Ukraine could lose the right to co-host Euro 2012 unless the government acted quickly to stimulate investment in infrastructure, Ukraine football federation president Grigory Surkis warned on Monday.

“The country’s government and the opposition should unite their efforts to make all the necessary changes in the country’s legislation to stimulate investment in the country’s infrastructure,” Surkis told a news conference.

“Time is running out. We now have only days and hours - not years and months at our disposal. If we don’t act quickly, Ukraine may lose the right to host the European championships.”

He added however that he did not consider such a move likely and said the problem was more one of government organisation than of will.

“I hope it will never happen,” Surkis said. “I see the desire of the president and all of the country’s top authorities to do all of their best for staging the European championship in Ukraine.”

Last month UEFA president Michel Platini admitted he had been forced to tell the joint hosts of the 2012 European Championships, Ukraine and Poland, to speed up their preparations for the event.

“We’ve had to wake them up a little and tell them it’s time to get going,” Platini said.

“The 2012 Euro will still be held (there), but we’ve told them in the nicest possible way to speed things up a bit.”

Platini warned last month that the co-hosts faced a crucial period after concerns mounted over the state of preparations for the event.

“I have the distinct feeling that the next four to six months will be crucial in order to avoid any critical slippage in infrastructure projects and to protect the credibility of the Euro project,” Platini said.

Ukraine and Poland are both hosting the continent’s footballing showpiece for the first time.

From:  sports.indiatimes.com

Poland and Ukraine have been told by UEFA president Michel Platini to speed up their preparations for the 2012 European championships. Platini informed both countries that their preparations for the tournament must improve.

“I have the distinct feeling that the next four to six months will be crucial in order to avoid any critical slippage in sports and public infrastructure projects and to protect the global credibility of the Euro project itself,” Platini said during executive committee discussions of the planning stage.

UEFA acknowledged that preparations had suffered because of political instability in the two countries since they won the race to host the finals last April.

Platini demanded governments of the two countries to set up proper management structures in order to closely monitor “all the projects related to Euro 2012″.

Michal Listkiewicz, the president of the Polish FA said: “It is true that we are behind in some projects because of the political turbulence of last year but we are confident that everything will be back on schedule.”

In a statement, UEFA said “By choosing Poland and the Ukraine, UEFA took a momentous decision that gave a strong message to central and eastern Europe.

“It is clear that there has been a certain degree of political instability in both countries in 2007. However, this instability now seems to be over with newly established governments in each country, but there can be no doubt that the launch of investment-intensive projects, such as stadiums, airports and motorways has suffered from the instability.”

Platini added: “UEFA is totally committed to do everything possible in the next few months to assist and support the two associations at both the advisory and administrative level in order to guarantee the success of the project.”

World Cup holders Italy were strongly tipped to win last April’s vote and the decision to award the 2012 finals to the joint bid from eastern Europe came as a shock. However, despite the current uncertainty there was no suggestion from Platini that the finals would be taken away from Poland and Ukraine.

From: www.worldsoccer.com

Poland’s President Lech Kaczynski Wednesday in Warsaw signed a package of laws designed to streamline investment procedures and thus speed-up work preparing Poland to co-host UEFA’s 2012 European football championships along with eastern neighbour Ukraine.

In the heat of Poland’s ongoing general election campaign, opposition politicians have slammed the government of President Kaczynski’s identical twin brother, Prime Minister Jaroslaw Kaczynski for dragging its heels with regard to the highly important project. With no world-class football stadiums and virtually no European-class highways, many have expressed serious doubts as to whether Poland will be prepared for the 2012 kick-off. Poland, which joined the EU in 2004, will co-host the Euro 2012 football finals with non-EU Ukraine. Both countries are now faced with the mammoth tasks of building a new motorway and stadium infrastructure.

