New FRIENDS of Euro 2012: Gaitana and Zukoski

Friend of EURO Gaitana (left) and Ukrainian tournament director Markiian Lubkivskyi ©LOC EURO 2012

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Gaitana and Zukoski named Friends of EURO

Popular singer Gaitana and Jorge Zukoski, president of the American Chamber of Commerce in Ukraine, have been unveiled as the latest Friends of UEFA EURO 2012.

 

Gaitana, a popular Ukrainian singer and composer, and Jorge Zukoski, president of the American Chamber of Commerce in Ukraine, have been named as the co-host country's latest Friends of UEFA EURO 2012.
Ukrainian tournament director Markiian Lubkivskyi unveiled the duo on Saturday 2 July at the annual picnic organised by the Chamber of Commerce to mark United States' Independence Day.
"I'm really grateful to the Ukrainian local organising committee [LOC] for inviting me to join the exclusive group of EURO 2012 friends," said Gaitana. "Friends, you will never be sad with me," she promised after receiving her certificate of enrolment.
Zukoski, a well-regarded speaker at investment forums focusing on Ukraine, was equally delighted and promised to help promote Ukraine and UEFA EURO 2012 to the world.
Up to 100 people in Ukraine will be officially named as Friends of EURO, half of them public figures selected by the LOC, with the remaining spots already filled by the general public via competitions for people of all ages.

Have fun!

Ukrainna :)

UEFA Executive Committee meeting

Hey everyone!

 The UEFA Executive Committee today completed its two-day meeting and issued the following statement with regards to FIFA: "The Executive Committee takes good note of the will of FIFA to take concrete and efficient measures with regards to good governance, expects to see results within the next three months and is following the situation closely."
The Executive Committee also welcomed three new members; Sergey Fursenko, Peter Gilliéron, and Borislav Mihaylov, as well as the new European member of the FIFA Executive Committee, Jim Boyce. Karen Espelund, the chair of the UEFA Women's Football Committee, was made a member by invitation to the UEFA Executive Committee.
The Executive Committee then approved the proposed list of appointments to the UEFA committees for the period 2011-2013 and the organs for the administration for justice from 2011-2015. The full lists of all members will be published on UEFA.com once the new committees are effective as of 1 July 2011. In addition, the 2011 edition of the Disciplinary Regulations were approved.
UEFA general secretary Gianni Infantino said after the meeting that the main amendments to the 2011 Disciplinary Regulations, among other things, concern provisions on match-fixing. "We are strengthening our rules with regard to the whole cancer of match-fixing, manipulation and corruption," he said, "by foreseeing measures giving the possibility to the disciplinary bodies and inspectors to cooperate much more closely with the public authorities. We are cooperat ing already, but we did not have the legal base – we will now have it much more clearly."
For UEFA EURO 2012 the Executive Committee approved the date and location for the play-off draw that will take place on Thursday 13 October in Krakow, Poland; the exact timing and location will be announced in due course. The procedure for the final draw was also approved, according to the competition regulations, and will take place on Friday 2 December at 19.00 local time (18.00CET) at the National Palace of Arts 'Ukraine' in Kyiv.
"I was myself in Poland and Ukraine last week," Mr Infantino said with regard to preparations for the final round, "and there is light at the end of the tunnel – we see that [work] is progressing. There is still a lot to do, but we are very positive. Everything will be ready well in time, and you can see the change in enthusiasm in the two countries – everyone is getting very much into it now that we are approaching the EURO. "
With regards to the financial distribution to the participating teams at the UEFA EURO 2012 final tournament the fixed participation contribution per team will amount to €8m. Further, a performance bonus at the group stage of €0.5m per draw and €1m per win was fixed, as well as a bonus of €1m to the third-placed team in the group. The quarter-finalists will each receive €2m, the semi-finalists €3m, the runners-up €4.5m and the winners of UEFA EURO 2012 €7.5m. Thus the total amount available for distribution is €196m (up from €184m for UEFA EURO 2008).
The dates for the 2013 UEFA European Under-21 Championship in Israel were revised from 15-29 June to 5-18 June, in order to avoid a clash with the FIFA Confederations Cup in Brazil, now confirmed as taking place from 15-30 June of that year.
The Executive Committee approved a proposal to reward international players who had reached 100 or more caps for their national team with a special mark of recognition – a commemorative cap and medal to be presented to those players who have reached this milestone in their own national stadium.
The UEFA Executive Committee's next meeting will be on 22-23 September in Limassol, Cyprus.

