9 Dec 2008Ukraine and Poland confident about Euro 2012 prospects

Football Leagues/ Association and Governance

Ukrainian deputy prime minister Ivan Vasyunyk confirmed yesterday (December 8th) that both his country and Poland will be ready to stage the European Championships in 2012.

Senior officials from the two countries met to discuss progress after their preparations - which have been dogged by controversy - were heavily criticised by Uefa president Michel Platini earlier this year.

However, with the co-hosts set to present a report to European football's governing body tomorrow, Mr Vasyunyk has reaffirmed his confidence in the strength of the bid.

He said: "We will approach 2009 as a single team and will get all cities ready for Euro 2012 in a responsible fashion.

"Our new structure gives us reason to believe that we will form a unified team to tackle all tasks in 2009 and in staging the tournament."

Meanwhile, Polish sports minister Miroslaw Drzewiecki expressed his belief that "considerable progress" has been made as the countries look to tackle what he described as "critical problems".

Reports emerged last week that Scotland were in preliminary talks about bidding for the 2016 tournament with Wales and possibly Northern Ireland.

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