The latest fact-finding visit of experts from the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) to Ukraine has produced positive results. “We are satisfied today with the progress Ukraine has made,” said Martin Cullen, a UEFA representative and executive director of Euro 2012. However, in spite of the positive assessment, there still are questions to candidate cities. It will be recalled that the UEFA Executive Committee will approve on December 11-12 the list of the Ukrainian cities eligible for hosting Euro 2012 championship games. Those who will be defending their right are Donetsk, Lviv, and Kharkiv. As for Kyiv, it was granted the right to hold the tournament on May 13. But UEFA is still to decide on furnishing Ukraine’s capital the right to host the championship’s final match. In Cullen’s opinion, the stadium in Lviv is being built to schedule, but the city authorities will still have to do quite a lot of work to do to put their best foot forward in the next two months. As for Kyiv, although the expert has no cause to doubt that the National Sport Complex will be built in due time, he says the capital has not yet submitted the stadium reconstruction plan to UEFA. Furthermore, the Kyiv authorities still have to solve the problem of transporting people from the Boryspil International Airport to the city.
“In Kharkiv there still is insufficiency of hotel rooms. There will be more of them built, but we need guarantees. The Donetsk airport is still at the design stage, while construction work should be finished very soon,” Cullen said to sum up his remarks to the two cities. The UEFA Euro 2012 executive director also believes that the main problem for all Ukrainian candidate cities is insufficient number of hotels.
The visit’s program also included a seminar for the hosting cities and the first team-building session involving representatives of UEFA and the Ukrainian and Polish local Euro 2012 organizing committees. The seminar’s main goal was to form a professional and united team of tournament organizers. For two days, representatives of the hosting cities exchanged experience in organizing the previous European soccer championships.
