a reprise of their joint bid which is unlikely to succeed, and there is a possibility, if Poland show that they are making progress, that they could combine with Germany for a joint bid.

WARSAW, Poland: With Euro 2008 come and gone, UEFA now turns its attention to Poland and Ukraine amid speculation that the Eastern European co-hosts could lose the 2012 tournament if construction delays worsen.

UEFA president Michel Platini is to lead an investigative mission to Warsaw on Wednesday — and to Kiev a day later — to assess the progress Poland and Ukraine have made in their preparations to stage European soccer’s showcase competition. The 12-man delegation is slated to meet with presidents and top-ranking government and soccer officials from both countries on the two-day trip.

The visit comes at a key moment for the two countries as they seek to brush aside fears that they are unable to bridge glaring gaps in sports and public infrastructure, including stadiums, roads, airports and hotels.

In April last year, Poland and Ukraine were awarded the championships ahead of a bid from Italy and a joint candidacy from Croatia and Hungary. The decision was met with jubilation in both countries and was seen as a chance to demonstrate that the two former communist states have reinvented themselves as modern, efficient Western nations capable of hosting such a high-profile event.

But problems across the board in both countries have fueled speculation that UEFA holds plans for a backup host — possibly Italy, Germany, or Scotland.

However, Platini told reporters at the weekend in Vienna that “there is no backup plan” right now, but warned that UEFA could find a new host if a new national stadium planned for Warsaw and a redeveloped Stalinist-era Olympic stadium in Kiev are not ready in time.

“That would be the only decision to make us decide not to have the tournament in Poland and Ukraine,” Platini said in Vienna, Austria. “If no stadiums, no tournament.”

Polish and Ukrainian officials have scrambled to ease UEFA concerns and, while admitting the deadlines are tight, give assurances that everything will be ready on time.

“Poland is at a very good level in its preparations,” said Marcin Herra, the president of Poland’s organizing committee.

“Poland has the money for the necessary investments, it knows what it has to do, and it now has a very detailed plan,” Herra said. “Everything is now going according to plan or is even a couple of weeks ahead of schedule.”

Warsaw is to stage the opening match in a new 55,000-seat national stadium on the banks of the Vistula River. Workers have started tearing down the crumbling 10th-Anniversary Stadium that stands on the site, and preliminary construction on the new stadium is slated to begin in early 2009 and finish in 2011.

Two other Polish stadiums — in Wroclaw and Gdansk — must also be built from the ground up. Architects are finishing off the final designs on those arenas, Herra said, and construction crews should break ground on them in early 2009.

Meanwhile, expansion work to increase capacity of the Municipal Stadium in Poznan to 45,000 is well underway.

But the country still faces major problems with transportation infrastructure. Poland’s crumbling roadways fall far short of the autobahns in Austria and Switzerland that allowed fans to zip from one host city to another, and Poland’s government continues to drag its feet on upgrading existing roads and building badly needed new ones.

In Ukraine, the main hurdle in preparations remains the renovation of Kiev’s 80,000-seat Olympic stadium, which was opened in the late 1940s and is to host the Euro 2012 final.

Last week, the Ukrainian government dismissed a Taiwanese firm, which had a won a tender to reconstruct the stadium, citing legal problems.

Authorities are now scrambling to find a replacement, but experts say a new company may not be able to complete the necessary stadium renovations in time. That task is further complicated by a shopping center under construction nearby that was ordered to be torn down by June because it could impinge on access to the stadium. The center remains untouched.

Political squabbling between Ukraine’s president and prime minister, who are seen as trying to undermine each other ahead of the 2010 presidential elections, has further hampered preparations.

Last week, the chairman of Ukraine’s organizing committee, Evhen Chervonenko, accused the government of refusing necessary funding for the tournament and of failing to do everything possible to avoid the “major international embarrassment” that would ensue if Ukraine lost its right to be co-host.

Despite the setbacks, Chervonenko has sought to put a positive spin on things.

“We are in such a stage of preparations that there are no reasons to worry,” Chervonenko told the Associated Press in an interview. “The Euro project is a project of the Ukrainian people and it will be completed.”

By Mike Collett

VIENNA (Reuters) - UEFA president Michel Platini issued his strongest warning yet to Euro 2012 co-hosts Poland and Ukraine on Saturday, saying the tournament would not be staged there if stadiums in their capital cities were not ready.

Platini, who did not give a deadline for the stadiums, will lead a 12-man delegation to the two countries next week to examine the progress being made.

Speaking to a packed news conference in Vienna on the eve of the Euro 2008 final between Spain and Germany, Platini said: “We will do everything we can to hold it in Poland and Ukraine.

