Euro 2012
June 8, 2011
Ever more cars are lining up at the border crossing between the Polish town of Hrebenne and Rava Ruska in Ukraine. Most of the drivers, who want to enter Ukraine, have left their cars to have a smoke – they know they will have to wait for several hours.
During the European Football Championships, Euro 2012, lots of football fans will have to pass here to get from one host country to the other. In front of one control booth stands Major Igor Matvichuk, deputy director at the Ukrainian site of the checkpoint. He promises that more staff, a joint Polish-Ukrainian border control and additional lanes reserved for fans will speed up the process. A ticket for a football match will most likely double as a visa for Poland during the tournament. Ukraine already has a visa-free travel regime in place.
"We also are getting English lessons for six months now to better communicate with the foreign guests," he says. "And we will change our uniforms to a less military style, so European guests will feel more comfortable with us."
Host city Lviv under pressure
For those fans crossing into Ukraine from Polsupeand, the city of Lviv - 60 kilometers behind the border - will be the first Ukrainian host city, they will come across. In the outskirts of the city, is the construction site of the stadium that made Lviv infamous in Europe last year. So serious were the delays that UEFA was even considering dismissing Lviv as a host city altogether. But the government did everything to avoid international disgrace and now allocates huge sums of its generally tight state budget to change course – above all in Lviv.
High up on what is still a skeleton stand without seats, stands Alexander Michailovich, the director of the construction site. "The pressure on us was high, but at the moment 65 percent of the stadium and the surrounding infrastructure is complete and I'm sure we'll be done in time." To make sure things are going as planned, there is always a UEFA representative permanently on site.
If the infrastructure is in place, Lviv certainly stands a good chance of becoming the darling of fans and visitors during Euro 2012. It boasts a rich European history and a UNESCO-listed historical center with cobbled streets and lots of cafés and fountains. It could well steal the show from the Ukrainian capital Kyiv, 500 kilometers further easst – even though that is where the final will take place on July 1. The rebuilding of the Kyiv Olympic stadium, however, is also far from finished.
Famous support
"There are always so many skeptics, here and in Poland, but I can assure you, we'll make it," says professional boxer and heavyweight champion Vitaliy Klitschko, a Ukrainian native, while sitting in his office in one of Kyiv's modern skyscrapers.
Behind him on the shelf are several footballs donning the Euro 2012 logo. As one of Ukraine's most famous citizens he is an ambassador for the tournament. He sees the chance to boost his country's reputation, which, so far, is mainly infamous for being one the poorest and most corrupt countries in Europe, with a flourishing sex trafficking sector.
"Euro 2012 will be like a business card to Ukraine and all its citizens. We want to show ourselves to the world. We are Europeans, with all our history and culture, we are a European country," he says. And as a boxer living and working in both Ukraine and Germany, he knows which two teams he wants to see in the final, which is being held in his beloved Kyiv. "The German team playing the Ukrainian team – that's what I am dreaming of."
Author: Mareike Aden, Lviv and Kyiv
Editor: Nicole Goebel