President Anxious Over Euro 2012

Ukraine's President Viktor Yushchenko has chided his government over its allegedly slack preparations for the Euro 2012 Soccer Cup.

The President stated to the National Security and Defense Council that the government was simply not taking the whole project seriously enough, and that it 'had yet to show the public how seriously they view this project'.

Yushchenko outlined the vast costs involved, and claimed that Ukraine's host cities - Dnipropetrovsk, Donetsk, Kiev and Lviv - had been sluggish in implementing the initial blueprint for action. He also drew attention to the negative press that Ukraine had garnered in recent weeks owing to implied organisational problems.

Ukraine won a joint bid with Poland to host the Cup, and the decision was announced in April. The Polish/Ukrainian bid was considered the dark horse of the three finalists, which included Italy and a further joint bid from Hungary and Croatia.

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Martin Smith
United Kingdom

I'm guessing that in the end the Ukraine will host very few of the matches, as they are not well organised. They'll probably get some of the showcase events like a semi and the final, but lots of the group matches and earlier rounds will be held in Poland (which seems to be a bit more organised at this stage)

Reply Mar 13th, 2008