UEFA Threatens Ukraine, Poland To Cancel EURO

Ukraine and Poland were warned to drastically speed up preparations for EURO 2012 in the next 6 months.

The main topic at the end of the two-day UEFA executive board meeting was the organisation of EURO 2012 in Ukraine and Poland. UEFA maintains its position that Euro must be held in the east, but also admits the situation is not developing at the pace they had expected.

- I have a feeling the next 4 to 6 months will be crucial to avoid any unexpected problems related to the infrastructure and the stadiums. Both governments must be mobilised and realise the importance of this project – said UEFA president Michel Platini.

UEFA has made a plan which should get things back on the right track, but when asked why Ukraine and Poland are not capable of organising the competition themselves, they failed to provide a precise answer.

- We believe these two countries will be mobilised. The situation has occurred due to political problems. We have faith in them and have not considered alternative options – said UEFA secretary general David Taylor.

The second significant topic was change of the European Championship format from 16 to 20 or 24 teams.

- Instructed by the congress, we have conducted a research which will be presented tomorrow at the congress. We will know more about the matter tomorrow, but our goal is for as many teams as possible to take part because this is how we promote football -.

UEFA has confirmed that one match-rigging case was being considered by their disciplinary commission, while only one case has been fully processed in the past four years.

- We co-operate with the police, Europol and betting offices and there are various warning systems. This is a great problem, but we are dealing with it. It should also be pointed out that we are not a police institution - .

The visit of UEFA heads will end tomorrow with the congress.