Soccer-Crisis seen helping Poland's Euro 2012 preparations

Global financial crisis may make the job of preparing for the Euro 2012 football championship easier for Poland as demand for unrelated construction eases and prices drop, a senior official said on Friday.

Marcin Herra, who heads the PL.2012 agency preparing for the event, told Reuters in an interview, the global slowdown in investment increased developers' interest in key infrastructure projects, while falling prices of building materials should make the final price-tag lower.

Infrastructure work is a major challenge for Poland and co-host Ukraine, which have to build not only stadiums to host the tournament but also roads, airports, railways and hotels.

"The crisis and the slowdown will have many consequences for the preparations... There are no more problems with finding employees... This will allow us to make much more rational deals than we previously expected," Herra said.

Herra estimated that total infrastructure work linked to the tournament would cost Poland about 20 billion euros ($27.92 billion), with most of the cash coming out of European Union funds, adding that the economic crisis would not impact the financing.

However, things are not so rosy in Ukraine, which unlike Poland is not an EU member and so does not have the same access to EU funding. The financial crisis has also badly hit the ex-Soviet republic's economy and exacerbated political tensions.

"During our last visit (to Ukraine) we received a declaration from the deputy prime minister that the funding for Euro 2012 is guaranteed by the state. For us that ends the issue," Herra said, playing down Kiev's woes.

The Ukrainian economy has taken a big hit from the global crisis, prompting the International Monetary Fund to step in with a loan now worth $17.4 billion. The value of the local hryvnia currency has halved since September.
or Poland, the infrastructure work needed for Euro 2012 is viewed as a timely cushion for its economic slowdown.

"The tournament is without doubt a catalyst for the infrastructure transformation Poland has to see," said Herra.

Poland was recently complimented by the UEFA head Michel Platini on the steady progress in its preparations.

Herra said Warsaw's key National Stadium project was running ahead of schedule, though he added much work remained to do.

The groundwork at the stadium is expected to end in March 2009, just in time for selection of the company that will be responsible for building the stadium itself. The construction is planned to start in April and run until mid-2011.

UEFA has often said the stadiums in Warsaw and Kiev, slated to host the opening game and the final, are the key investments required for the tournament and must be prepared if Poland and Ukraine do not want to be stripped of hosting rights.

UEFA has criticised both countries in the past for slow progress on the preparations, but Herra said by next year the results would be much more visible "Next year will be the time when construction works start on six stadiums, we see kick-off on extending five airports as well as railroad modernisation and road-building," Herra said. "It will also be a time of much closer cooperation with Ukraine." This week Poland began construction of the Gdansk stadium and selected a developer for modernising the Krakow stadium. It is also expected to announce offers for construction of the Wroclaw stadium later on Friday.
Source: By Patryk Wasilewski, uk.reuters.com

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

Soccer-Poland needs more time to build Euro 2012 stadiums

Poland wants to set a new deadline for the construction of their Euro 2012 stadiums, Sports Minister Elzbieta Jakubiak said on Monday.

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: By Piotr Bujnicki, uk.reuters.com