When Ukraine and Poland made a joint bid to host Euro 2012, their rival candidates did not see an imminent danger. However, the Eastern European nations changed football history when UEFA decided to award them the tournament. Now that Ukraine has gone a long way to addressing many of the concerns about it hosting Euro 2012, Poland is well on the way to matching its neighbour.

Poland, as a member of the European Union – something Ukraine is not – was and is in a much better state than its co-host. The country could, to some degree, afford to relax, and work to fulfil UEFA’s requirements gradually. Ukraine had to rely heavily on its own government and independent investors. It is they who produced huge progress in the former Soviet country, and put them on course.

Poland are working hard to increase the speed of their construction. While Ukraine now has two magnificent stadia in Donetsk and Kharkiv (with Dnipropetrovsk waiting for its chance), Poland are planning to finish their stadiums by 2010-2011. For any outsider looking in the challenges in the Eastern European country are clear: Poland must improve its roads, motorways and airports. The country is not alone however, and the EU has €80 billion worth of financial investment. The money will not just be spent on football matters though, but it will be a substantial, if not decisive, point in Poland’s preparations for 2012.

The country has four stadia and cities that will host half the tournament’s games:

Warsaw – National Stadium

The most expensive construction, not surprisingly for the stadium that will host the opening ceremony. It will seat 60,000, have 1,700 parking spots and should cost €430M. Completion is set for mid-2011, when it will be presented to the public and UEFA officals.

The stadium is expected to be the main feature of a larger recreation centre, which will also include an olympic sized swimming pool, a sports hall with 15,000 seats and many shops and restaurants.

Gdansk – Baltic Arena

The Baltic Arena will be a large stadium for the smaller city of Gdansk. The stadium should cost €210M and be finished later this year.

Gdansk is Poland’s principal port, as well as the capital of the Pomerania region, with a population of about 460,000. The Baltic Arena will hold more than 40,000 people.

Wroclaw – Olympic Stadium

Compared to the Baltic Arena and Warsaw’s showpiece the stadium in Wroclaw will cost less – about €160M – but will still be able to seat around 40,000.

Wroclaw is the chief city of the region of Lower Silesia in south west Poland, situated on the Oder River. Over the centuries the city has been controlled at various times by Poland, Germany, Austria and Prussia. It’s population of 640,000 makes it the fourth largest city in the country.

Poznan – Municipal Stadium

Poznan is producing a stadium for all of Poland to be proud of. Driven by local companies and workers the arena is being built the quickest, in the main as it is only a reconstruction of a ground built in 1980. It’s planned to cost just €45M too, with the opening scheduled for this summer.

Seating 40,000, the ground will also have parking for about 4,000 fans. The city itself is located on the Warta River and is one of the oldest in the whole of Poland with a population of 570,000.

Two further cities were also in the running to host matches at Euro 2012, Chorzow and Cracow, however, they have seemingly been passed over and only a miracle will propel them to host status once again.

On the infrastructure side, money from the EU is helping Poland to build thousands of kilometres of roads. Eight major, and eleven reserve airports also need rebuilding to cater for up to 50 planes every day. Poland’s railway too is being expanded. Everything is on track to be completed by 2011, and the country simply cannot afford any delays with the eyes of Europe and especially UEFA trained on them. For Ukraine to be ready in 2012 and Poland to not is simply unthinkable for the local authorities.

The preliminary schedule for Euro 2012 has also been published (final changes, if any, will be dealt with in May 2010):

31 matches will be played during Euro 2012, with Ukraine hosting 16 matches and Poland 15.

Warsaw: Three group matches including the opening match, quarter-final, and semi-final
Gdansk: Three group matches and a quarter-final
Wroclaw: Three group matches
Poznan: Three group matches
Kyiv: Three group matches, quarter-final, semi-final, and final
Lviv: Three group matches
Kharkiv: Three group matches
Donetsk: Three group matches and a quarter-final

 

 

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