Euro 2012 - Ukraine and Poland

Gossip about Poland being stripped of hosting the European football championship Euro2012 were appearing and will appear, but this would be the ultimate step for UEFA

Gossip about Poland being stripped of hosting the European football championship Euro2012 were appearing and will appear, but this would be the ultimate step for UEFA.

“85 million Poles and Ukrainians is a market of enormous potential growth to sponsors of Euro2012. [...] Taking into account competition between public and private subscribers and the growing potential of broadcasting the games on the Internet or mobile phones, UEFA will earn euro 1.2 billion (that is even euro 500 million more than than in the West European variant),” said Jacek Bochenek, director of Euro2012 project at Deloitte.

He went on to say that Ukraine is particularly attractive for sponsors, as not all companies are present on that market yet. In his opinion, if UEFA took a negative decision for Poland and Ukraine, it would be hard to organize the games in any other Western European country.

Polish officials guaranteed that the country will be ready to host the next European football championships after a visit by UEFA head Michel Platini amid concerns Poland and co-hosts Ukraine are behind schedule in their preparations.

“Mr. Platini and I listed all the warnings regarding the state of Poland’s preparations for Euro 2012,” said Prime Minister Donald Tusk said on Wednesday. “And I can happily highlight that the plan - which we accepted and the UEFA accepted - is being realised.”

Tusk said he guarantees the plan would be carried out and that Platini recognised Poland as “reliable.”

Sports Minister Miroslaw Drzewiecki said his meeting with Platini went “very well,” and assured that all projects would be completed either before or on the deadline. He said that while Platini was well informed, “today he saw for himself that everything was coming along on schedule.”

The report on the visit by the boss of the sport’s governing body in Europe will be completed in September and the final decision will come in the autumn on Poland and Ukraine hosting the tournament.

The visit came amid rumours the two former Soviet-bloc nations could lose the championship to better prepared and willing hosts like Italy or France.

Platini is slated to visit Ukraine on Thursday, where tensions are high amid long-stalled work on a decrepit stadium and worries about the country’s ability to hold its share of the games.

Last year UEFA officials said Poland wasn’t making enough progress in building stadiums, hotels, roads and airports. In January, Platini warned organisers of “critical slippages” and said the months ahead would be critical. He gave organisers another “wake-up call” in March.

KIEV (AFP) — Ukraine’s ability to co-host Euro 2012 depends on what the country can achieve over the coming three months, UEFA president Michel Platini said here on Thursday.

French football legend Platini has issued repeated warnings to Ukraine and co-hosts Poland, who in April 2007 were UEFA’s surprise pick to host the 2012 edition of the quadrennial, 16-nation championships, beating Italy and joint bidders Hungary and Croatia.

Platini has set the two countries a September 24 deadline to prove they are on target with their preparations.

“The coming three months will be very important for Ukraine,” Platini told reporters at the end of a meeting with Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko. “Things can advance in a very, very positive manner,” he added.

Platini, who described his impressions as “superb” after talks with the president and Prime Minister Yulia Timochenko, said he had received “oral guarantees” on the start of preparations.

“We now have meetings with all the experts in three months. And the final, final, final decision will be taken in Bordeaux at the end of September at the UEFA executive committee meeting.

“We still have the intention of doing the maximum so that conditions are met to go and play in Poland and Ukraine.”

The Ukrainian leaders also moved to ease concerns over the country’s potential readiness.

“Ukraine guarantees that in 2012 we will organise this event at the highest level,” Yushchenko said after talks with Platini.

Timochenko added: “We will do everything, even the impossible, so it becomes a great party for the whole world and Ukraine be a good partner.”

Euro 2012 marks UEFA’s first major foray into the former communist bloc, where the challenges are massive.

Besides new stadiums, Poland and Ukraine have to bring their air, rail and road transport services and hotel sectors up to scratch to cope with the influx of fans.

Amid concerns about Poland and Ukraine’s capability, other nations have already begun pitching themselves as alternative hosts.

But Poland received a thumbs up from the 10-strong UEFA delegation on Wednesday.