“There is no back-up plan. We have not had any second thoughts, or other thoughts and we respect our decision to go to Poland and Ukraine.

“The only thing that will make me decide not to go is if there are no stadiums in the capitals of Warsaw and Kiev. If there are no stadiums, there will be no tournament.”

UEFA warned Poland and Ukraine after January’s executive committee meeting in Zagreb that the months to come would be decisive in determining whether the countries were in a position to host the finals.

Platini said on Saturday that UEFA would make its final decision at its executive meeting in Bordeaux on September 25-26.

Infrastructure problems including the modernisation of airports and road and rail networks, the construction of new hotels and the stadium plans have all plagued the project.

Building work at the Olympic Stadium in Kiev, which is due to host the final in 2012, has been further complicated because of the planned demolition of a shopping centre near the stadium.

On Wednesday, Ukraine’s sports minister Yuri Pavlenko said two companies were vying for the right to renovate the stadium in Kiev.

Eight venues are due to stage games, four in each country. As well as Warsaw, the Polish venues are Poznan, Wroclaw and Gdansk. Ukraine’s four venues are Kiev, Donetsk, Lvov and Dnipropetrovsk.

UEFA awarded the tournament to Poland and Ukraine in April last year, ahead of rival bids from Italy and a joint bid from Croatia and Hungary.

(Editing by Trevor Huggins)

Uefa will make a decision on Poland and Ukraine’s ability to stage the 2012 European Championship in September.

The European governing body has already told the hosts they need to speed up work on building stadiums and improve roads and transport infrastructure.

President Michel Platini will head an inspection next week, though he insists there is “no back-up plan” in place.

Uefa also indicated it will increase participation from 16 to 24 teams in future tournaments, starting from 2016.

Italy was widely expected to win the Uefa vote when it was announced in Cardiff in April 2007, with another joint bid from Croatia and Hungary also in the running, and Platini was forced to deny that Italy had been earmarked as replacements.

“We’ll do everything we can to hold it in Poland and Ukraine,” he said.

“We have never had any second thoughts or other thoughts and we respect our decision to go to Poland and Ukraine.

“The only thing which would make me decide not to go is if there is no stadiums in the capitals, Warsaw and Kiev. If there are no stadiums there, no tournament.”

Poland and Ukraine, who were awarded the competition in April last year, have admitted that preparations had fallen behind because of political instability in both countries.

Work has not started on the new stadium in the Polish capital, while contractors have not yet been appointed for the major refurbishment of the Olympic Stadium in Kiev.

Uefa will make its next announcement on the subject at a meeting on 23 September - where it will also formally decide whether to increase the number of teams competing in the finals from 16 to 24 from 2016.

The idea was unanimously agreed by senior officials of all 53 UEFA member nations on Saturday after the recommendation was made at a meeting of the presidents and general secretaries of UEFA members.

The proposals were first submitted by the Scottish and Irish FA last year and Platini insists that increasing the size of the tournament to 20 or 24 teams from 16 finalists would not necessarily diminish the quality of the competition.

“Remember, I won the Euros [in 1984] when there were only eight teams,” he said.

“It is not certain it was better with eight teams than 16 or that 16 is better than 24 or 32 or 54.

“I am not worried about the quality by increasing the number of teams. Countries like England, Denmark, Scotland, Ireland, Belgium, Serbia, Ukraine and Bulgaria all have the ability to participate in a European Championship.”

VIENNA, Austria: UEFA president Michel Platini said Saturday that a final decision whether Poland and Ukraine will host the 2012 European Championship will come in September in Bordeaux, France.

Amid fears that the capitals of Warsaw and Kiev might be unable to provide adequate stadiums, European soccer’s governing body has instructed the co-hosts to speed up work on building stadiums and improving roads and transport infrastructure. A 12-man delegation will visit the two nations next week for an update.

Platini said UEFA is still backing Poland and Ukraine to stage the tournament, but if there are no guarantees that Warsaw and Kiev will have completed the stadiums in time, it could be moved.

“We have already sent lots of experts in the past few months to Ukraine and Poland, and September at Bordeaux we will take a final decision,” Platini said Saturday, one day before the Euro 2008 final between Germany and Spain.

“This will answer all the questions that you have. At the last meeting of (the executive committee) in Zagreb, we asked the two countries to wake up and we gave them four months to show us progress. In September, we will examine the situation again.”

Platini said a decision whether the number of teams will be increased from 16 to 24 after Euro 2012 also will be made at the Sept. 23 meeting.

