Drzewiecki, along with Poland’s deputy Prime Minister and Interior Minister Grzegorz Schetyna, met with representatives of Chinese companies which built railway stations, sports facilities, airports for the Olympic games.

“We went to China to confirm our enormous interest in the participation of local firms in tenders for the construction of sports facilities for Euro 2012,” Polish news agency PAP quoted Drzewiecki as saying.

“They have enormous experience in this field, as was shown by the sports facilities they had constructed,” he added.

Representatives of Chinese firms will visit Poland in mid-September to be informed about investments planned ahead of Euro 2012.

Poland will co-host the European soccer championship with Ukraine.

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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.

“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.

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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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.

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.”

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.

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.

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.

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.”

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)

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.”

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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)

British architect one of two finalists for revamp of Ukraine’s largest stadium

Foster + Partners is one of two shortlisted practices to design crucial renovations to the stadium that will host the Euro 2012 championship final in Ukraine.

The British architect will go head to head with German practice GMP to perform emergency renovations to the Olympic Stadium in Kiev, allowing it to host the final of the Euro 2012 championships.

Ukraine, which is co-hosting the championships with Poland, has been criticised for the slowness of its preparations for the football tournament, with some media commentators speculating UEFA may consider taking it away from them and asking another country to host it. UEFA has denied this.

Yuri Pavlenko, the Ukrainian sports minister, made a media announcement that Foster and GMP were willing to continue with talks on how to renovate the stadium. GMP is already signed up to renovate a stadium in Poland.

Ukraine’s sports ministry broke off talks with the scheme’s original architect, the Taiwanese firm Archasia Design Group, over legal difficulties.

Reports have suggested that infrastructure problems could lead to the event being relocated.

Platini, who will visit both countries in the coming weeks, has refused to confirm or deny such rumours.

‘I don’t want to talk about that during the European Championship,’ he said. ‘But I’m going there on July 2 to take stock of the situation.

‘I know that certain people are already talking about the possibility of giving the competition to another country, which could be Spain.

‘At the present moment however, that’s an unfounded rumour.’

The threat that the tournament could be played elsewhere is a very real one, with roads, airports and rail networks in both countries needing heavy modernisation, as well as the stadiums.

The renovation of Kiev’s Olympic Stadium, which will host the final, is already massively behind schedule with the contractors for the task now set to be decided on only days before UEFA’s visit.

Meanwhile, Platini also revealed that in future the European Championship could take place at the beginning of the season to combat player burn-out.

‘I have already talked about the possibility of playing the Euros a bit later in the year, in August, after the players’ holidays, when they will be more fresh,’ the Frenchman said.

‘But we have to come to an agreement with the clubs and come up with a new calendar.

‘I am sure the clubs would then say that their players were rejoining them tired… we have to study it.

‘Russia’s good form hasn’t surprised me because we knew they would arrive very fresh at a physical level as almost all their players ply their trade in their league which has only just started.’

Plans to expand the tournament from its current 16 teams, to possibly as many as 24, will also soon be considered.

‘We’re talking about it here in Vienna,’ he added. ‘But we’ll study it in September in Bordeaux.

‘There we will make a decision after hearing all the opinions and if we expand it it won’t take place until Euro 2016.’

A special commission is due to choose the main contractor on Thursday, ahead of an executive board meeting of organisers UEFA and next week’s visit to Ukraine by UEFA president Michel Platini.

Delays in renovating the stadium have been a focal point of concern that the country has been too slow preparing for Euro 2012 and media speculation is rife Ukraine and Poland could lose the right to co-host the tournament.

“There are four finalists, and of those four, two confirmed they are ready to continue talks (on the stadium renovation),” Sports Minister Yuri Pavlenko told reporters.

He added the two companies in the running were Foster & Partners, run by British architect Norman Foster, and German firm GMP, which has signed a contract to renovate a stadium in Poland for the championship.

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

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

The two countries face colossal infrastructure problems including modernisation of airports and road and rail networks and construction of new hotels.

(Reporting by Natalya Zinets and Sabina Zawadzki, Editing by Tony Jimenez)

The city plans to build a new stadium, roads and tram lines, according to Dziennik Polski daily.

Some 600 million euros from European funds are to be divided among six Polish cities to host Euro games. Remaining duns will come from the state and local budgets.

Cracow’s local Wisla stadium is to be enlarged to 33 thousand seats. Also its surrounding is to undergo a complete change.

Plans include the building of hotels, a training centre and a sports arena.

Polish Railroads also has its Euro-linked plans, including the renovation of the Cracow main rail station.

Source:Xinhua

Delays with renovating the Olympic stadium in Kiev have been a critical issue as Ukraine fights off complaints made in January by UEFA President Michel Platini that preparations have been too slow.

News media said deputy sports minister Rostyslav Karandeyev told reporters negotiations had ended with the Archasia Design Group because of legal difficulties.

