Will Euro 2012 Actually Happen?

I get a flood of emails giving details of what people are saying about the Euro 2012 tournament. It seems that virtually everyone is saying how the Poland and Ukraine preperations are so slow it seems doubtful that it'll ever happen!

What with the perception of corruption, poor construction practices, bad management - one would have thought we were talking about the preperations for the London Olympics!! But joking aside - it doesn't look good for Euro 2012!

Relevant stories:

Poland and Ukraine face mounting Euro 2012 pressure
AFP -WARSAW (AFP) — One year on from winning the race to hold Euro 2012 , Poland and Ukraine are under mounting pressure from UEFA to step up efforts to get ready ...

Euro 2012 preparations fine, claims government
Thenews.pl - Warsaw,Poland
Treasury minister Aleksander Grad has voiced confidence that preparations for Euro 2012 are back on track. For instance, though the southern city of Krakow ...

Euro 2012 going full steam
Poland.pl - Warsaw,Poland
Treasury minister Aleksander Grad has voiced confidence preparations to the Euro 2012 are in no way jeopardized. Exactly a year ago UEFA had granted Poland ...

Poles pessimistic about Euro2012 preparations
Thenews.pl - Warsaw,Poland
Though Poles are happy to be co-hosting Euro 2012 a majority think the country won‘t be ready in time. Over 80 percent of the Poles are happy with the fact ...

Ukraine draws increasing Israeli business interest
Kyiv Post (subscription) - Kyiv,Ukraine
The firm is interested in projects related to the EURO 2012 football championship, “particularly the building and restructuring of stadiums, ...

Accor, Rezidor, InterContinental plan nationwide hotel development
Kyiv Post - Kyiv,Ukraine
While Ukraine's hosting of the upcoming EURO 2012 football championship has raised interest in the market, hotel experts said the new projects are meant to ...

Ukrainians prefer vacationing abroad
Kyiv Post (subscription) - Kyiv,Ukraine
Market insiders believe the situation in domestic tourism will improve after the EURO 2012 football championship. “New hotels and entertainment complexes ...

Counting down to 2012
Polish Market - Warszawa,Poland
Q: Some newspapers abroad have blamed Poland and Ukraine for delays in preparations to Euro 2012 . Are there any such delays on the part of Poland? ...

Soccer-Ukraine picks Taiwanese firm for Euro 2012 stadium
Reuters.uk - UK
"The project will meet all vital requirements of UEFA for holding Euro 2012 -- and this applies to the fans, the VIPS and media," Evhen Chervonenko, ...

Taiwan firm selected to overhaul troubled Ukraine stadium
Earthtimes - London,UK
The 94000-seat stadium, built during the Soviet era and slowly falling apart, is the site of the scheduled final of Euro 2012 . Ukraine and Poland in April ...

Scotland To Take Over From Poland & Ukraine

So the SFA has said "we'll do it" if UEFA takes away the 2012 tournament from Poland & Ukraine due to their belief that the two nations are politically unstable. Well you bloody knew it wasn't a bed of roses over there, so why the hell did you give it to them?

Jeez!

Money Troubles for Ukraine 2012?

Digital Journal reports that a World Bank splokesman: Martin Raisner is concerned about Ukraines financial position and it's impact on their co-hosting of the EURO 2012 tournament.

Kiev main stadium is unsuitable for Euro 2012

UEFA has reportedly said that Kiev's main stadium (Olympiysky) isn't fit for the Euro 2012 tournament.

Michel Platini signed a letter to the Ukrainian Football Federation and part of it said:

“Exits from the stadium and reserve ways are partially blocked, the area for people moving around the arena, which significantly increases the danger for fans. The conclusion is unambiguous: the stadium with its limited capacity and movement area will surely be unsuitable to host Euro 2012 games,” the letter says. “That is why we believe and hope that Ukrainian agencies in charge will provide appropriate and immediate fulfillment of its decisions regarding the issue.”

Not good!

More chatter about Ukraines lack of organisation

The Guardian reports about how the Ukraine Sports Minisitor Viktor Korzh has criticsed the country's preperations for the EURO 2012 tournament.

Read the full article here.

Poland not hosting opening match?

There's apparently some doubts as to Poland's ability to get the new national stadium finished in time for the opening game of Euro 2012!

The news also is that the Polish FA are trying to extend the date at which the stadium could be finished .... not good news!

Polish Legislation Passed?

Has anyone heard if the Polish parliament has passed legislation which will effect if the Euro 2012 tournament can go ahead yet? I'm assuming as it hasn't hit the press that everything is ok? .....

Poland Needs Migrant Workers

It seems that with many Poles coming over to the UK to seek work, that they're having a shortage of workers there to help prepare for the Euro 2012 tournament. It'll be likely that as wage prices rise over there because of a shortage of labour, the expats will start returning.

Hotel Shortage

All the negative stories are coming out now. The latest is that ther will be a shortage of hotel rooms in Kiev.

The whole organisation of the Euro 2012 tournament needs to be monitored, but give them a bit of space to get things sorted. They're not used to massive amounts of tourism - so give them the opportunity to create a great tournament.

Missing Money for Euro 2012 Roads?

There's some concern coming out from a number of sources that Poland is 13 billion dollars short of the 47bln needed to bring its roads upto scratch before the Euro 2012 final round they co-host with Ukraine.

Stadia Building to Hamper Housing Construction

Wirtualna Polska reports that an analyst has said that the demands of hosting the Euro 2012 tournament and the need to improve the stock of World-class stadia could divert construction away from domestic construction.

Bid Presentation Accused of Plagery

Jonathan Shlaffer has the view that the Poland & Ukraine bid group copied the Apple iPod adverts when they created their bid presentation.

He commented:

"Maybe if the Euro 2012 ad wasn’t so pixilated and the song wasn’t written so poorly done it might have been better, I guess someone figured if it was bad enough, Apple wouldn’t care, just a little heads up, I think Apple DOES care and this is not just going to go away."

Here's the video if you wanted to watch it:

New hotels to be built

Jozef Ratajski from the Polish Tourist Chamber of Commerce has said that the country lacked a sufficient network of rationally priced two and three-star hotels.

At the moment there are over 1,320 hotels in Poland and there'll be a emphasis placed on building new ones.

Head of Euro 2012 organizing staff named in Poland

Polish Sports Minister Tomasz Lipiec announced that Maciej Grzeskowiak has been named as the head of the Euro 2012 organizing staff. Grzeskowiak has experience as a journalist and sports manager has previously organised large international sports events.

Croation FA Drop Compensation Claim

Quite bizarely the Croation FA have dropped a compensation claim against UEFA for the cost of their campaign to win the hosting battle for the EURO 2012 campaign with $2.71 being the figure quoted.

Apparently we all missunderstood the fact. The Croation FA vice-president Ivan Brlekovic said that the figure mentioned wasn't for campaign compensation but for funding soccere development. (cough)

Speaking to Jutarnji List he said:

"This is not about seeking compensation for the failed bid. We'll only ask UEFA to help funding our soccer development programs which we couldn't focus on properly during the last three years as we were occupied by the Euro bid."

Visas for the tournament

The Polish Ambassador to Ukraine, a Mr Yatsek Kliutchkovskii has stated that there will be no visas between EU and Ukraine during the final games of Euro 2012 Championship.

He said: “I can’t say now how the visa issues will be solved in 5 years, but I’m sure that everything has to be all right. We will manage to come to agreement with the EU on suspending the visa regime for 2-3 weeks, that’s not gonna be a problem.”

However, he did say that there will be more check-points at the border, with 10 being the number put forward.