Government boasts that one million foreign football fans would come to Ukraine for Euro 2012 seem to be well wide of the mark – after only 37, 000 entered the country in the first week of the championship.
Local media in Donetsk reported that the France-England game on June 11, which is usually a hot ticket for fans, will be attended by only 2,800 English fans and 550 from France.
The State Border Guard Service said 37,000 foreign fans had entered the country since June 5. Euro 2012 kicked off in Poland on June 8 and Ukraine on June 9.
This must have been a major disappointment for the government, which expected a much bigger turn out for the championship. Borys Kolesnikov, the infrastructure minister who is overseeing Euro 2012 preparations in Ukraine, said on May 25 that he expected “at least one million fans.”
Oleksandr Lukyancheko, Donetsk’s mayor, told British television in Donetsk on June 11 that the media was responsible for scaring fans away with reports that were “not objective and fair” about the country in general and Donetsk in particular.
Ukraine found itself amid PR disaster ahead of the Euro 2012 when foreign media, especially British tabloids, wrote extensively about prostitutes, AIDS, racism, violence, corruption and other problems in Ukraine.
A documentary by BBC’s Panorama program depicted racism, anti-Semitism and violence by Ukrainian football fans. In the documentary former England defender Sol Campbell warned fans not to travel to the tournament next month, as they might “come back home in coffins.”
Ukraine’s Euro 2012 director Markian Lubkivsky said the remarks were “insolent.” Ukrainian authorities have also criticized the coverage and denied the scale of the problem.
Fans who were not scared by the media reports and did come appear to be having great time in Ukraine. Foreigners who spoke with the Kyiv Post and other media have said their first impressions of Ukraine are mostly positive and say they are surprised to find most of what they have read about the country wrong.
Kyiv Post staff writer Svitlana Tuchynska can be reached at [email protected]
