UEFA gives Ukraine green light
The new 2012 Euro Championships logo
Photo: UEFA.com
After announcing earlier this week that Ukrainian cities shall be cohosting EURO 2012 Football Championships after doubts over securing financing, UEFA president Michel Platini unveiled the official logo for the championships in Kiev today.
The giant version of the controversial design - incorporating elements of both Polish and Ukrainian folklore – was unwrapped at a ceremony in Kiev's Mykhailivska Square this morning at a ceremony attended by President of the Polish Football Association Grzegorz Lato and his Ukrainian counterpart Grigoriy Surkis.
“The logo makes an unequivocal reference to the cities which will host the games in both nations,” said Juliusz Głuski, the spokesman of EURO 2012 Polska, the company supervising the organization of the event in Poland.
The slogan of the championships will be “Poland and Ukraine, creating history together”.
The unveiling of the logo comes just days after UEFA head Michel Platini made the belated decision to confirm that three Ukrainian cities - Kharkiv, Donetsk and Lviv – were sufficiently advanced in their preparations to hold matches for the championships alongside Kiev.
The matches in Poland will be held in Poznan, Gdansk and Wroclaw, with the opening match to be held in Warsaw.
Preparations for the championships have been dogged by delays to infrastructure projects and the building of stadiums and hotels since the two countries were awarded the games back in April 2007. In May this year, UEFA gave Ukraine a six-month deadline to show that they had secured sufficient finance for the projects.
On Friday, Mr Platini said that he was now convinced that Ukraine - which has been badly hit by the financal crisis and continued political instability - could deliver the games on time. "There remains considerable work to be done and considerable hoops to jump through. But I entirely trust Ukraine and Poland as hosts," he said.
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