“Decisions will be taken in Bordeaux about 24 teams or not and other decisions regarding the next Euros,” he said. “I think that this will give me more of a headache than having too much to drink.”

Poland and Ukraine were surprisingly awarded the championships ahead of Italy and a co-hosted bid by Croatia and Hungary in April last year. Warsaw is set to stage the opening game in a new national stadium, but work has not yet started. Kiev will hold the final in its redeveloped Olympic stadium, but similar construction delays have led to repeated speculation UEFA has plans for a backup host, possibly Italy, Germany or Scotland.

“I repeat: The executive committee of UEFA awarded the 2012 Euros to Poland and Ukraine and we will do everything that we can and more to see that it’s held in Poland and Ukraine,” Platini said.

“There is no backup plan. We have had no second thoughts and we respect our decision to go to Poland and Ukraine. The only thing that would make us decide not to go to Poland and Ukraine would be if there were no stadiums in the two capitals, Warsaw and Kiev. … If no stadiums, no tournament.”

Platini blamed stories of a backup plan on the Ukrainian media.

“There are no rumors coming from UEFA,” Platini said. “It’s the Ukrainians who have said they will not be ready and that causes rumors.

“People in (Ukraine) are perhaps talking a bit too much and should be a bit more restrained. We are taking a decision in September. … It’s a decision of our (executive committee) and we will respect that decision unless there’s a disaster.”

Expanding the competition would increase the revenue for UEFA and allow eight more federations to seek better funding and sponsorship deals because of their participation. Increasing the tournament to 24 teams, though, would make for a convoluted competition calendar instead of the simple four-group system now. It also would complicate qualifying.

“I always said, ‘Let’s wait and see what the Euro will be like.’ When you are president of UEFA you have to consider the quality of the game, the number of teams, the number of stadiums,” Platini said.

“There are teams that could be at the Euro and even enhance the quality of the Euro. It’s not certain that, with 16, it’s better with 24 or 32 or 54.”

UEFA started a feasibility study on expansion more than a year ago and is discussing the issue with the national federations this weekend.

The expansion theoretically could apply to 2012, but the general assumption is it would not be introduced before Euro 2016.

June 27, Vice Premier Ivan Vasiunyk submitted a report to UEFA on Ukraine’s preparations for the Euro-2012 tournament. The government of Ukraine has met all the deadlines this year to prepare for Euro-2012, the report runs.

Ukraine succeeded in solving some knotty problems in 2008, notably, about the reconstruction of Kyiv’s central stadium which is under president’s and cabinet’s control. Kyiv authorities have started to dismantle the unfinished building just outside the central stadium. All the stadiums in Ukraine host cities will be modernized on time, the official assured.

I. Vasiunyk invited UEFA leaders to attend the opening in Dnipropetrovsk on Sept. 14 of a new stadium built to meet European standards. He promised thatr by Aug. 1 Ukraine will finalize the project on Euro-2012 general infrastructure, praising UEFA experts for giving assistance on this issue.

Modernization of Ukraine’s airports is also under way, the official told UEFA. The government set strict deadlines and the transport ministry jointly with city mayors are implementing the plan of preparations. Funding for the modernization of runways in 6 main and 4 stand-by airports has been made available by the government.

The government and the Football Federation of Ukraine have shaped up a team of professionals to manage preparations for Euro-2012. Euro-2012 success will lay a ground base for Ukraine’s economic breakthrough in the future, and the present efforts will bring benefits to future generations of Ukrainians, he stressed.

I. Vasiunyk congratulated Austria and Switzerland on exemplary preparations for Euro-2008. This serves as a good example for Ukraine, he concluded.

The Polish and Ukrainian markets are too significant for UEFA to change its decision regarding the organisers of Euro 2012.

Jacek Bochenek, Director of the Euro 2012 Project at the consultancy firm Deloitte, has told Puls Biznesu daily that the 85 million-strong combined populations of Poland and Ukraine constituted too important an advertisement market and one with a huge potential for growth for the sponsors of the next European Football Championship.

The estimate comes at a time when UEFA president, Michel Platini has refused to rule out taking away the championship from the two eastern European countries and offering the tournament to Italy.

According to Bochenek, UEFA would not organise the Euro 2012 event elsewhere, because the Western European ad market was already saturated.

“If we look at the competition between public and private broadcasters, as well as the growing possibilities in respect of televising matches from Poland and Ukraine on the Internet or via mobile phones, UEFA will earn 1.2 billion euros”, URO 2012 Director told Puls Biznesu.

The daily wrote yesterday that in expert opinion, the pressure on UEFA to hold the Euro 2012 event elsewhere than Poland and Ukraine would continue, because billions were at stake.