Regards,
Ukrinna

Logo for Euro 2012 at Kyiv's Olympic Stadium Unveiled

The main sports arena in Ukraine, which will host the finals of the Euro 2012 soccer tournament, now has a logo.
Soccer fans could enter a contest to have their logo chosen to represent the tourney. The winner is designer and soccer fan Sergey Melnik, who lives in Dubai. The logo is supposed to represent the inside of the stadium.
Sergey’s brother traveled to Kyiv to accept the $1,200 prize on his brother’s behalf.
[Alexander Melnik, Winner’s Brother]: “This is a membrane that is stretched over the stadium, and the viewer will see something like this angle.”
Over 260 works from 150 people were entered. Ukrainians chose the top six. And from April 21st to the 27th, a jury met to decide on a winner.
But even though the prize has been awarded, some members of the jury say that the logo still needs more work.
[Valery Sushkevich, President, Paralympic Committee of Ukraine]: “It lacks many aspects, in particular – the national identity. I would add colors of the flag to this graphic design.”
The 14th Euro 2012 tournament will take place in Poland and Ukraine in June and July of 2012. The final match will be played in Kyiv on July 1st.

EURO 2012 Granted Money

General Prosecutor of Ukraine has checked on the legal use of granted money for UEFA EURO 2012 preparation in Ukraine. As expected the results have appeared to be very interesting and rather disappointing. Therefore, some functionaries have appropriated illegally lots of money. Nevertheless, nobody believed in another scenario that preparation of Ukraine will pass without use of “intricate national peculiarities of Ukrainian character”.
On this ground Lviv has distinguished dramatically. There is an action in Trial court about invalidation of contract between Lviv Communal Enterprise “Agency for Lviv stadium construction”, LLC (limited liability company) “Engineer-constructor company “Azovintex” and German enterprise “arenaCom GmbH”. The problem is the latter has received 1.37 million euro instead 22 thousand of real value, according to check performed by Lviv controlling and auditing service.
Also Lviv Procurator Office carries out several audits on legal use of granted 18 million euro destined for government state-owned enterprise “Agency for EURO 2012 facilities construction in Lviv”.
The same situation with illegal appropriation of granted money for EURO 2012 preparation is in Kyiv. Particularly, Pechersky Raion Prosecutor Office has established that 22 million euro has been appropriated during Olympic stadium seats dismantling by director of a government state-owned enterprise. The action is already brought against negligent and dishonest chief.
In addition, Kyiv Prosecutor Office audits on legality of the purchase goods and services and use of granted money by the Communal Enterprises “Kyiv Metropolitan Railway” and “International Airport “Boryspil”.
Moreover, Dnipropetrovsk Oblast Prosecutor Office checks on lawfulness 11 tenders for purchasing goods and services to the amount of 62.000 euro, granted for “Dnipropetrovsk Oblavtodor” (enterprise that occupies with construction and upkeep of oblast roads).
Week ago, The Cabinet of Minister of Ukraine revised value of preparation and operation of EURO 2012 in Ukraine and diminished it by 100 million euro or is 1 % down. Now total expenses are up to 10 billions euro.

Ukrainian passport control

1 million football fans estimated to visit Ukraine during 2012 UEFA European Football Championship. So the passport control procedure will be considerably hastened for EURO guests in order to make their staying comfortable from the very first minute i.e. from the arrival. Therefore RFID-card terminals (tags with identification data of a passenger) will be installed at the four host cities airports, Kyiv, Donetsk, Lviv and Kharkov, and additionally at the Dnipropetrovsk IA and Odesa IA.
There already are these magnetic stripe cards in Kiev and Kharkiv, other cities will be equipped with by the end of this year. Representatives of State Border Guard Service of Ukraine say that it is very important step for Ukraine in airport preparation for EURO 2012.
Now the most important thing is to extend the sales network of RFID-cards and to start advertising campaigns that will promote the advantages of these new cards during border crossing. Such promo videos will be broadcast at the airports.
Nowadays more than 25.000 people provided themselves with RFID-cards that permit to go through passport control more rapidly and comfortably.
However, there are several construction and reconstructions of all airports that will receive EURO 2012 guests. Therefore new equipment installation and new jobsite creation are on in the Lviv airport. Also runway is extending and it will permit to land all types of airplanes. New terminal will have 900 passengers per hour capacity but during EURO 2012 it will be able to service some 1900 passengers. According to the Project Director the new Lviv Terminal will be ready by the end of December.
The biggest airport of Ukraine - Boryspil International Airport, now have a new Terminal “D” under construction. It will be finished by the end of this year. As the Donetsk new airport will. Now it is in homestretch and only some finishing works are left. New runway is still under-construction in Kharkiv IA.
According to Boris Kolesnikov, Minister of Infrastructure of Ukraine all new airport terminals for EURO 2012 will be done in time.

