Ukraine has been accused of so many things before the beginning of the European Soccer Championship. Among the addressed topics were terrible infrastructure and poor service, deliberately overpriced transport and accommodation fees. Constant media reports about the unfavorable political situation in Ukraine and Europeans boycotting the Championship also added fuel to the flame. There were rumors heard about the possibility of moving European Championship elsewhere. But it is all in the past now. President of Ukraine Viktor Yanukovych even attended the opening ceremony of the Euro Championship in Warsaw.
The last straw of it all seemed to be the statement made by Sol Campbell, forward of England’s national team that in Ukraine there is a threat to lives of people with a different skin color. “Stay home, watch it on TV. Don’t even risk it, you can end up coming home in a coffin,” the soccer player blurted in his interview for BBC.
However, real fans don’t fear anything. As it turned out during the first day of the Euro-2012 such accusations, which were often heard regarding Ukraine and Poland, have no ground. Englishmen should be the last ones to ever complain about racism. Recently a racist scandal concerning the England’s national team was made known to public. The manager of the team Fabio Capello got indignant at the fact that English Soccer Association took away the captain’s armband from John Terry and slammed the doors. Chelsea’s defender is accused of racist remarks against the player of Queens Park Rangers during one of the games.
On June 11, the last matches of the first round were played. French and English teams played in Donetsk, and in Kyiv the hosting Ukrainian team played with Swedes. During these four days lots has happened. We’ve already had the first sensation of the Euro-2012: National team of Denmark, which is considered to be an outsider in group B, beat one of the favorites – the Netherlands (1:0, Michael Krohn-Dehli scored the goal), the first penalty at the goal of Polish team, which the Greek player Giorgos Karagounis failed to score. The match between Russia and the Czech Republic also awoke a wide response. Not only because Russians beat Czechs with a score 4:1, but because of the aggression of Russian fans, who have beaten a stewart after the match.
The report on the website gazeta.pl says: “After the events that took place on the stadium in Wroclaw, the police already know that Tuesday will be the harderst day during Euro-2012. [In the evening of June 12 Polish National Team will play against Russians. – Author.] So far there have been a few incidents involving Russian fans in Poland, but this one is the high-profile scandal.” According to other sources, Russian fans will be escorted by police with dogs.
A few days ago in Warsaw Polish opposition held a rally in memory of the Smolensk air crash of April 10, 2012 – deaths of Polish President Lech Kaczynski and his entourage, in front of the hotel “Bristol” that hosts Russian National Team. This was reported by Gazeta.ru. “Give us back the crashed plane” – was written in Russian on a huge banner. “Polish President killed in Russia,” “Welcome to Poland. Poles support Russians in their fight against KGB and Putin,” “Anna Politkovskaya – we remember” – these signs were written in English. This is how Russian newspaper described the meeting.
Only two foreign national teams are based in Ukraine: Swedish and French. The rest of the teams are accommodated in Poland. However, this fact has no effect on the flow of fans whose numbers rise every day. British fans weren’t lucky enough, having to stay at home in front of their TV sets. “Cheap beer, wonderful weather – where are the fans?” This question worries the journalists of British The Independent in their report from Donetsk, where the English team has played. The British estimate that only 3,000 fans purchased the tickets to the game, whereas before the game there were several thousands of free places in the Donbas-Arena with a capacity of 50,000. “Yet the fans who did come,” the report reads, “were impressed to see how welcoming the city was.” A fan Bob Dickerson was disappointed by the low attendance of his countrymen. “Mass media canceled the arrival of many people, which is only too sad, because the place is absolutely fantastic,” the British, “we’ve had some language problems, but everyone here is willing to help.”
The Guardian, too, is worried by the scarce numbers of British fans. The reason is not only mass media, but also the prices set by the owners of hotels and hostels. “The process of organization of the championship is as a rule connected with the municipal self-promotion, attracting tourists and professional trade. But UEFA President Michel Platini offered Donetsk to cut the hotel prices, otherwise the English fans would not come back, the answer was: let it be. They won’t return anyway.” It remains unclear why our compatriots are so sure that Englishmen won’t like it in Ukraine. Incidentally, the French National Team is training in Donetsk, trying to adapt to Ukrainian weather. During the training sessions the football players put on special corselets filled with ice, and undergo special procedures.
The foreign guests are especially amazed with the openness and sincerity of Lviv. So far it has hosted only one game between the combined teams of Germany and Portugal. The goal of German forward Mario Gomez was the only one in this bout, thus bringing the victory to Bundesteam.
In Lviv, during the match local oppositionists hand out T-shirts with Tymoshenko’s portrait and inscription “Free Yulia” to the foreigners. The fans eagerly change into them. “You are a strong people. I believe that soon everything will be good in Ukraine and Yulia Tymoshenko will be freed. There is no difference between us. You are Europeans and this can be easily felt here, in Lviv,” News.ru quotes a German fan as saying. Previously the admirers of the Dutch combined team had put on analogical T-shirts in Kharkiv.
The journalists from Swedish Expressen prepared a video report about the weather storm which struck the tent town accommodating the Swedish fans. The newspaper’s website carries a plentiful of materials about the Swedes’ routine life in Ukrainian capital. It is known that Swedish combined team will play three games in Kyiv. It is expected that the number of Swedish fans will be over 35,000. Meanwhile, gazeta.pl found Scandinavians, who decided to watch the matches of their team in Poland. “Ukraine is not a very good place, we don’t want to go there,” the Swedes said. However, all Swedes by no exception, whom The Day met during the past four days, said that they like it in Ukraine. And not only Swedes. It looks like these impressions are sincere and mutual.
