Warsaw/Kiev - Polish and Ukrainian officials were optimistic in the run-up to a key UEFA meeting on preparations for the Euro 2012 football championship, despite worries one or both nations might be sacked as tournament hosts. "There is no fear, there is no reason for it," said Michal Listkiewicz, boss of the Polish Football Federation (PZPN), in interviews prior to a Thursday meeting of the UEFA executive
committee in Bordeaux, France.
Poland and Ukraine in April 2007 were named co-hosts for Euro 2012. Since then work to get ready has gone slowly in both countries, due to organizational confusion, and cash shortages.
The UEFA will give Kiev and Warsaw both "a good grade" in an as-yet unpublished UEFA report evaluating work so far, Listkiewicz predicted.
UEFA chief Michel Platini returned from an inspection tour of the two Eastern European country in July "frightened" at weak Polish preparations, the Polish newspaper Gazeta Wyborcza reported.
The former French footballing great saw if anything an even worse situation in Ukraine, causing Platini to rate Ukraine's hosting effort as of July "the danger colour black...in other words grounds for sacking," Ukraine's Segodnia newspaper reported.
Sports media in Poland and Ukraine have reported that the UEFA leadership was considering one or more replacement hosts, with Italy, Germany, and Spain most frequently mentioned.
"I am not even thinking of the possibility they (UEFA) could sack us (Ukraine)," Viacheslav Koloskov, a UEFA executive committee member, told Sehodnia in a Wednesday interview. "We have made extensive progress...since July."
Security is one of the top worries for the two Slavic nations, both homes to growing football hooliganism often linked with nationalist, and sometimes neo-Nazi groups.
The Polish government shortly before the Bordeaux meeting proposed new laws increasing the possible stadium bans of known hooligans of up to six years, and mandating the registration of convicted fans with local police.
But insufficient or simply non-existent infrastructure, much more than security, is interfering with the sleep of Polish and Ukrainian football officials these days.
The national stadium in Warsaw, planned site for the prestigious tournament's opening game, currently resembles a heap of rubble. The half century-old sports facility will see a start to renovation work only in October.
Kiev, the venue for the final, was if anything in worse straits, with work on Ukraine's largest stadium repeatedly stalled, because of a partially-built business centre next door which UEFA wanted torn down, but a powerful Ukrainian tycoon insisted on completing.
Personal intervention in the dispute by Ukrainian President Victor Yushchenko, backed by veiled threats by Platini that Ukraine faced the axe if the Kiev stadium impasse were not resolved, got wrecking crews moving in September. Work on the stadium is now in progress.
But Ukraine's game venue headaches are far from over, as another game city - Lviv - has yet even to decide on a stadium design, never mind locate funding or tender a construction project.
Currently, only one Ukrainian stadium, in Dnipropetrovsk, is operational and fully in keeping with UEFA standards. The situation is much the same in Poland, where with a single exception all stadiums needed for Euro 2012 must be overhauled, or built from the ground up, and work has yet to be started.
A second Achilles heel in the neighbour states is tourist infrastructure, particularly airports, the road and rail systems, and hotels.
The former Soviet republic Ukraine so far operates scarcely a fifth of the needed hotel beds, and new hotel construction is stalled due to stagnation in the country's real estate market.
Football training camps suitable for European national sides are another weak point, with only two Ukrainian clubs able to offer first-class training facilities, and by most reports none in Poland.
Polish Sports Minister Miroslaw Drzewiecki recently proposed inviting Chinese construction firms, fresh with experience from the 2008 Olympics, into the country to help.
The European Bank for Reconstruction and Developement also has been providing assistance, giving Ukraine low-interest loans to renovate its generally shoddy highways, and offering more credits to improve airports and the Soviet-era rail system.