According to UEFA’s estimates, the football organisation’s revenues from the ongoing Championship in Austria and Switzerland may mount to 1.3 billion euros, which is a 45 per cent increase compared with the revenues earned from the previous Euro 2004 in Portugal. On the organisation of Euro 2012 in Poland and Ukraine, UEFA are counting to raise 500 million euros more than on this year’s European Football Championship.

UEFA president Michel Platini has not denied that Italy could replace Poland and Ukraine in organising Euro 2012.

Michel Platini told the Italian La Stampa and Gazzetta dello Sport dailies that the final decision on who will organise the Euro 2012 football championships will be made in autumn.

Asked whether it was still Poland and Ukraine that are to host the championships, Platini said that ‘nothing has changed‘ though he added that an inspection on the progress of both countries will be made on 2 and 3 July, and a final decision will be made in the autumn.

When the newspapers asked if Italy, who was the runner-up in the competition for organising the championships, still has a chance to host Euro 2012, Platini answered vaguely: “We’ll talk after the inspection.”

According to Platini, although some say that there is a possibility of changing the organisers of the tournament, this is still only ‘a hypothesis’.

Poland and Ukraine have many organisational obstacles to overcome in order to be ready by 2012, such as building stadiums, hotels to accommodate fans and motorways and modernizing railway tracks to transport them to and from games. Out of the two countries, Ukraine seems to have more problems with preparing for the championships, say observers.

Taipei - A Taiwan firm on Friday threatened to sue the Ukrainian government for breaking a contract allowing this firm to renovate a Kiev stadium for the Euro 2012 football championship. Archasia Design Group (ADG), in a statement released to the Central News Agency, said it will take legal action to resolve the dispute regarding Ukraine’s terminating the contract, but ADG will ask its subsidiary company in China to sign a new pact with Ukraine to renovate the stadium.

ADG blamed Ukraine for creating political obstacles to bar ADG from carrying out the contract, possibly due to Taiwan’s lack of diplomatic ties with Kiev.

On April 16, ADG beat 18 contestants to win the bid to renovate the Olympisky Stadium in Kiev for Euro 2012, which will be co-hosted by Ukraine and Poland.

The 84,000-seat stadium, built in the 1920s, is due to host five Euro 2012 matches including the final.

The budget for the refurbishing is about 200 million euro (314 million US dollars).

ADG won the contract because it aimed to preserve the original style of the stadium.

However, on June 19, Ukraine’s Ministry for Family, Yuth and Sort notified ADG to provide Ukraine - before the afternoon of June 20 - legal verification of all ADG’s documents related to the contract. If the deadline was not met, Ukraine would annul the contract. ADG said the deadline was impossible to meet.

“This request is neither lawful nor reasonable because it takes many days to complete the verification due to our two countries’ lack of diplomatic ties,” ADG said in the statement.

ADG also blasted the Ukrainian sports ministry for creating obstacles in negotiating the contact, and condemned the Ukrainian government for refusing to provide background data and charts on the stadium.

“These are in violation of international construction norms and rules of the Union of European Football Association (UEFA),” the statement said.

Ukrainian Football Federation’s vice president Boris Voskresensky said that if ADG was incapable of finishing the project on time, UEFA would revoke Ukraine’s right to host Euro 2012.

VIENNA, June 27 (Reuters) - European soccer’s ruling body UEFA will make a final decision on Ukraine and Poland’s staging of Euro 2012 in September, UEFA vice president Gerhard Mayer-Vorfelder told Reuters on Friday.

Ukraine and Poland’s preparations for 2012 have been overshadowed by major infrastructure problems including the urgently-needed modernisation of airports and road and rail networks and the construction of new hotels.

“There was a lively discussion about several issues, but no final decisions were taken,” Mayer-Vorfelder said following UEFA’s executive committee meeting in Vienna.

“A final vote will take place in Bordeaux,” Mayer-Vorfelder said in reference to UEFA’s next executive meeting in September.

“Today we just spoke about some of the problems that have to be cleared up, but a steering committee will now look again at the preparations and put forward its definitive findings for the executive committee.”

UEFA is due to send a delegation to Warsaw and Kiev on July 2-3, headed up by the governing body’s president Michel Platini.

Platini is due to hold a Euro 2008 news conference on Saturday and did not talk to reporters as he left the executive committee meeting.

Platini told Ukraine organisers in January that the months to come would be decisive in determining whether the two ex-communist states were in a position to host the finals.

UEFA officials have so far denied suggestions that they have already drawn up contingency plans to move Euro 2012 to another country.

(Editing by Trevor Huggins)