Donetsk

The Donetsk stadium opens

Saturday, 29 August 2009 18:21

On Saturday night a new football stadium for the Euro-2012 championship was opened in Donetsk. This will certainly boost Ukraine's chances of an equal division of the tournament's host-cities between Poland and Ukraine - claims Markiyan Lubkivskiy, head of the Ukraine's Euro 2012 National Organization Committee.

"The plan to have four Euro 2012 host cities in Ukraine and four in Poland is still very much a reality" - Lubkivskiy told us just before the opening ceremony at Donetsk's Donbas-Arena.

The head of Ukraine's part of the tournament admits that despite the newly completed stadium Donetsk still has some backlog to make up for in infrastructural preparations but he is confident that the city government will rise up to the challenge.

"If we have built a stadium like this here, we should have no problems with hotels, the airport and the city transportation either" - he has told Polish journalists.

The Donetsk stadium intended for 50 thousand spectators was paid for by the Ukrainian business oligarch, owner of the Shakhtar Donetsk football club, Rinat Akhmetov. The total price of the project with the surrounding park amounted to US$400m.

Last May UEFA announced that out of Ukraine's four cities presented as candidates to host the EURO 2012 matches only Kiev was ready for the time being.

Kharkiv, Donetsk and Lviv were given until the end of November to make up for the delay. UEFA will announce its final decision concernining the Ukrainian host cities of the Euro 2012 tournament on 10 December.

SOURCE: PAP

The opening of the stadium in Donetsk in summer

Tuesday, 07 April 2009 17:35

The owner of the football club Szachtar-Donetsk Rinat Achmetov announced the stadium Donbas-Arena in Donetsk, constructed by his company will be open this summer, the press office of the club revealed on Tuesday. Earlier, the opening was planned in the spring.

At present, Achmetov envisages that the opening ceremony may be organised on the Days of Donetsk and the Day of Miners that are celebrated in the last weekend of August. "The construction works at the stadium are about to be finished," he said.

Achmetov who builds the stadium from his own financial means, expects that in connection with Euro 2012, the Ukrainian authorities will support the development of the infrastructure in Donetsk in and the modernisation of the local airport in a more effective way.

"Donetsk does not ask for budget money for the stadium. The stadium in Kharkov is constructed (it is modernised - PAP) using the budget means; the same situation concerns the stadium in Kiev. In Dnepropetrovsk and in Donetsk, private investors give their money for the stadia. But we also have problems. They concern airports and infrastructure. I believe that the state should be engage in the undertaking," stressed the owner of Szachtar Donetsk.

The stadium in Donetsk will be the second facility in Ukraine ready to host the spectators of Euro 2012. In September 2008, the stadium in Dnepropetrovsk was finished.

SOURCE: PAP (Polish Press Agency)

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