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Lviv Mayor Andriy Sadoviy (left, front) might be a big supporter of his city's football team FC Karpaty, but the more lucrative UEFA EURO 2012 may slip from his city's grasp. Ukrinform Lviv’s preparations for the EURO 2012 football championship have come under fire lately because of large-scale infrastructural inadequacies.

who warned the city is in danger of losing its status as host city in favor of Odesa, citing large-scale infrastructural inadequacies.

“We’re talking about the lack of air terminals with high passenger transfer capacity, the lack of stadiums, inadequate hotel infrastructure for guests, fans, and players, as well as transportation infrastructure,” said Matteo Hambutto, a Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) commission member.

He named the Black Sea port town, currently a EURO 2012 reserve city, as Lviv’s replacement if the western Ukrainian city does not step up preparation efforts.

“Right now, Odesa has the best chance to be awarded the status of a main Euro-2012 city, since some of the cities may not make it to the final decision,” Hambutto said after visiting the port city with a UEFA delegation.

The last few months have seen the EURO 2012 spotlight in Ukraine shift from Kyiv to Lviv, which has encountered a series of problems in selecting a company to design, finance, and build a football stadium for the championship.

Austrian construction company Alpine Bau GmbH was awarded the Lviv stadium tender on Feb. 6, but the result is being contested by another company which submitted a proposal to the tender committee, the international consortium Implenia–Axon/Danapro.

Danapro, the Implenia consortium representative in Ukraine, submitted an official complaint on Feb. 12 to the Lviv Region Prosecutor’s Office to investigate the tender committee’s decision.

“The consortium Implenia–Axon/Danapro was the only company that put forth a proposal which satisfied the criteria: project works, investment and construction,” said Rostyslav Shtyn, Danapro general director.

“Alpine Bau is a construction company, not an investment company. And so we don’t understand how the tender process played out,” Shtyn said, implying that Alpine Bau won the tender process without satisfying the established specifications.

To add to the fiasco, Lviv city officials have designated a plot of land for stadium construction which does not belong to the municipality, but rather is in private hands, which could result in problems similar to that of the Olympic Stadium in Kyiv.

The capital city, meanwhile, took a step in the right direction last week, hiring Roland Berger Strategy Consultants, a Munich-based consultancy, to help prepare for EURO 2012.

“In all of Ukraine, the organizers didn’t get enough people who knew foreign languages, who knew Western European financers, which understand what UEFA wants to have,” said Mykhailo Hamaliy, a Ukrainian expert and former Federation Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) representative in Ukraine during the 2006 World Cup.

“And you need not only Roland Berger, you need a lot of companies and support.”

Of the EURO 2012 cities, Kyiv and Lviv are far behind schedule in constructing stadiums.
Only Donetsk and Dnipropetrovsk are on schedule to build world-class stadiums. In both cities, construction began before Ukraine won the joint bid with Poland, and both stadiums are being financed by local football club owners.