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More than PLN 1.5bn has been set aside for Euro 2012 investments in Krakow. The programme provides, among other things, for new stadiums, roads and tramlines.
The Wisla stadium will be expanded and its capacity increased to 33,000 seats. Hotels, car parks, a sports hall and a training centre will be built in the surrounding area. All of Piastowska Street and part of Reymonta Street will also have to be widened.
In addition, a number of tramlines will be upgraded and a new fast tram line to Pychowice is envisaged. The Hutnik and Cracovia training stadiums will be enlarged, the Ofiar Katynia roundabout rebuilt, and underground garages installed under Plac Na Groblach, Focha Avenue, and under the square in front of the University of Agriculture on Mickiewicza Avenue.

This is what Danish Foreign Minister Per Stig Moller, on a visit to Kyiv, announced during a joint press conference with his Ukrainian colleague Volodymyr Ohryzko. “If you wish, we can build facilities that are necessary for you,” Moller said.

Ohryzko, in turn, said that Danish investors already maintain contacts with Ukrainian partners who are responsible for Euro 2012 preparations. The Ukrainian foreign minister also said that he would help Danish investors to enter the Ukrainian market. “We would like Danish investors to arrive in Ukraine and significantly increase their investment within four years,” Ohryzko said.

Lawyers of Petro Dyminsky are in talks with city council representatives on building a stadium to host Euro-2012 finals matches, Lviv oblast Governor Mykola Kmit said, addressing oblast council July 1. Petro Dyminsky is a local entrepreneur and owner of Karpaty FC.

Basically, Petro Dyminsky gave his consent to build a stadium in Lviv, said Kmit. “I had a talk with him yesterday, and he confirmed his agreement to construct a stadium in Lviv.”

Surprisingly, just before the governor addressed the council, his deputy Lev Zakharyshyn said, ”There was an investor, the owner of Karpaty FC, who seems to be the only one in Lviv able and interested in building a stadium, but the deal went off for unknown reasons.”

Calm down. There is no reason to panic now, but maybe in September.

Officials with the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) officials say they have no plans at this time to replace Ukraine and Poland as co-hosts for the Euro 2012 soccer championship.

Yet, as the 2008 European championship hosted by Austria ended on June 29, concerns about the pace of preparations in Kyiv and Warsaw remained high.

And while Kyiv is believed to be ahead of Poland in many areas, with billionaires investing heavily in new soccer stadiums, politicians seem to be more interested in pointing fingers of blame than in finding solutions on how to achieve the multi-billion-dollar preparations. Ukraine’s share of needed investments alone is officially estimated as high as $25 billion.

The to-do list is expensive and long and includes an overhaul of airports, railways and stadiums.

Many – including Scottish soccer officials and others angling to replace the designated co-hosts – doubt whether Ukraine and Poland have what it takes to pull off a major international sporting event.

Aiming to calm such fears, UEFA president Michel Platini stressed that while preparations in both countries are not going as smoothly as hoped, there are no plans to replace them as hosts of the tournament.

“I know that certain people are already talking about the possibility of giving the competition to another country,” he said referring to talk of Euro 2008 champion Spain being chosen as host.

“At the present moment, however, that’s an unfounded rumor,” added Platini, who was scheduled to visit Ukraine on July 3 to review preparations.

However, Platini has said that the co­hosts have until September to prove they are on target to host the next tournament – or risk having it taken from them, according to news services.

Both the Ukrainian presentation in Vienna in June and Platini’s July visit come as the hosts have struggled with massive preparations as they fend off naysayers.

“UEFA experts marked the progress we have made in preparation to host the Euro 2012 tournament,” Ivan Vasyunyk, a deputy Ukrainian prime minister, told journalists after heading a delegation to talk with UEFA officials in Vienna.

Vasyunyk also assured journalists that Ukraine’s government would fulfill its preparation requirements on time.

Hryhory Surkis, president of Ukraine’s Football Federation and the leading champion of the Ukraine­Poland bid to host the tournament, downplayed criticism about the pace of preparations saying, “I think we could have done more thus far, but I am certain we will successfully host the Euro 2012 championship.”

Still, critics within Ukraine say government officials are too busy wrangling over authority, influence and bureaucratic turf, rather than seeking solutions.

“For today we hear only about intentions to do something,” said Pavlo Tsyrul, president of the Public Control Committee for European Football Championship­12, a non­governmental organization acting as a tournament preparation watchdog.

