UEFA has reaffirmed its commitment to staging UEFA EURO 2012 in Poland and Ukraine. The UEFA Executive Committee reached this decision at its meeting in Bordeaux, France, on Friday.
Number of conditions
The committee has set a number of conditions which the 2012 co-hosts must meet to move forward the organisation of the tournament in four summers' time, with UEFA deciding in particular on the number of stadiums to be used – a maximum of eight and a minimum of six. The completion of stadiums in the two capitals, Warsaw (Poland) and Kiev (Ukraine), is seen as crucial to the 2012 project.
UEFA President Michel Platini read out the following statement at the end of the Bordeaux meeting:
"The UEFA Executive Committee has carefully examined a report prepared by experts on the preparations for UEFA EURO 2012™ in Poland and Ukraine. At its meeting in Zagreb in January 2008, UEFA President Michel Platini warned both host countries that the projects had to be improved significantly to allow Poland and Ukraine to retain the organisation of UEFA EURO 2012™.
"In particular, the Executive Committee noticed at the time that the national bodies overseeing the project erred because of a lack of experience and rigour, and that the development of the necessary infrastructures needed for the good running of the final tournament was practically at a standstill. At the beginning of July, President Platini led a UEFA delegation to Poland and Ukraine for meetings at the highest level of both the two states and the two federations. Visits by experts also took place during the course of the summer to evaluate the ongoing preparations.
"The report, which has been presented to the Executive Committee, takes into account fully those meetings and those visits. The Executive Committee has taken note of the content of the report and wishes to underline that progress has been achieved by both countries in the last six months at an organisational level and in the advancement of the infrastructure elements, although progress is neither uniform nor constant.
"The Executive Committee reconfirmed UEFA's commitment to organise the 2012 UEFA European Championship in Poland and Ukraine. At the same time, the Executive Committee stressed a number of conditions which must be met in order to bring the whole project forward. These are:
• Both host countries must continue to make the necessary efforts as any slackening could put in doubt the organisation of this tournament in these countries;
• UEFA will decide how many and which stadiums (and therefore cities) will be used as venues for the competition, with a minimum of six and a maximum of eight, taking into account that contracts have been signed with eight stadiums, cities and airports;
• There will not necessarily be the same number of venues (cities) per country;
• The completion of the Kiev and Warsaw stadiums remains an essential element of the whole project;
• The governments of both countries must support their national associations and fulfil the commitments they gave to UEFA in the scope of the project, notably concerning accommodation and transport infrastructures."
Capitals issue
"Warsaw and Kiev is one key issue," said Mr Platini after the meeting. The UEFA President emphasised that if either of the cities' stadiums were not completed, then the country in question would lose the right to stage the final round.
Continue efforts
"There is still a lot of work to do," UEFA General Secretary David Taylor told uefa.com. "And both countries must continue their efforts unstintingly. UEFA itself will decide the venues some time in the first half of next year. We want to make it clear that it could be the case that there will not be equality in terms of the number of venues in Poland and Ukraine. If the progress is not even, there may be more venues in one country than in another."
Keeping to commitments
"It is essential that both capitals are involved as host cities," Mr Taylor added. "If they are not, I'm afraid that would be the end for the country concerned. Finally, the governments of both countries must keep to their commitments in terms of infrastructure, notably in the fields of accommodation and transport."
Full speed ahead
"Together with our colleagues from Poland and Ukraine, our organisation will be good," said Martin Kallen, who has recently headed Euro 2008 SA, the organising company for this summer's final round in Austria and Switzerland, and who now looks towards the 2012 event. "We will put together a business plan and a project plan and start working full speed ahead."
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