By Andrew Warshaw
January 27 – UEFA general secretary Gianni Infantino (pictured) insists Poland and Ukraine will be able to cope with the massive transport and infrastructural issues at the 2012 European Championships even though preparations were too slow at first.
The continental tournament is the third biggest sporting event in the world and will be broadcast in more than 200 territories across the globe, with around 150 million people watching each match live.
In an interview with a Ukrainian news service, Infantino admitted that selecting joint hosts “adds to the challenges” particularly given that Poland is an EU member and Ukraine isn’t.
“This forces us to put more work into developing easy and quick procedures for border-crossing for fans,” he said.
Visa requests for Russian fans has already been cited as one issue still to be resolved.
However, Infantino believes the hard part has already been done.
“We are confident that the most difficult part of the job has been done,” he said.
“Obviously, though, we do need to do some fine tuning and we will only really be able to relax when the final match has been played.”
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