UEFA may postpone Euro 2012 because of the situation in Ukraine

The European Football Federation (UEFA) can postpone the planned on the beginning of this summer European Final Football Championship for another year because of the situation in Ukraine.

This was announced by Martin Cullen in the German newspaper Sueddeutsche Zeitung, when commenting on the explosions in Dnipropetrovsk at the end of last week and the case which deals with the detained former head of the Ukrainian Government Yulia Tymoshenko – reports UNIAN.

‘We can observe it every day. Platini treats this problem really seriously. If the situation becomes dangerous, the championship will not be held in Ukraine’ – quotes Cullen.

He pointed out that the European Federation does not expect the Euro 2012 transference, but does not exclude this possibility.

At the same time M. Cullen ruled out the possibility of holding Euro 2012 matches in Germany instead of Ukraine, describing the transference of the championship as the only option in case it is not possible to hold them in four Ukrainian cities for some reasons.

‘Such a process cannot be implemented so fast’ – said the UEFA representative.

For the last few days politicians from a number of European countries, in particular, from Germany and Italy urged EU to boycott the matches of Euro 2012, which will take place in early summer in Ukraine because of the case which they consider as ‘politically motivated’. The explosions in the third largest city in the country last Friday in Dnipropetrovsk, during which almost three dozen people were injured made the situation in Ukraine even more complicated. 

Note. Ukraine, which won the right to organize Euro 2012 for the first time in history in 2007 and spent on its preparations more than $4 billion was expecting active popularization of the country and cultural rapprochement with the EU. Matches of football Championship that is the third most popular sports event in the world are supposed to be held in the Ukrainian cities Kyiv, Lviv, Donetsk and Kharkiv and Polish cities Warsaw, Gdansk and Poznan from June 8 to July 1.