You're reading: Kolesnikov: Lviv could not fund stadium construction for Euro 2012

Ukrainian Vice Premier and Infrastructure Minister Borys Kolesnikov has said that the construction of the Lviv-Arena stadium for hosting the Euro 2012 European Football Championship matches was completely funded by the national budget.

"The national budget funded it 100%. How could Lviv take the money for funding from its subsidized budget? This was a clear venture. They promised to issue bonds to ensure funding, but it seems to me they never issued them," he said in an interview with the Segodnya newspaper.

"But this was not their main mistake, we found the money. The main mistake was [the decision] to build the stadium so far from the city – we had to construct kilometres of roads! Now we could build a city around the stadium, because we already have roads there," the vice premier said.

Kolesnikov said the construction of the stadium in Lviv was less problematic than the modernization of the Olympiysky National Sports Complex in Kyiv.

"In Lviv we constructed a new stadium, and not modernized an old one, and of course we faced fewer problems. There [at the Olympiysky] we had problems not with the design or the construction, but with components. We faced problems with deliveries of equipment, and not with basic things," he said.

"When they compare stadiums and say that, for example, the stadium in Warsaw is more expensive, but they constructed a new stadium, and didn’t modernize an old one, I’d like to ask: what are you talking about? A radical modernization always costs more and takes more time! In the Olympiysky project we had to restore concrete made in 1968 – could a normal person plan such a thing? Now judge for yourself – [Which is easier: make] concrete [for the stadium] as in Lviv, or restore old [concrete]? I think the answer is obvious," the minister said.

When asked whether he is satisfied by the work, Kolesnikov said: "I’ve said earlier that will not be satisfied earlier than July 2, 2012.

The European championship will finish and we’ll be able to rest."

On Oct. 29 the last Ukrainian stadium that will host Euro 2012 was opened in Lviv.

Its construction started in 2008, the stadium seats 34,915 people. The total cost of the project is Hr 2.287 million.

It is planned to hold the first match between the national teams of Ukraine and Austria at Lviv-Arena on Nov. 15.

Euro 2012 will take place in Ukraine and Poland on June 8 through July 1, 2012.