By Andrew Warshaw in Warsaw
June 18 – The tournament director of the 2012 European Championship insists he is satisfied with the finals so far despite constant UEFA sanctions, fan violence and logistical snafus.
Martin Kallen has defended UEFA’s decision to grant the event to Poland and Ukraine – the first of such magnitude in Eastern Europe – and says organisational fears that plagued the build up to the tournament are a thing of the past.
“From what I have seen far it’s been working well,” Kallen told insideworldfootball.
“I’m not responsible for what happens off the pitch, only with organisation.
“The stadiums are good in terms of access, design and parking but perhaps more difficult have been the distances between venues.”
It is not fair, says Kallen, to keep focussing on the negative aspects such as the rioting between Polish and Russian fans here that led to a string of arrests.
“When you consider how many people have been pouring into the cities and fan zones the incidents of crime are pretty small,” he insisted.
“What happened with Russia and Poland was an isolated incident that was dealt with by the authorities.”
Transport problems have been a significant downside, however, with flight delays, odd train scheduling and poor levels of comfort, all of which has contributed to exhaustion for those criss-crossing the two joint hosts.
“Public transport is maybe not as developed as in other countries,” said Kallen, who is organising his fifth Euros.
“But personally I’m very satisfied with where we are today.
“It was a long journey.”
Almost every day throughout the tournament UEFA has been hitting the various finalists with fines and warnings over the behaviour of fans, whether for racism, illicit banners, flares and other objects being hurled from the stands.
But in Ukraine, wracked by alarming pre-tournament fears of overt racism, things have been relatively peaceful on the streets with little sign of the discrimination that was flagged up.
“The atmosphere has been terrific and the facilities top class and they deserve to take a lot of credit,” added Kallen whose struck a of concern, however, at the prospect of Ukraine following Poland out of the tournament when they meet England tomorrow.
With Russia also eliminated, the finals are in danger of losing much of their emotion and lustre for this half of the continent after such an outpouring of nationalistic support in the first week.
“For both [host] countries it counted a lot to stay in the tournament,” Kallen admitted.
“I think the atmosphere will stay [if Ukraine goes out] but obviously it would have been if both hosts had stayed in.”
Kallen also insisted that the tournament was sold out despite a number of gaps at almost every game.
“We have sold all the tickets,” he claimed.
“The reason for the gaps is no-shows.”
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