His two-day visit didn't come without controversy.
What a difference 17 months and a change in government can make – at least for Euro 2012, the soccer championship that Ukraine will co-host with Poland in June.
The last time Michel Platini visited Ukraine, in April 2010, he had a dour look on his face after learning about the nation’s slow progress in getting ready for the games. There was a huge pit where the Lviv Arena was supposed to be built and the reconstruction of Kyiv’s Olympic Stadium was critically behind schedule.
On his latest visit on Sept. 26-27, however, the president of Europe’s top soccer governing body was beaming with joy during his two-day whistle-stop tour of Ukraine’s four Euro 2012 host cities of Lviv, Donetsk, Kharkiv and Kyiv.
Ukraine and Poland will be the first eastern European countries to host the continent’s premier soccer tournament.
“We at one point questioned whether we were going to stay in Ukraine, then whether the games would take place in two or four cities,” Platini said, speaking from the north entrance of the nearly complete Olympic Stadium on Sept. 27. “But now, having visited the four host cities (in Ukraine), I have no doubts that the tournament will be a fruitful and successful event.”
Platini didn’t try to conceal his satisfaction.
Ukraine and Poland will be the first eastern European countries to host the continent’s premier soccer tournament.
“I can say one thing: bravo to all those responsible for Ukraine’s preparations for Euro-2012 – the government, local government, the state, local organizing committees,” Platini said.
“On behalf of UEFA I am grateful to all for contributing to the preparations and construction of facilities.
I am pleased with everything that I saw, and I will tell the same thing to the President of Ukraine.”
While “each city has a few small problems to resolve,” Platini said, all the major ones are solved. Concerns remain over whether Donetsk can meet hotel accommodation targets, whether Kharkiv can upgrade its transport infrastructure on time and whether the roof over the Lviv Arena will be done.
“But I am sure that the entire infrastructure will be ready. It remains only to be commissioned and prepared for matches,” Platini added.
Ukraine is spending billions of dollars to build stadiums and training complexes, to refurbish roads, and to construct additional airport runways and terminals amid other projects ahead of the June 8 kickoff date. The cost of Kyiv’s Olympic Stadium, set to open Oct. 8, is approaching $600 million.
But despite the glowing report, Platini’s visit didn’t come without controversy. One issue is the alleged use of the Euro 2012 logotype by Ukrainian law enforcement as an excuse to crackdown on a business that prints T-shirts with offensive slogans about President Viktor Yanukovych.
Police say they targeted business in large sting operation in which they placed orders for the manufacture of Euro 2012 souvenirs.
Earlier this month, police’s organized crime fighting unit raided the company office and confiscated production equipment, including computers and documents and damaged whatever was too heavy to haul away.
I can say one thing: bravo to all those responsible for Ukraine’s preparations for Euro-2012 – the government, local government, the state, local organizing committees.
– Michel Platini
According to the Kyiv organized crime fighting unit’s press release, they acted on the request of “representatives of the Euro 2012 logo.”
The owner of ProstoPrint, Denis Oleinikov, said police caused $300,000 in damages.
One of ProstoPrint’s product lines are T-shirts perceived satirical to some, offensive toward Yanukovych by others. One version reads, “Thank you residents of Donbas for a pineapple,” or ananas in Russian, referring to a banner recently unveiled at a Kyiv soccer match reading: “Thank you Donbas for the president-faggot.”
A UEFA spokesperson in Kyiv on Sept. 27 said its legal department had sent notices to companies making unlicensed Euro 2012 souvenirs in Ukraine warning them to stop their activities.
And on Sept. 20 authorities seized a computer server containing the layouts for the “Donbas” T-shirts, said a civic group that reportedly supports Oleinikov’s cause. Oleinikov fled Ukraine on Sept. 21, citing his impending arrest by authorities.
Tatyana Shpakovich of Doubinsky & Osharova, a law firm specializing in intellectual property that has been retained by UEFA, said ProstoPrint was notified by letter to cease making Euro 2012 products available on its website. Shpakovich said her law firm sends at least a dozen notices to companies weekly on the behalf of UEFA.
Oleinikov’s lawyer, pro-democracy and small business activist Oleksandr Danylyuk, maintains his client’s innocence and puts the burden of adhering to intellectual property laws on the client placing orders.
“There is currently no Ukrainian company which has bought UEFA Euro 2012 licensing rights, but there are several international companies which have bought such rights for the territory of Ukraine,” a Sept. 15 UEFA statement read.
Platini was asked twice about the use of UEFA’s intellectual property for political reasons.
But Borys Kolesnikov, Vice Prime Minister and Minister of Infrastructure, answered for him instead in Lviv, telling journalists that Oleinikov started printing the “Donbas” T-shirts as a cover for making illegal Euro 2012 products. Then he scolded journalists, telling them to “pose proper questions.”
In Kyiv, Ukrainian Football Federation head Hryhoriy Surkis answered the question in similar fashion. In Russia, authorities have been accused of cracking down on non-profit organizations deemed unfriendly to the government by using pirated Microsoft software as an excuse to seize computer equipment.
Kyiv Post staff writer Mark Rachkevych can be reached at [email protected].