According to Tsyrul, the main stumbling block has been political ambitions. The tournament preparation process has been deeply polarized along party lines, with politicians focused on scoring political points.

On one side, allies of President Viktor Yushchenko, such as Yevhen Chervonenko as chair of the tournament organizing committee, are rushing to blame the government of Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko for politicization and other delays. Her allies, meanwhile, are questioning Chervonenko’s role and blaming Kyiv’s mayor, Leonid Chernovetsky.

Last week, Chervonenko accused the Tymoshenko­led government of casting doubt on the country’s ability to host the tournament by refusing to provide funding for his agency. Chervonenko warned Tymoshenko’s government it could be blamed for a “major international embarrassment.”

Established by presidential decree, Chervonenko’s agency has been criticized by government officials who claim their ministers are fully capable of handling preparations. They have also questioned Yushchenko’s authority to set up the agency.

On the sidelines spreading criticism of their own are members of the Party of Regions, led by former Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych.

“In terms of Ukraine’s Euro 2012 preparation, nothing is being done,” said Vadym Kolesnikchenko, a Regions lawmaker, adding, “although there is a great fight in terms of who and how much money will be stolen” during the preparation process, where billions could be invested and misappropriated.

Kolesnikchenko said real preparations won’t start until officials “decide how much will fall into pockets … to whom and how much.”

Fewer have openly questioned the ability of Poland to prepare for the tournament, even though the country has yet to start construction of stadiums.

But news services in June reported that plenty of Poles have doubts about their own nation’s ability to be a host.

A poll from the CBOS polling institute, according to Agency France Press, found that 73 percent of respondents said deadlines are too tight and 59 percent believe Poland doesn’t have the necessary funds.

Still, as a European Union member, unlike Ukraine, Poland can count on some $105 billion from its fellow members for stadium construction and improvement of roads. Ukraine’s western neighbor also has a head start in hotel and airport infrastructure.

In Ukraine, some $25 billion in investments is said to be needed for the tournament.

And one of the most evident examples of delays is at the site where the championship game is to be held, Kyiv’s 80,000­seat Olympic stadium.

The project seems mired in political disputes.

Originally opened in the late 1940s, this Soviet­built stadium in downtown Kyiv badly needs a facelift. But before that happens, a shopping center partially built alongside it has to be demolished.

But the project doesn’t appear to be moving forward as a 2011 deadline for its reconstruction looms.

Ukraine’s government last week dismissed a Taiwanese firm, stripping it of a contract to reconstruct the stadium. A tender for a replacement contractor is under way.

Meanwhile, reconstruction of airports is caught up in a battle between two state bodies.

The Transportation Ministry has moved to re­nationalize airports. While it sanctions privatization of terminals, it wants the runways under state control. Meanwhile, governors who in recent years leased out airports, sometimes in dubious deals, argue the country has no time to seek new investors for the massive airport reconstruction projects.

Speaking about airport overhaul efforts, Oleh Zasadnychyi, a tournament preparation department head in Lviv, said UEFA “showed a red card.”

Much of the airport reconstruction costs will need to be financed by state coffers, Zasadnychyi said, adding that with parliament deadlocked due to political bickering, “the budget is not being revised to open up money for this.”

Then there are Ukraine’s roadways. The country has in recent years stepped up efforts to reconstruct aging Soviet roads. But Petro Kravchuk, head of Ukraine’s Ukravtodor state motor roadways office, said more than $7 billion in funding is needed to finish road work required for the tournament.

With new hotels popping up across Ukraine backed by foreign and domestic investors, confidence is high that this element of Ukraine’s preparation will be met on time.

UEFA president Michel Platini is coming for a two-day inspection tour of Poland and Ukraine, the joint hosts for Euro 2012 tomorrow.

The inspection is expected to conclude in a final warning for both countries and delays in the process. Responding to recent reports in the Italian press that the countries may lose their right to organise the event Platini said that a final decision on whether Poland and Ukraine will host the tournament will be made in September.

Earlier reports indicated that Scotland and Ireland would bid jointly to succeed the two countries. It has also been suggested by the media that if Poland shows that it is making progress the country could combine with Germany for a joint bid.