Monday, October 4, 2010

Uefa confirms Euro 2012 schedule

Ian Dennis
5 live senior football reporter

Construction workers work at a site of a new football stadium which is being built for Euro 2012 in Lviv, Poland
Construction continues at a site of a new football stadium in Lviv

Any lingering fears over the suitability of Poland and Ukraine as co-hosts for the 2012 European Championship have finally been expelled.

Preparations in both countries have not been without problems but on Monday in Belarus, Uefa's executive committee announced the match schedule.

It had already been confirmed that all eight venues, four in Poland and four in Ukraine, would host matches but now Uefa has confirmed the calendar of where the host countries will play their group games and the venues for the knock-out stages.

In Poland, Wroclaw and Poznan will host three group stage matches, while Gdansk will host three group stage matches and a quarter-final. Warsaw will stage three group stage matches, including the opening Group A game featuring Poland, a quarter-final and a semi-final.

Poland will play their second group match in Warsaw, and their third in Wroclaw.

In Ukraine, Kharkiv and Lviv will host three group stage matches. Donetsk will host three group stage matches, a quarter-final and a semi-final. Kiev will play host to three group stage matches, a quarter-final and the final.

Ukraine will play their opening Group D match in Kiev and the other two group matches in Donetsk.

Earlier this year Uefa president Michel Platini had expressed his concerns over whether Ukraine would be ready on time.

Construction work on the Lviv stadium had stopped while renovation work on Kiev's Olympic stadium was behind schedule. Ukraine was given a two-month deadline to get their act together while in August, an audit report found that nearly half of Poland's infrastructure preparations were behind schedule.

Yet in September, after a meeting of the Euro 2012 Steering group, Uefa noted with "satisfaction" the progress made in both countries while expressing confidence that everything will be ready on time.

In Ukraine, stadiums in Donetsk and Kharkiv are complete and it is expected that Kiev's and Lviv's stadiums will be completed in June 2011.

In Poland, the Poznan stadium was inaugurated last month, while the Gdansk stadium will be ready in spring 2011. The stadiums in Wroclaw and Warsaw are expected to be finished by June 2011.

The 2012 European championship takes place from 8 June to 1 July.

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