There’s an excited buzz in the air over Ukraine and it will crescendo to a feverish pitch when June 2012 rolls in. This is when perhaps the biggest and most awaited event in the history of European sports will be happening – and Ukraine is proudly one of the host countries that have won the bid for the 2012 UEFA European Football Championship, or the Euro 2012.
The Euro 2012 is reported to be the last European Championship finals where only 16 nations will be participating. The football matches will be running from June 8 to July 1, 2012. This will be the first time that two Eastern European countries will be hosting a major international sporting event since the Moscow Olympics 1980. Ukraine and Poland bested five other countries in the five-bid, seven-country selection done on April 18, 2007 in Cardiff, Wales by the members of the UEFA Executive Committee. The joint bid was the third successful one for the Euro 2012, with Belgium/Netherlands in 2000 and Austria/Switzerland in 2008. The other countries were Croatia/Hungary (joint bid), Greece, Italy and Turkey.
Both popular and world renowned tourist destinations, Poland and Ukraine will see their major cities hosting the Euro 2012. The opening matches will be in Poland and the four host cities are Gdansk, Poznan, Warsaw and Wroclaw. For Ukraine, there will be massive action seen in four cities: Lviv, Kharkiv, Donetsk and Kyiv.
In Lviv, construction for the football stadium has begun on November 2008 and is expected to be completed by July 2011. The 85M Euro structure is projected to hold an estimated all-seated capacity of 33,500. It is located in the southern part of the city. The new stadium in Lviv will be the venue for a number of the Group B matches tentatively slated for June 9 to 17, 2012.
The Oblast Sports Complex in Kharkiv will be sharing the Group B matches with Lviv. Commonly called the “Metalist Stadium”, it was built in 1925 and is the home of FC Metalist Kharkiv. It has a seating capacity of 38,633 and is currently undergoing renovations and improvement for the major event in 2012 to expand its capacity to 41,411.
Meanwhile, Donbass has the relatively-new Donbass Arena located in the Lenin Comsomol park. The $400M sports stadium hosts the FC Shakhtar Donetsk matches and has an estimated seating capacity of 51,500. It will be hosting the Group D quarter-final and one semi-final game, together with Kyiv.
Finally there’s the Olimpiysky National Sports Complex in Kyiv which will be the venue of the final game on July 1, 2012. Located on the central Cherepanov Hill in Pechersk Raion, the UEFA Elite Stadium is the national sports stadium of Ukraine and is one of the world’s largest. It is the official home ground of the Ukraine national football team and has been the venue of choice for international football games and the high-profile home games of the FC Dynamo Kyiv. It has a seating capacity of 69,000. It is now undergoing major renovation in preparation for the Euro 2012 games.
In Poland, the stadiums that will see action are: the 56-000 seater National Stadium in Warsaw; the Stadion Miejski located on Bulgarska Street in Poznan; the PGE Arena (which is still being constructed) in Gdansk; and the Municipal Stadium (also currently being constructed and is expected to be completed by June 2011) in Wroclaw.
As the host cities are feverishly gearing up for the main event in 2012, significant construction work is being done to improve the roads, transportation and tourist facilities for the hundreds of thousands who will troop to watch the games. Hotels and restaurants are also mushrooming all over the place as the event is expected to bring in significant tourism revenues. When the tournament’s logo, visual identity, slogan and mascots were unveiled on December 14, 2009, all the eight cities took part in a two-day celebration with concerts, fireworks and landmark buildings being illuminated. The mascots’ names are Slavek and Slavko. The slogan that will be used will be “Creating History Together,” encapsulating the spirit of Poland and Ukraine working together. The visual identity takes its inspiration from Wycinanki, a Polish art form of papercutting. This traditional art form is also practiced in rural areas in Ukraine.
