The Wednesday decision that the European football governing body, UEFA, made in relation to the cities supposed to host the UEFA EURO 2012 championship is fair and could have been much worse for Ukraine, said Hryhoriy Surkis, the president of the Football Federation of Ukraine (FFU).
“I view the decision that was made at the Executive Committee session yesterday as the right and fair one. It could have been much worse for Ukraine and could have dashed the hopes to host this tournament on a parity basis” with Poland, Surkis said at a press conference in Kyiv on Thursday.
It was said at the UEFA Executive Committee session that in fact six Polish cities were virtually prepared to host the tournament and that government guarantees were provided for this, Surkis said. The situation in Ukraine looks much worse, he said.
Ukraine’s preparations for UEFA EURO 2012 are being affected by various circumstances, among them the global economic crisis and the political situation in the country, he said.
The UEFA Executive Committee resolved at a session in Bucharest on Wednesday to confirm four Polish cities, i.e. Warsaw, Wroclaw, Poznan, and Gdansk, as the venues of UEFA EURO 2012 matches.
It also confirmed Kyiv as a venue to host group matches, quarter-final match(es) and a semi-final.
At the same time, it said the final match will be held in Kyiv “only if specific conditions with regard to the stadium, airport infrastructure, regional transport and accommodation are met by 30 November 2009.”
Three other Ukrainian cities – Donetsk, Lviv, and Kharkiv – were not confirmed as host cities and will be granted this right only if they meet the aforementioned conditions by October 30, 2009 as the last deadline.
It was also decided that Dnipropetrovsk and Odesa will not host UEFA EURO 2012 matches.
