President of the Basketball Federation of Ukraine (BFU) Oleksandr Volkov has said that the investors building all of the arenas that are necessary to hold the European Basketball Championship in 2015 are ready to complete these projects, and the situation is currently unclear only with the arena in Kharkiv.
“All investors who began construction are 100% ready to build and
meet deadlines. Only construction work at the arena in Kharkiv has
actually stopped, and its fate is unclear, [as] there are some issues,”
he said at a press conference in Kyiv on Monday.
Volkov said that the leadership of Kharkiv and Kharkiv region should decide for themselves in this situation.
“If an investor well known to all of you [the VETEK company is unable
to do it, and it will most likely be unable to do it, then [decide] who
is going to do it, or construction work will be frozen,” he said.
Youth and Sports Minister Dmytro Bulatov, in turn, noted that the
government would not compensate for the interest rate of 14.3%, which
was previously offered and which the state was to compensate for.
“I suppose that some investors will fulfill their obligations,” he said.
Bulatov said that seven arenas were initially to be built for EuroBasket 2015.
“It will be good if we build five arenas. But even if fewer arenas
are built, we will still be able to host the championship,” he said.
