At the end of January UEFA President Michel Platini warned Ukraine that the following four to six months would be crucial “in order to avoid any critical slippage in sports and public infrastructure projects and to protect the global credibility of the Euro project itself.” The timeframe given by Platini is slowly passing by but the progress of Ukraine’s Euro 2012 preparation has been localised at best. Donetsk is one such spot and claims to be the only host city in Ukraine which is demonstrating results not only on paper but in reality. After years of negative associations with rigged elections and corrupt government, Donetsk is leading the Euro 2012 charge and is doing much to raise confidence in the ability of the country to meet the challenge of hosting the tournament.
Shooting for 2009
Donetsk is having to prepare for Euro 2012 with more urgency than the Ukrainian other host venues because it will be hosting a major international sporting event next year. Donetsk and Mariupol will together play host to the UEFA Under-19 European Championships in 2009 and youth teams from around Europe will descend upon the region to compete for the continent’s top junior football honour. Regional officials have stated that UEFA inspectors positively assessed the preparatory works in Donetsk for Euro 2012 during a recent inspection visit. In the middle of April the head of the Donetsk Oblast Council, Anatoliy Blyznyuk, confirmed to reporters: “Independent international experts think that Donetsk is the most well-prepared Ukrainian city.”
However, Blyznyuk acknowledges the fact that there remains much about the city’s preparations which the UEFA committee monitoring preparations are far from happy with. Thorny issues include the number of hotels in Donetsk, the absence of easily navigable connections between different forms of public transport, the continued reliance on outdated medical facilities and the region’s under-developed telecommunications systems.
Euro 2012: the eastern outpost
Following the relatively glowing appraisal received from UEFA inspectors, the team behind Donetsk’s Euro 2012 preparations have reason to hope for further praise from the European football bosses. According to Mr. Blyznyuk, work at the stadium, airport and overland public transport were positively received by the international experts during the April visit, in contrast to the concerns they voiced about the level of preparations in other designated host cities.
Donetsk is planning to bring its football stadium into accordance with all UEFA requirements this year. The new stadium, owned by Shakhtar Donetsk Football Club and its president Rinat Akhmetov, who is Ukraine’s richest man, is being constructed by the Turkish company ENKA. It is scheduled to cost a total of USD 250 million and will hold more than 50,000 spectators when completed. Construction work is expected to be finished in October. This will be the second biggest stadium in the country after Kyiv’s Olympic Stadium, which seats 85,000.
Football fan Akhmetov is particularly committed to creating a world-beating facility for Donetsk and has repeatedly commented that the construction company behind the new stadium have promised him that when completed the venue will be “one the best stadiums in Europe.” The head of the Donetsk Oblast State Administration, Volodymyr Lohvynenko, confirmed that the stadium will be finished this year and that currently, construction works are continuing in what he termed “a stable but intensive regime.”
Besides the nearly finished new stadium, Donetsk is also reconstructing the city’s existing Olympic sport complex. The works are in the final stages now. This stadium will be a reserve site for both Euro 2009 and Euro 2012. In all, there are 14 locations in the city where tournament matches and training sessions will be held.
Achilles heel of host cities
Despite these positive indications, the president of the Football Federation of Ukraine, Hryhoriy Surkis, said in an April 22 progress report that the recent inspection of Ukraine’s sports complexes by UEFA showed that no stadium project currently meets UEFA’s Euro 2012 requirements.
In common with Ukraine’s three other host cities Donetsk suffers from a lack of comfortable hotels and accommodation that meets European standards. According to Mr. Surkis, the UEFA inspectors singled out Donetsk among the country’s host cities, stating that current accommodation conditions do not even meet the association’s application-period requirements. To rectify the situation, the Donetsk City Council has approved the use of 15 land plots for the construction of two-star and three-star hotels, the building of a new five-star hotel under the aegis of the existing Donbass Palace and four-star hotels under the local Victoria and Central hoteliers by 2012. In total these new hotels will be able to accommodate 1,300 guests.
In addition to these new hotels Donetsk oblast authorities also intend to reconstruct 22 student hostels in Donetsk, Mariupol and Makiyivka which will lodge about 9,000 fans during the championships. The Donetsk City Council also plans to create a new residential micro district called Troyanda (Rose) with 7,300 further temporary accommodation places.
Addressing infrastructure worries
Much has to be done with the city transport network and the connections with other regions, though Blyznyuk states that Donetsk airport, urban and city transport infrastructure all received positive commentary from the UEFA assessors. The expansion and modernisation of Donetsk International Airport has long been identified as one of the key projects in the agreement on regional development between the government and the Donetsk Oblast Council. Donetsk is currently the only airport with the same technical characteristics as Boryspil International Airport near Kyiv. In May Mr. Lohvynenko defended the pace of work at the airport by reminding everyone that the Donetsk Oblast administration had started to develop the airport long before Ukraine won the right to host Euro 2012. Nevertheless, Donetsk, which is expected to accept up to 31,000 people per day during the championships, is still in dire need of further modernisation. According to the strategy in place to prepare the city for Euro 2009 and Euro 2012, the airport will receive a new runway and a new terminal in the next year. The authorities are also planning to re-equip the airport’s facilities and totally overhaul the building infrastructure. The project has already secured financing for the building of a new airport complex, a project which is expected to require about USD 76 million in investment.
Metro and highway promises
According to current forecasts around 50,000 guests will come to the city by train. The local railway station is unprepared for such volumes and so the station will also be witnessing major infrastructure works in the coming months to prepare it for the expected wave of football fans, many of whom will arrive in large and rowdy groups having travelled by train with fellow fans and engaging in alcohol-fuelled revelry. Further improvements call for a new highway linking the stadium to the city, new bus stations and a finish to the much-hyped but frequently stalled Donetsk metro system.
Despite the slow progress, confidence remains high that Donetsk’s Euro 2012 preparations are on track. At the end of April, while waiting for President Viktor Yushchenko to inspect construction works at his stadium, Rinat Akhmetov assured journalists that the city is ready for the UEFA U-19 Championship and the whole country will be ready for Euro 2012. “I think everything will be okay. When we first received the chance to host the championships we didn’t have experience and faced a lot of problems which had to be solved literally yesterday. But now I am confident that the Euro 2012 locomotive will move forward at a good speed and in the right direction.”
