UEFA president Michel Platini on Wednesday lauded Poland's preparations for Euro 2012, and said concerns over fellow-host Ukraine's ability to get ready had largely subsided.
"I am a very happy president, because we have wonderful stadiums, and infrastructure which is ready pretty much everywhere," Platini said in the new national stadium in the Polish capital Warsaw, where the European Championships kick off on June 8, 2012.
Platini, who visited Ukraine last month, was this week on his latest inspection tour of Poland's four host cities: Warsaw, plus Wroclaw in the southwest, Poznan in the west, and the Baltic port of Gdansk.
"I can say that, after having seen the four cities, the four stadiums, the four airports and all the roads, that preparations for Euro 2012 are going very, very well," the former France international told reporters.
In 2007, UEFA caught pundits napping by picking Poland and Ukraine over favourites Italy and joint bidders Hungary and Croatia to host the quadrennial, 16-team championships.
It marks UEFA's first serious foray behind the former Iron Curtain. Euro 2008 took place in Austria and Switzerland, and France will host Euro 2016.
The communist era may lie two decades in the past, but Poland -- and to a greater extent Ukraine, which is locked in an economic crisis -- have faced infrastructure challenges beyond anything in western host nations and have been bedevilled by doubters.
"We've had highs and lows, but never in Poland," said Platini -- although a 2008 UEFA readiness report did in fact give the Poles a yellow card and they have had to work to repair their image.
"We've had problems with Ukraine. At one point, we didn't even know if we were going to hold the European Championships in Ukraine. And then we wondered whether it would be in two stadiums or four. But they've done a great job over recent years and we can now say there are no major problems," he said.
Two weeks ago Platini had delivered a similar message in the Ukrainian capital Kiev -- one of the country's four host cities along with Kharkiv and Donetsk and Lviv -- saying he felt "completely reassured" despite "small problems".
Source: AFP
