By Andrew Warshaw in London
November 1 – One of the main organisers of the 2012 European Championships says joint hosts Poland and Ukraine will not be deterred by unfounded allegations that they bought the votes of key UEFA officials.
UEFA have launched legal proceedings into claims that five members of its executive committee accepted €11 million worth of bribes to help Poland and Ukraine clinch victory in the race to stage the tournament.
Poland and Ukraine polled eight votes in April 2007 while Italy got four and no-one voted for Croatia/Hungary.
The new cash-for-votes allegations have been made by Spyros Marangos, former treasurer of the Cyprus football association, who says he first learned of the scandal on the day of the vote.
“First we need evidence, then we can have a discussion,” said Marcin Herra (pictured), president of the board of PL2012.
“We are concentrating on our job and on the preparations.
“I think from a professional point of view, we have to achieve what we promised.
“That means having a plan and sticking to it.
“I don’t like it when instead of talking about the good things that are happening now, some people talk about what happened in 2007.”
Herra said the image of Poland had changed radically.
“Poland is a success story over the last 20 years,” he said.
“The GDP is really good.
“This country changes every day – it’s a modern and developing country.
“You will land in a state-of-the-art airport, travel in modern trams and go to good restaurants.”
Earlier, addressing the Global Sports Industry Congress in London, Herra said it would have been a worry for Poland had Ukraine not managed to bring their infrastructure and stadia development programme up to scratch in recent weeks.
At one stage it appeared that Poland might be asked whether it could host the finals on its own.
“That was even more difficult for us than for Ukraine,” he said.
“Suddenly everyone wanted to ask us if we were ready to host it on our own and that was scary because from the beginning this was a joint project.”
The 2012 Euros are being held in four cities in each of the two joint hosts.
Herra said Poland would heed the lessons of the World Cup in South Africa in terms of the quality of volunteers and stadium readiness.
“All our stadiums will have 10 months for testing,” he said.
“The World Cup was a big success but I went as a supporter to see the real thing.
“It was a huge challenge from an operational point of view – lots of things did not happen.”
Not all volunteers, he said, were as helpful as they should have been.
“In Klagenfurt, for instance, I asked directions to the city centre.
“When I said I was a supporter, not a VIP, they said ‘sorry we do not have information for supporters’.
“You have to have practical support from volunteers.”
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