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Ukraine football president positive over Euro 2012
The president of Ukraine's football federation is confident his country
will remain as co-host of the 2012 European Championship.
UEFA is expected to rule Friday on whether Ukraine and Poland can still
host the tournament, following concerns about their preparations. "I
am absolutely sure everything will be ready for Ukraine and Poland for
the organization of this competition," Grigoriy Surkis told The Associated
Press on Thursday ahead of the UEFA executive committee meeting in Bordeaux.
"I am certain that the report will be positive for Ukraine and for
Poland." UEFA president Michel Platini and his committee members
will view a report detailing the two countries have made enough progress
on infrastructure and planning _ an area of concern when officials visited
earlier this year. Surkis -- a member of UEFA's executive committee --
said he was confident Ukraine has made the required progress, particularly
over having stadiums ready in time.
"The first stadium was already finished on the 14th of September,
one of the six stadiums," Surkis said. "The next one will be
ready next year in Donetsk, and there isno doubt that in Kiev the stadium
will also be ready on time. There will be no problem for the sporting
infrastructure. ... For the other infrastructure, we will follow the plan
designed by UEFA and we are sure everything will be delivered on time."
When Platini visited Poland and Ukraine in March, he was unhappy at the
lack of progress and warned officials they could lose the right to host
Euro 2012 if considerable improvements were not made. UEFA awarded the
tournament to Ukraine and Poland in April 2007, ahead of Italy and another
co-host bid from Hungary and Croatia. The other main item for UEFA's executive
committee will be whether to endorse a move to increase the Euro from
16 to 24 teams. That proposal is expected to be approved after being backed
in June.
KyivPost,
Sep 25, 2008
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