MADRID: Spain has reportedly offered to host the Euro 2012 finals at short notice if Ukraine grows ever more unstable with heightened tension over a string of domestic political issues writes KEIR RADNEDGE.
A bombing in the city of Dnipropetrovsk last Friday which left 27 people injured apparently prompted Angel Maria Villar, president of the Spanish federation, to inform UEFA that Spain would step in if required to host the tournament.
Villar, 62, is an influential vice-president of both world federation FIFA as well as of UEFA which organizes the European Championship. He made his remarks in a conversation with Michel Platini, French president of the European association.
That option appears highly unlikely.
Martin Kallen, the European federation’s tournament director, has rejected recent speculation about whether security concerns might see games scheduled for Ukraine or even the entire tournament shifted elsewhere.
He said: “Even if we wanted to do that, which we don’t, it would be impossible in such a short time. The only option if there were no other other possibility would be to move the tournament to in another year. But right now there is no need for change.
“We monitor the situation very closely, every day. If the situation is too dangerous, that would not performed. We are organizing a football festival of football, that is all.”
Poland play Greece in Warsaw in the Opening Match on June 8 with the first match in Ukraine following the next day between Holland and Denmark in Kharkov where former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko is being held in jail.
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