Poland currently has no world-class stadium facilities and a only a very limited motorway network. Poland is also struggling with a hooligan problem, which came to the fore again in July when European football’s ruling body UEFA threw Legia Warsaw out of the Intertoto Cup and banned the Polish club from European competition for a year. The ban came in the wake of crowd trouble when Legia fans ran amok during a second round first-leg match against FK Vetra Vilnius in the Lithuanian capital. Poland’s Prime Minister Jaroslaw Kaczynski subsequently apologized to Lithuanian Prime Minister Gediminas Kirkilas for the violence.

From: www.earthtimes.org

Poland lacks two- and three-star hotels with moderate prices, but preparations for EURO 2012 will contribute to development of this market segment – in the assessment of hotel sector experts.

- Poland lacks hotels with reasonable prices. We need first of all good two- and three-star hotels – said on Monday Józef Ratajski, the deputy chairman of the Polish Chamber of Tourism (PIT). This opinion is shared by Andrzej Saja of Chamber of Commerce of Polish Hotel Industry (IGHP).

According to the ministry of economy, the biggest benefits from hosting of EURO 2012 will be derived by undertakings in construction and tourism sectors – both the contractors and suppliers of building materials.

Experts stress that investments in the construction of hotels should also take into account the situation of the tourism market after 2012.

- In early 1990ties Poland had 600 hotels; currently there are over 1,320 categorized hotel facilities. In the recent years about 50 hotels were built annually in Poland - said Andrzej Szafrański, the author of the report “Report on the Hotel Market, Investments in Poland in 2007”. After announcement of the UEFA decision on hosting of EURO 2012 by Poland, investors announced their intention to build almost 220 new facilities. Our forecasts predict PLN 2 billion annually of investments in the hotel base – Szafrański continued. – As of today in the entire Mazowieckie voivodeship we have 145 hotels, including 60 in the capital city. This number is definitely insufficient to meet the needs of such an event as EURO 2012 – he added.

UEFA calculated that 70 new hotels should be constructed within a radius of 75 kilometres from Poznań.

The largest hotel chains are already getting ready for investments. The hotel facilities will be built wherever areas allocated to servicing functions are located.

Orbis Company is planning to build 33 one- and two-star hotels with the total capacity of 3,600 rooms by 2010. They will be constructed in such cities as Gdańsk, Gdynia, Katowice, Krakow, Poznań, Wrocław and Warsaw. Orbis will allocate PLN 500 million for this project.

Hilton intends to build over 10 hotels in the forthcoming five years. One of them is likely to be built in Poznań. Radisson chain and the Spanish Alstan Group chain also want to deploy investments in this city.

Sheraton is currently building a hotel in Sopot. There are also plans to expand the hotels located near airports.

Source: Głos Wielkopolski

The government wants to accelerate construction of major Polish roads by as many as four years. According to „Dziennik”, the Ministry of Transport is adjusting the investment programme for the years 2007-2015 to account for the date of the beginning of the football championships EURO 2012.

The modifications will be submitted for interministerial consultations in the forthcoming days – Dziennik writes.

The new plans assume that 700 km of new motorways and 1900 km of new express roads will be constructed by the end of 2011.

As a result the motorways network will have the total of 1900 km, and the total length of express roads will reach 3100 km. But this will cost a lot: still before beginning of EURO 2012 we will spend on roads more than PLN 100 billion out of PLN 131 billion planned for the forthcoming 8 years.

Which investments will be accelerated by roadmen? First of all construction of A-4 motorway. By the beginning of the championships it must be ready in its entirety. It will become the most important road corridor for EURO participants and fans, connecting Poland and Western Europe with the other host of the football matches - Ukraine.

Due to the above, as early as in 2011 drivers will have the possibility to ride from Krakow to Tarnów, and then to Rzeszów and on to the state border in Korczowa.

At the same time construction will be completed of S-7 road from Gdańsk to Warsaw and partly of S-5 road between Bydgoszcz, Poznań and Wrocław.

It is also planned to complete works on S-7 road between Radom and Jędrzejowo as well as Lubień and Rabka. The section from Warsaw to Radom will be ready earlier - in 2009.

Source: „Dziennik”, Adam Woźniak, „Motorways are accelerating”