Tonight the delegation of the organizing committee of the joint Ukraine-Poland project to host the Euro 2012 soccer finals will present its bid at a special session of the UEFA Executive Committee in Cardiff (UK). Tomorrow we will learn which country will actually host the biggest continental soccer competitions.
There has been enough said, shown, and written about Ukraine and Poland’s chances and those of their rivals, Hungary and Croatia. I would like to focus on a different aspect. For the host country, sports competitions of this caliber — the European soccer finals are second only to the Olympics and the World Cup finals — are a test of its conformity to the highest world standards in practically all spheres of life.
Starting in 1994, when truly modern soccer tournaments — the World Cup finals — took place in the United States, tournaments of this scope are not only athletic contests but also a global demonstration of the latest achievements in the sports business. Whereas previously the main thing was to prepare a stadium and accommodate the delegations of the participating countries, in the last decade the purely commercial aspect of this show has begun to play an increasingly important role. Today no one is content simply to have soccer fields and seats for soccer fans. It is important to make this sports show attractive to the whole world, so that the games can be broadcast live, so that thousands of journalists and hundreds of thousands of viewers are provided with maximum conveniences. It is only under such conditions that staggering sums invested in modern sports events can be returned to the organizers with profits.
For Ukraine it is a test to prove that it has a truly modern market society where show business yields as much revenue — maybe even more — as other industries. Today our country is on its way to becoming this kind of society. Ukrainians are now ready to spend as much on sports shows as the EU countries, US, or Japan. The only thing that matches these countries is the popularity of soccer, traditions, and the professional level of our teams. Even under the Soviets our teams ranked with the leading ones in Europe and the world.
Today Ukraine’s national soccer team and its leading clubs are capable of putting on a performance equal to the world’s leading teams. Much has been and is still being done in this connection by people who love soccer and are investing a lot of money in it. But bringing our soccer closer to world standards in terms of infrastructure and market attractiveness has proved to be a more difficult task.
It looks as though hosting top- notch soccer competitions will provide the decisive impetus along these lines. Remember the World Cup finals in 2006 in Germany, where the Ukrainian team competed for the first time? Public interest in soccer during those several weeks last June was tremendous in Ukraine. The ratings of soccer broadcasts soared and soccer was discussed everywhere.
Then it was over. The festive atmosphere of that soccer show failed to reach our stadiums, and the soccer boom abated. We failed to become a soccer country as much as Italy, Great Britain, Spain, and other countries, where a large part of the population cannot imagine a life without soccer games.
Much could be said about the reasons behind this situation, but it seems best to hope that we will eventually reach this status, because a developed soccer and general sports industry is a necessary attribute of a modern country with a market economy. And we want to become a European country. Strange as it may seem today, developing soccer as a sports show is as important as political passions.
Personally, I believe that our people are prepared to root for their teams as much as people in any other country. Proof of this is constant public interest in Ukrainian broadcasts of Champions League matches in the leading European countries. To make people as interested in Ukrainian soccer, we not only have to raise our teams’ professional level (which is good enough by European standards) but also learn how to stage soccer shows at the European level, something we often fail to do. We must have modern equipped stadiums, quality broadcasts, and aggressive advertising. We will have all this in time, but when exactly?
The people behind the idea to hold the Euro finals in Ukraine have assured us that these games will give an impetus to our soccer and other businesses, which will be raised to the modern level. People are eager to believe that soccer will indeed serve as an additional stimulus in speeding up the development of transportation, the hotel business, and services in general. Traditionally we make far better arrangements for our guests than for ourselves. Tomorrow we will know whether we will have such an opportunity in the next five years.