A call for Friends of UEFA EURO 2012

Ukrainian international right-back Artem Fedetskiy urged citizens of Lviv to play their part next summer after being unveiled as the latest Friend of UEFA EURO 2012 in his adopted city.

Artem Fedetskiy is made the latest Friend of UEFA EURO 2012 ©Yevhen Kraws

Ukrainian international right-back Artem Fedetskiy urged citizens of Lviv to play their part next summer after being unveiled as the latest Friend of UEFA EURO 2012 in his adopted city.

Ukrainian international Artem Fedetskiy urged citizens of Lviv to play their part next summer after being unveiled as the latest Friend of UEFA EURO 2012 in his adopted city.
FC Karpaty Lviv defender Fedetskiy was the star attraction in Tuesday's volunteer programme launch at Lviv city hall, and immediately embarked on a recruitment drive. "It's an honour to become a volunteer programme ambassador," said the 26-year-old former FC Shakhtar Donetsk right-back.
"I believe Lviv will provide a warm welcome for all everyone at the tournament, players and guests. The city can experience a major boost in tourism due to the hospitality of our volunteers so I'd like to invite everyone to put themselves forward."
Volunteers will support UEFA staff in 20 different areas of operation, working at a variety of official UEFA EURO 2012 sites including stadiums, airports and hotels. Candidates will be able to apply via UEFA.com from 14 June.

Friends of EURO
Up to 100 people in Ukraine will be officially named as Friends of UEFA EURO 2012 – half of them public figures selected by the LOC, with the remaining spots open to the general public via competitions for people of all ages. Tournament co-hosts Poland will also nominate 100 Friends of EURO.

Prices are rising up

We are not alone asking question about constant rising up in construction prices for 2012 European Football Champion facilities. Perhaps our demands and requests were finally heard and that’s why National Agency on Holding and Preparation of Euro 2012 decided to reveal the causes of such phenomenon.
The prime reason of ongoing situation is improvident former-Government that didn’t care much about EURO 2012 and the whole country therefore projects were prepared improperly.
It was announce by Oleg Lycyk, Chief of Infrastructure Development Department of the National Agency on Holding and Preparation of final part of Euro 2012 in Ukraine and realization of infrastructural projects. Rather scary position, isn’t it. It might be a reason for such position existence – frighten imprudent workers that illegally rise up construction cost constantly. He also mentioned that local authorities elaborated these projects in hurry so stadiums and airports were off UEFA’s standards.
But arrival of “intelligent and experienced” people who understand the essence matter changed the situation considerably. Due to the unexpected help of such “experienced people” granted money started to fly away in mysterious direction. Thanks to them construction cost of the EURO 2012 facilities multiplied by several times.
The numbers speak for themselves, Olympic stadium in Kiev, the main arena of EURO 2012 has risen in price at least three times. Firstly construction cost made up 136 millions of euro. Nevertheless, “intelligent and experienced” people’s advent brought another rising in price up to 190 millions of euro. However, neither April nor June of 2011 delivered us good news and price accounted for EUR 272 millions and EUR 409 millions respectively. Moreover, reconstruction of Troitskaya square requires EUR 9 millions and 1.5 kilometers hospitality zone of Olympic stadium – EUR 36 millions.
But instead deadline approaching we see it moving far-far away. There were several drop-dead date in June of 2011 with 190 millions cost, The Independence Day already having EUR272 millions construction cost. Now we got intermediate apogee – the late autumn and EUR 409 millions reconstruction price.
Nevertheless, the stadium will be open exactly in time for EURO 2012. The main point is safety of Michel Platini’s new suit. Hopefully, it will not be smeared with fresh paint or covered with repair dust.
The estimated cost of Donets airport was risen by Ukrainians authorities up to EUR81 million at the end of March. The new reconstruction cost is EUR196 millions and it doesn’t count other infrastructure that has to be build. Exactly one month later Government decided to rise up expenses for building Lviv Airport terminal by 2.24 times. Today the price of reconstruction accounts for EUR200 millions. The reason for such a mysterious rising was lack of required equipments in previously approved project.
However, Oleg Lysyk delivered good news and promised that there won’t be any correction in estimated cost of EURO 2012 facilities.