Poland ready to provide majority of Euro 2012 venues

Poland is prepared to provide six of the eight venues needed for Euro 2012 if co-host Ukraine is not ready in time, Polish sports officials told local media on Saturday.

Earlier this week UEFA president Michel Platini gave Ukraine three months to prove its preparations for hosting the event were on track.

"We are hoping Euro 2012 will be co-hosted by Poland and Ukraine as planned, but the risk factor must be assessed and a contingency reserve prepared," Polish Sports Minister Miroslaw Drzewiecki told news channel TVN24 on Saturday.

"Our reserve is the fact that we are building not four but six stadiums, so we can sleep peacefully no matter what happens."

Polish daily Gazeta Wyborcza said a contingency plan to hold the tournament at six Polish venues instead of the originally planned four was being considered by tournament organisers, citing unidentified UEFA sources.

Television reports also showed Polish Football Association president Michal Listkiewicz adding that alternative venues were being given consideration by what he termed "the UEFA family".

"This is a big group of UEFA activists, politicians and other VIPs for whom Euro is also a round of business meetings and banquets, and only Polish cities are capable of providing the necessary attractions," Listkiewicz said.

Earlier this year and again last week, both countries were warned they might lose the right to co-host the tournament because of delays in building and upgrading much-needed infrastructure including stadiums and transport networks.

Last Wednesday, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk gave the visiting Platini his personal assurances that his country would have everything ready on schedule by 2011.
Eight venues are due to stage the matches. Warsaw, Poznan, Wroclaw and Gdansk in Poland and Kiev, Donetsk, Lviv and Dnipropetrovsk in Ukraine.

The two reserve stadiums Poland's Drzewiecki referred to were in Chorzow and Krakow -- both in the south of the country.

Source:in.reuters.com