The final countdown

With only three years until they host the UEFA European Championships in 2012, Poland and Ukraine’s infrastructure remains in a parlous state. Huw Thomas investigates if the finals are going to be a spectacular own goal, or whether the two countries can pull off a late winner.

April 19 2007 was a big day for the people of Ukraine and Poland. When the news came in that the countries’ joint bid to host the 2012 UEFA European Cup had been successful, there was wild rejoicing on the streets of Krakow and Lviv. That these nations, often uncharitably viewed as poor relations of their neighbours further west, had beaten four time World Cup winners Italy to the competition only made the victory sweeter.

Not since the fall of communism will there have been so much attention focused on these countries. For a month in 2012 thousands of football fans will flock to the east of Europe while further millions will be glued to their television sets across the world. Running a successful European Championship can really put a place on the map.

Quite aside from the kudos generated by playing host to Euro 2012, there will be significant material advantages. Hundreds of thousands of fans will flow into the two countries over the course of the competition, spending mountains of cash in hotels, restaurants and shops. But there is more than just the weeks spanned by the championship to consider. How Ukraine and Poland handle themselves will have a long-term impact on each country’s future. A good performance in the summer of 2012 could see tourists returning year after year and even help attract investment and new business. “Hosting the UEFA EURO 2012 football championships in Ukraine and Poland is stimulating investment in infrastructure and supports Ukraine's continued economic development,” said Ukrainian Vice-Prime Minister Hryhoriy Nemyrya of the announcement. “It will be a showcase for our cities, culture and hospitality, as well as the best football talent in Europe, it will provide a legacy that will endure long after the tournament is over.”

But ensuring this legacy will require some very hard work. After decades of underinvestment, the infrastructure needed to support such a huge event was in no shape to deal with the challenges associated with hosting such a competition. This was certainly true in 2007 when the Championships were awarded. Now, two years later, concerns remain that these nations remain ill-prepared. Suddenly, 2012 doesn’t seem that far away.

Of the two nations, Ukraine is raising the biggest concerns about its readiness. Earlier in the year UEFA President Michel Platini announced the host cities for the competition. While the Polish cities Warsaw, Gdánsk, Wroclaw and Poznań have all been passed fit, only Kiev has been confirmed in Ukraine. The country now has until November to sharpen up its preparations or risk losing its status as co-host.

While the stadiums where the games are played are generally seen as the centrepoint of international sporting events like the European Championships, in reality they are only a small part of the total package. According to research from analysts PMR Publications, stadiums only comprise six percent of the almost €40 billion that Poland and Ukraine will spend on preparation for the competition. Forty five percent will be spent on roads, 33 percent on rail, 11 percent on hotels and accommodation, with the final five percent going on airports.

This huge amount of money clearly reflects the historic infrastructure deficiencies in both countries and the sheer amount of work that must be completed in the remaining years before the competition. Given that travelling between just the four Ukrainian host cities will entail journeys of anything between 600 and 1200 kilometres, and the distance between stadiums across the two countries can be more than 1500 kilometres, a robust transport infrastructure will be essential. Unfortunately for Ukraine, with an area almost twice the size of its co-host, its transportation system is in a very poor state of repair. Many roads are unpaved and even the more modern routes are potholed and outdated. Rail and airport infrastructure too has a long way to go before it will be in a position to cope with the thousands of football fans set to converge on the country in 2012.

In response to these pressing needs, Ukraine has instituted an unprecedented investment programme to prepare for the championships. Earmarking some €15 billion euros, the Ukrainian government aims to reinvent the country’s infrastructure and drag it kicking and screaming into the 21st century. It is difficult to fault Ukraine’s ambition. Unsurprisingly, roads will get one of the biggest portions of funding, with a figure totalling more than €5 billion. Key priorities are completion of the Lviv-Krakovets and Lviv-Brody highway sections, along with bypass roads for Lugansk and Donetsk.

Major rail projects are in place to modernise and streamline the country’s train system. New rolling stock, electrification of thousands of kilometres of lines and the construction of high-speed inter city routes are all planned. Additionally, underground lines in Dnipropetrovsk, Kiev and Kharkiv are to be extended, while building on Donetsk’s first underground line is also hoped to be completed. Funds are also going to the construction and expansion of municipal tram networks to enable fans to move around Ukrainian cities with greater ease.

Airports will receive around €1.1 billion of investment. Work is focused on two near Kiev and a further six at Dnipropetrovsk, Kharkiv, Odessa, Donetsk, Simferopol and Lviv. This funding will be focused on building new terminals and runways, as well as modernising existing ones that lag behind their counterparts in Western Europe.

While this huge raft of improvements looks great on paper, there continue to be doubts over Ukraine’s ability to deliver them in time for 2012. Transport projects in particular are a major cause for concern, as efforts to secure funding for a huge proportion of them have foundered due to political infighting. Ukraine remains mired in post-Communist corruption and there are unusually high levels of antipathy between the offices of the President and the Prime Minister, with neither reluctant to publicly criticise the other. Speaking in June, Ukrainian President Viktor Yuschenko said: “How can we talk about Euro 2012, when the budget envisions 4.5 billion from the stabilization fund, but only 330 million has been financed. Speaking about the roads: 2.5 billion should have been channelled for the roads, but only 30 million has been granted as of May 20.”