Kiev’s 84,000-capacity Olympic Stadium, built in the 1920s, is one of four stadiums in Ukraine to be used in the tournament, to be held jointly with Poland.

Karandeyev said a jury assessing competing projects would meet this week to find a replacement firm and present the new proposal to a UEFA executive board meeting in Vienna.

Platini is due to visit Ukraine on July 1-2.

Rumours have periodically swept the Ukrainian capital of contingency plans to hold Euro 2012 elsewhere if Ukraine and Poland were unable to do so. UEFA officials have denied that such plans were being considered.

(Writing by Ron Popeski, editing by Rex Gowar)

“The meeting…will be devoted wholly to practical issues,” he said.

Ukraine and Poland were in 2007 elected by the European football body UEFA to co-host the prestigious tournament.

Since then Ukraine’s government has failed to begin most preparations due to wrangling over bureaucratic turf and award of construction contracts.

The UEFA Friday meeting has been widely predicted by the domestic and international media to consider stripping Ukraine of its hosting rights.

The Polish Gazeta Polska on Tuesday reported an upcoming report on Ukrainian Euro preparations in which UEFA shows a “red card” in various categories including hotels, roads, and even stadiums in two out of the five host cities.

The report said the shortfalls were enough by UEFA standards to strip Ukraine of the tournament.

But Chervonenko dismissed the news reports, saying the upcoming UEFA meeting will limit its agenda to “the discussion of stadium construction and repair projects, airports, hotels, and transportation infrastructure.”

Ukraine will at the meeting deliver a “more detailed general plan” to UEFA bosses, he said.

A visit by UEFA head Michel Platini to Ukraine, reportedly July 3- 4, “are no grounds for fear,” Chervonenko added.

Chervonenko’s optimistic comments prior to the upcoming UEFA meeting stood in contrast to his own statements from last week in which he accused the Ukrainian government of preferring to play politics, and refuse financing, than to avoid a “major international embaressment” if Ukraine is stripped of the event.

Unconfirmed reports in the Ukrainian sports media suggested that UEFA may move some or even all of the games from Ukraine to Poland, or that the whole tournament is moved to Spain.

The infrastructural changes needed in Ukraine to meet all UEFA standards are daunting, including the construction of thousands of kilometres of European-standard roads, the erection of dozens of currently non-existant hotels, and the improval to international standards of Soviet-built airports, train stations, and public transport.

Ukrainian officials have set an ultimate price tage on the Euro2012 prep programme in excess of four billion dollars. The Ukrainian government according to recent official statements hopes private investors will provide some 80 per cent of the money.

At a meeting in Warsaw, Ukrainian and Polish officials have agreed to cooperate their efforts. The meeting was attended by Poland’s Minister of Sport Miros?aw Drzewiecki, Ukraine Ambassador to Poland Oleksandr Motsyk, head of the Polish football federation Mikhail Listkewich and head of PL-2012 Association Marcin Gerra, among others.

At the top of the meeting’s agenda was cooperation and shaping a common position at the forthcoming strategic UEFA conference. The meeting approved a form for the general plan of infrastructure development. The Ukrainian delegation made a point of attracting Polish investments to Ukraine ahead of Euro-2012.

Single information space for Euro-2012 was discussed and it was agreed to launch a permanent exchange of information on preparations for the tournament.

Comment by ZIK

Poland’s The Rzeczpospolita has stressed that Ukraine media have been blowing the whistle on Poland accusing it of looking for another partner to host Euro-2012 because Ukraine is lagging behind with preparations. The newspaper refers to unofficial Polish-German proposal to UEFA, ZIK reported June 19.

Will Poland host the tournament jointly with Germany, asks the newspaper. Polish and Ukrainian officials in charge of preparations have confirmed that Euro-2012 will be hosted by their countries.

Representatives of Polish and Ukrainian football federations have dismissed rumors of any deal between Poland and Germany. Mikhail Listkewich, for instance, stressed that only those countries which had applied for the right to host the tournament can do it in 2012. Ukraine Euro-2012 preparations committee official, Ivan Fedorenko, waved off the allegations as lies. Dismissing the rumors about separate talks between Poland and Germany, Yevhen Chervonenko assured that Ukraine will meet all the deadlines.

“Yes, I can confirm that UEFA has never given up on us. We can still hold the European Football Championships in four years”, Chairman of the Italian Football Association (FIGC), Giancarlo Abete told Dziennik daily when asked about Italy’s hopes of hosting Euro 2012.

The press recently has been full of accusations claiming that Italians have been openly lobbying UEFA representatives for granting them the right to organise the event should Poland and Ukraine fail to get ready for Euro 2008. Abete is said to have been talking to UEFA President Michele Platini at the beginning of June and the two are believed to be meeting again after the Euro 2008 event.

