Along with my post yesterday about Angolan officials making sure that stadiums are ready for the 2010 ACON, I learned that punctual stadium construction is key when it comes to high-profile national or international competitions. This great article from Zerkalo Nedeli (a Russian term that loosely translates to “mirror of the world”) thoroughly lays out how there can be no screw-ups when such competitions happen on UEFA’s watch.
The 2012 Euro Cup will be jointly held in the Ukraine and Poland, for now at least. These countries are definitely not the poorest in Europe but in comparison to other countries on the continent, they’re not the most-developed. Because of this, UEFA has concerns that stadiums are on schedule to be ready to go when the tourney begins: they’re concerned about other things of course, but an abundant amount of proper pitches is at the top of the list. Factor in that most of UEFA’s budget for the next four years goes towards funding the 2010 competition, and you have a governing body that will watch you like a hawk and also has a Plan B folder somewhere if you drop the ball. And Plan B (along with Plan’s C and D) is mentioned early on in the piece.
This is a very detailed article…if you can’t read it now, bookmark it or read it at lunch.