GENEVA — UEFA president Michel Platini will visit Poland and Ukraine in July to check on their preparations for co-hosting the 2012 European Championship.

The two countries have to intensify their efforts over the next few months in order to meet UEFA’s requirements, Platini told a news conference in Geneva on Tuesday.

But “there is no Plan B,” he said, referring to possible alternative venues in case the former eastern bloc states fail to put in place the necessary infrastructure to host the event.

UEFA spokesman William Gaillard said Platini will travel to Poland and Ukraine after Euro 2008, held in Austria and Switzerland in June.

Gaillard said UEFA’s main concern is whether the hotels and transportation networks - including airports, railways and roads - will be sufficient to host the hundreds of thousands of fans expected for the event.

“We’re not thinking of moving it elsewhere,” Gaillard told The Associated Press. “We have to do it there, but in order to do that the efforts have to increase.”

Gaillard also said UEFA was doing everything it could to crack down on illegal ticket scalping online, but that it faced legal constraints.

“In some countries we cannot get a court order that stops someone from reselling tickets,” he said.

Several websites are selling tickets for Euro 2008 games, with prices for the opening match starting at 640 euros (C$1,000) and the best seats for the final in Vienna going for 4,480 euros (C$7,000).

Gaillard said each ticket will be numbered and spot checks may be carried out to ensure that fans acquired them in accordance with UEFA rules.

He warned that “there’s absolutely no guarantee that when you go to the stadium you can get in” with a ticket bought through unofficial channels.

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 and Ukraine the joint organization of the Old Continent’s football championships.

Speaking on Polish Radio, minister Grad enumerated many key government decisions of the past few months paving the way for concrete actions. However, he considered the planning and preparatory stages to launching specific investment undertakings still require some time.

The treasury minister pointed to the crucial decision of PM Donald Tusk’s cabinet concerning principles defining the legal framework for financing of new stadiums. This includes the National Stadium to be constructed in Warsaw. Work is proceeding full steam, said the minister. Aleksander Grad also voiced hope that the next UEFA inspection commission which will examine the state of preparations to the Euro 2012 championships will appreciate the progress made by Poland to date.

From: Poland.pl

The president of UEFA, Michel Platini appealed to organizers of the football European championships in 2012, Poles and Ukrainians, in order to “wake them up” in the realization of the program of preparations for this event.

Euro 2012 found the good place, but some people say that more brisk movements are needed from the side of both countries - on the webpage pointing to the opinion of Platini was written. The UEFA in 30th of the January presented the critical report on preparations of organizers of championships, underlining, that “the closest months will have deciding meaning in order to avoid harmful delays in the realization of projects concerning the infrastructure”.

Polish football’s racism problem

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 wants to set a new deadline for the construction of their Euro 2012 stadiums.

Since Poland won the right in April to co-host the event with Ukraine, early euphoria has been replaced by growing concerns it may not prepare new grounds and upgrade inadequate infrastructure in time.

European soccer’s governing body UEFA says the tournament co-hosts must build the necessary stadiums by mid-2010.

“We need additional time and the year 2011 will be the most suitable,” Jakubiak told a news conference.

The surprising choice of Poland and Ukraine as co-hosts ahead of Italy was originally touted by the Polish government as an opportunity to put the country on the international soccer map.

But a growing number of critics say Poland might have taken on a near-impossible task.

“Beside the announcement, nothing has been done so far,” said Zbigniew Chlebowski, deputy head of the parliamentary finance committee and a member of the opposition Civic Platform party.

“There are also no ideas where to get the money from to finance the huge projects.”

Poland is estimated to need about three billion zlotys ($1.09 billion) to build or restructure four main Euro 2012 stadiums.

WARSAW HEADACHE

The planned national stadium in the capital Warsaw has proved the biggest headache.

The new ground is to be built at a dilapidated communist-era stadium now being used as Europe’s largest outdoor market, with Jakubiak saying hundreds of traders will be asked to leave by mid-September.

Polish authorities have not decided whether the old stadium will be razed or if a new facility will be built next to the old one to save time.

The transport ministry also estimates it will need 164 billion zlotys to build 2,400-km (1,500-miles) of motorway to prepare for the tournament.

Only six kilometres of motorway was built last year and none so far this year.

Source: reuters.com

To build a stadium for 30-40 thousand people two, or two and half a year is enough- said in the interview of ‘Rzeczpospolita’ Heinz Palme, the chairman of company ‘Austria przy Pilce’ which coordinates preparations of Austria to Euro 2008 finals.

– Every organizer of championships has a similar problem as Poland. We also have elections and changes of government. In Klagenfurt we managed to begin works at the last moment because first environmentalists protested, politicians quarreled and then documentation concerning a tender leaked out to the press and a court had to intervene. UEFA demands building of stadium for one year before the sports event- we can work longer on its infrastructure- but it’s understanding.

-All stadiums apart from the one in Vienna have capacity of 30-40 thousand. Two and half a year for building such object is enough. In Zurich we managed to do it in two years- added Austrian.

– I think that stadiums aren’t the major problem of Poland and Ukraine. They will be built for sure. Instead of that we should worry about roads, airports, ect. In reply to a question concerning problems during preparations to the world championships in Germany Palme thinks that comparison to Germany isn’t a good idea.

– They hit on idea to do the 2006 World Cup in the mid-90s and started doing plans.

Besides they had Beckenbauer who managed to organize everything and had experts such as Secretary-General of German Football Federation Horst Schmidt who has been send to save the World Cup in the Republic of South Africa. Palme is surprised that Poles want to economize on expensive help from abroad.

–Experts are very expensive. We spend amounts of money which run into millions of euro, but it’s worth. We pay to save on something else. Ask for help is not a shame. Even Germany asked me Austrian for help. It wasn’t easy for them because managers especially those from Bundesliga were convicted that they did everything the best in the world and they didn’t need advice.

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