Officials with the Union of European Football Associations say they have no plans at this time to replace Ukraine and Poland as co-hosts for the Euro 2012 soccer championship.
fficials 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.
Anna Poludenko can be reached at [email protected] or 4964563 ext. 1078
