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Uefa Not Happy With Euro 2012 Preparations

This is a discussion on Uefa Not Happy With Euro 2012 Preparations within the Euro 2008 forums, part of the European Soccer category; BBC Sport reports that Uefa are concerned that political change and instability in both Poland and Ukraine is hampering the ...


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Old 01-31-2008, 11:56 AM   #1 (permalink)
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Uefa Not Happy With Euro 2012 Preparations

BBC Sport reports that Uefa are concerned that political change and instability in both Poland and Ukraine is hampering the progress of projects such as stadium and road construction ahead of Euro 2012.

The two countries were awarded the competition in April 2007 as co-hosts, but both Poland and Ukraine have admitted that preparations in terms of construction of vital infrastructure for the tournament have fallen behind schedule because of political instability.

"The next four to six months will be crucial to avoid any critical slippage in infrastructure projects," said Uefa president, Michel Platini.

And Uefa general secretary, David Taylor, added: "There has been progress, but it needs to be accelerated."

Platini voiced Uefa's concerns following a two-day meeting of the European governing body's executive committee in Zagreb, which reviewed a report on the progress made to date by the two countries.

In both countries, new governments were elected at the end of 2007, and Platini is hopeful that preparations will now proceed without hindrance or interruption.

"There is a need for creating government mobilisation by making the national authorities aware of the crucial need to set up a governance and management structure to lead all the projects related to Euro 2012," said Platini.

"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 and political level in order to guarantee the success of the project."

The hosts co-hosts insist there is no danger of them failing to stage the event.

"The situation is very clear now and we have new authorities which are determined to fulfil all obligations," said Polish Football Association president Michal Listkiewicz.

"Uefa is aware, as we are, that it will not be possible to complete some of the tadiums by the mid-2010 deadline as planned but there is no reason to panic and we have asked the soccer body to extend the deadline by six to eight months.

"The situation has improved in the last few months and there is no danger of not meeting all the requirements on time."

Listkiewicz's counterpart in Ukraine, Grigoriy Surkis, explained: "Political stability is crucial and it's now showing in both countries, which gives us a great opportunity to catch up."

Taylor promised Uefa's full support to the co-hosts, and said there were no plans to move the tournament to another country.

"We are not thinking about that at all at the moment," he said. "There were some difficulties but these difficulties are now behind us.

"The two governments are committed to making this work.

"We certainly are not in the position of approaching and discussing alternative locations with any country at this stage at all. We categorically deny that."

source:goal.com
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