Ukraine Regional Officials Trade Accusations On Stalled Stadium

KIEV, Ukraine -- The top two officials in a Ukrainian province listed to hold games at the Euro 2012 football championships on Friday blamed each other for a stalled stadium construction project.

Cities in Poland and Ukraine which may host Euro 2012.
Mykola Kmit, head of Ukraine's western Lviv province, said city officials had "failed utterly" even to begin the process of building a new football stadium needed for the competition.

Ukraine and Poland are co-hosts for Euro 2012. Ukraine is responsible for four game venues for the tournament, including a stadium to be built from the ground up in Lviv.

The Lviv city government has yet to appoint a general contractor for the stadium, and has not even decided where the structure would be built, Kmit charged, according to an Interfax news agency report.

UEFA president Michel Platini said during a recent visit to Ukraine that any planned host city stood to be sacked as a game venue, if its preparations for Euro failed to meet UEFA standards.

Andry Sadovy, Lviv city mayor, said in a statement to media that the accusations were "without grounds," and claimed his government was well along in negotiations so work on the new stadium could begin.

"In this week alone we have held talks with three serious companies able to build the stadium quickly," Sadovy said. "We expect an agreement soon."

A contract between the Lviv city government and the Austrian construction firm Alpine fell apart in early October after a dispute over construction costs.

The agreed-upon cost of the venue - 125 million dollars - was insufficient given rising energy and labour prices, and the global financial meltdown, according to an Alpine statement.

German Hochtief and Ukrainian Azointeks were among the possible replacement general contractors for the project, Sadovy said. He gave no precise deadline for when a stadium blueprint might be approved, or when a general contractor would be actually hired.

Two Ukrainian cities, Kkarkiv and Odessa, are waiting in the wings as a possible replacement venue should Lviv ultimately fail to build a modern stadium in time for Euro 2012.

A sacking of Lviv as a Euro 2012 game site would carry political repercussions in Kiev, as all the other Ukrainian host cities, including the two replacements, are located in the wealthier Russian-speaking half of the former Soviet republic.

Lviv is the centre of the poorer Ukrainian-speaking half of Ukraine.

Platini said in a statement that UEFA would readily shift the lion's share of the games either to Poland or Ukraine, if the other country proved unable to prepare for the football championship properly.

Poland and Ukraine currently are slated to hold games in eight cities, four in either country.

Source: DPA