“I can confirm that, too. I should meet Platini as early as July. [...] We shall discuss and then we’ll see if Euro 2012 will indeed be held in Poland and Ukraine”, Giancarlo Abete told Dziennik.

FIGC Chairman also admitted that before Platini makes the final decision, he would have to inspect the two countries’ progress in the preparations for the Championships.

The Chairman of the Polish Football Association (PZPN), Michal Listkiewicz has reassured Dziennik saying, “the European Championships in 2012 will be held in Poland and Ukraine”.

“By appointing the two countries, Platini put all his reputation at stake and it will be hard for him to pull out now”, he told the newspaper recently.

The Chairman of the Ukrainian Football Federation, Hrihori Surkis seems equally optimistic when he talks about Michele Platini’s inspection of Ukraine’s advancement in the preparations planned for the beginning of July.

“I spoke to Platini during the opening match of Euro 2008. He made it clear: My visit to Kiev planned for July 1-3 has nothing to do with any inspections. We do not want to grant the Championship to any one else”, Surkis told the Ukrainian press, as quoted by the daily.

Dziennik also informs that UEFA Chairman praised yesterday the decision made by Italian politicians and businessmen regarding the refurbishment of Italian football stadiums.

UEFA has repeatedly criticised Poland on insufficient progress in building stadiums, highways and airports, as well as on the organisational and political chaos.

Neither me, nor anyone else in Poland is leading talks about changing our partner in organizing EURO 2012. This is a Polish-Ukrainian project and such it will remain” – Drzewiecki declared.
The press briefing was held on the occasion of the first official visit to Poland by Yehven Chervonenko, head of the Ukrainian National Agency for Euro 2012, after selecting the personnel of the Polish-Ukrainian team in charge of EURO 2102 preparations. During his last official visit to Ukraine last March, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk was briefed on the progress of Ukraine’s efforts from his Ukrainian counterpart, Julia Tymoshchenko. Both sides signed a relevant agreement and are currently appointing ad hoc teams and their heads. During his stay in Warsaw Chervonenko held talks with representatives of the Polish Ministry of Sport and Tourism and the company PL-2012 which is taking care of the Polish effort on logistics and safety.
According to Chervonenko the preparations in Ukraine are processing according to schedule. Construction of only one stadium – in Kyiv – is ‘slightly’ delayed due to the necessity to follow legal dates and procedures – he said. Chervonenko announced that Ukraine’s budget for EURO 2012 amounts to USD 25 billion out of which USD 5 billion is to come from the budget and the remaining amount is to come from private investors and local authorities.

Infrastructure problems continue to plague the joint hosts’ plans, with particular concerns expressed about delays in the reconstruction of Kiev’s Olympic stadium.

A report in Spanish newspaper ABC suggested UEFA president Michel Platini had asked Spanish federation officials whether they would be able to step in as replacement hosts.

However, UEFA’s director of communications, William Gaillard, insisted: “I know absolutely nothing about such a meeting.

“There are a lot of stories going around about Euro 2012 and, as we have said before, we will be dealing with the issue in July with the visit of our president.

“Anything you hear before that is devoid of reality.”

Scotland and Italy have also been mentioned as a potential alternative venues.

VIENNA (Reuters) - UEFA officials on Saturday brushed off the latest speculation about Euro 2012, denying that Spain had been approached as a possible replacement host if infrastructure problems persisted with Poland and Ukraine.

The co-hosts face huge challenges in upgrading road and rail links, along with modernising airports and building hotels. Concerns have grown in particular over delays in the reconstruction of Kiev’s Olympic stadium.

In January, UEFA president Michel Platini said the next few months would be “crucial in order to avoid any critical slippage in sports and public infrastructure projects and to protect the global credibility of the Euro project.”

The Kiev stadium issue could lead to Ukraine losing the right to co-host the tournament, a senior Ukrainian soccer federation official was quoted as telling a newspaper on Thursday.

A report in Spanish newspaper ABC on Saturday said that in the course of regular meetings, Platini had asked Spanish federation officials whether they would be able to step in as replacement hosts.

“I know absolutely nothing about such a meeting,” UEFA director of communications William Gaillard told a news conference on Saturday.

“There are a lot of stories going around about Euro 2012 and, as we have said before, we will be dealing with the issue in July with the visit of our president.

“Anything you hear before that is devoid of reality.”

ABC said Spanish Federation president Angel Maria Villar had told Platini that Spain would be able to step in at short notice, though he also said he remained confident that Poland and Ukraine would remain as hosts.

Scotland, who failed with a joint bid with Ireland to host Euro 2008, have said they would be willing to step in.

Italy, who along with a joint Croatia-Hungary bid were beaten by the Poland-Ukraine bid, have also been tipped as a potential alternative hosts.

(Editing by Trevor Huggins)