In early July Ukrainian newspaper Dzis reported that millions of Ukrainian hryven intended for infrastructure projects and the completion of Kiev’s flagship stadium had simply disappeared. Meanwhile, the Mayor of Lviv Andriy Sadovy has said that his city is yet to receive any of the allocated state funds that were promised. This has resulted in delays to urgent road building projects, and work on the new stadium alongside a situation at the airport which Sadovy described as ‘a catastrophe’.

Compounding these issues, June saw the resignation of Transport Minister Yosyp Vinsky, who stepped down after serious disagreement with the country’s Prime Minister. “My statement [of resignation] has been stipulated by serious disagreements with Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko over political, staff, and economic issues, as well as the ethics of relations between members of the Cabinet of Ministers,” said Vinsky on his resignation. He also alleged that Tymoshenko was blocking reforms essential to address Ukraine’s transport problems as well as hampering the allocation of funds to Euro 2012 building programmes.

In response, the Prime Minister has accused Vinsky of corruption “I understand that Mr Vinsky was displeased that we put a stop to his improper use of up to 15 million hryvnias (€1.4 million) in funds meant for the post office which he intended to use for promoting himself,” she said. “I believe this could be a good lesson for everyone who has committed the sin of illegal use of state funds.”

It is worth noting that both Vinsky and Tymoshenko are mooted as rivals in an upcoming presidential election, which may well account for the volatility of their relationship. However, this is a domestic political row that has the potential to spill over internationally if Ukraine finds itself unable to meet its Euro 2012 obligations.

While it is impossible to ignore the many obstacles that lie between Ukraine and a successful European Cup, Poland too faces some big problems. While its airport and hotel infrastructure does seem in much better shape than that of its neighbour, it is bedevilled by similar deficiencies in its road network. With only 435km of expressways and 765km of genuine highways, Poland is some distance behind even many of its non-EU neighbours when it comes to modern road infrastructure. When the Championships were awarded to Poland and Ukraine in 2007, the then government made the bold claim that it would build 3000km of new highways and expressways before the football fans start rolling in.

Now that we’re a few years closer to the deadline, a new government has made a slightly revised pledge of 2000km of new roads by 2012. But even dropping the target by a third leaves Poland with a mountain to climb, given the historically glacial pace of road construction in the country. Stymied by a bureaucratic system that’s slow pace has been compounded by endless appeals from companies that fail to win tenders, progress continues to be slow. Current infrastructure minister Cezary Grabarczyk has maintained at least the appearance of confidence that targets can be reached. “We will get the highways built on time,” he asserts. “By 2012, you will be able to drive from the German border to Warsaw on a completed highway.” But Grabarczyk’s bullish assessment is not universally shared. “I think 500km of the government’s programme is in danger,” says Adrian Furgalski of transport consultancy TOR. A particular concern is the key section connecting Warsaw with Lodz, but there are problems all over the largely communist-era road network. What makes these matters even more pressing is that the benefits of road improvement will continue long after every football fan has returned home. Poland’s crumbling road infrastructure is a major brake on progress, as the country’s narrow and crowded routes discourage investment. Beyond the financial implications there is also a human costs. As a result of so much heavy traffic being funnelled through the hearts of towns and villages, Poland’s roads are particularly dangerous. Upwards of 5000 people die in road traffic accidents there every year, a figure more than twice the EU average.

There has been some good news to report though. At the beginning of July Grabarczyk announced that funding for the Swiecko-Nowy Tomysl section of a key road to the German border had finally been confirmed. “The whole thing had become a bit of a horror,” Grabarczyk confessed. “The talks were complicated as the European Investment Bank, 11 commercial banks and also the company responsible for the construction are all contributing to the financing.”

Coming even in the midst of a victory, that statement demonstrates the difficulty the Polish, and Ukrainian, authorities are experiencing in tackling Euro 2012 infrastructure challenges. For Grabarczyk, securing the funding was a double reason for celebration. He had effectively been given an ultimatum by Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk, that if he didn’t demonstrate some serious progress by the beginning of July, he would be out of a job. Grabarczyk’s narrow escape is a further illustration of the desperation behind the scenes.

While UEFA President Michel Platini has stated that there are no plans to take the Euro 2012 Championships away from the current hosts, significant doubts still remain. Ukraine in particular has major cause for concern. A great deal now rests on UEFA’s November deadline to show significant progress, with failure to do so potentially seeing games moved to venues in Poland, or even Germany. While it would still be billed as co-host, Ukraine could end up only hosting games at Kiev. That would be a significant blow, both for the nation’s finances and its international standing. But even if the games go ahead at four locations in both countries as planned, failure to address the shortcomings in infrastructure could instead dramatically tarnish the reputations that Poland and Ukraine are trying so hard to build.

Going for gold: Athens 2004
The position that Poland and Ukraine finds themselves in now is mirrored by that of Greece in the run up to the 2004 Olympic Games. Before the games began, there was a steady drip of stories suggesting that the facilities would not be and that the notoriously congested traffic system of host city Athens would lead to disaster. In the event, the games were a success and perhaps more importantly, their effects have gone on to be felt for years. Most striking is the impact improvements for the games have had on Athens’ traffic system. Road improvements, investment in public transport and traffic management technology have all provided an impressive legacy for the city’s permanent inhabitants. Following the long construction period before the games, when Athenians experienced serious problems in its transportation movements, the city now benefits from a significantly less congested major road network and a high quality public transport system. Despite costing somewhere in the region of €6 billion, the ensuing benefits can certainly be viewed as value for money.