Wednesday, April 18, 2007

Poland & Ukraine Win UEFA 2012 Bid

Poland and Ukraine today won the bid to host the UEFA EURO 2012 Soccer Championship. The decision by the UEFA Executive Committee came as a most welcome surprise for two nations currently mared by political crisis. Beating the odds against favourite contender Italy, UEFA in a seminal decision opted for development instead of profit. By this brave and strategic decision, UEFA clearly showed that soccer is a concern for all or Europe, and not merely a concern of mighty nations of the EU.

Sport is politics. This has been evident ever since the 1933 Berlin Olympics. Who gets to host a major international sports' event has enormous profits to gain economically and in terms of goodwill. However, it is also a big gamble, as the opposite is equally true if organisers fail to successfully go trough with the event. Then, it involves great losses in both profit and prestige for the states concerned.

Faced by such considerations, the UEFA Executive Committee still decided for the Poland-Ukraine joint candidacy. The main contender and favourite was Italy, which already has the necessary infrastructure in terms of arenas, airports, roads, etc. However, what in the end seems to have turned the tide against Italy, are the recent bribery scandals and hooligan riots that so has tarred the image of Italian soccer internationally. This was not the case with with Poland and Ukraine, but this positive image may also prove an unwelcome blessing for Warzaw and Kiev.

Without the necessary infrasctructure, Poland and Ukraine now face the gigantic task of forming the preconditions for a successful event, e.g. building eight new UEFA standard soccer arenas. The championship finals are intended to take place on the Kiev Olympic Stadium, which now has to undergo fundamental renovations in upcoming years. All these efforts will, of course, take enormous amounts of money, and it is exactly here the entire project may backfire on both Warzaw and Kiev. Without an extremely transparent tender process for the fat contracts to build arenas, develop infrastructure or sell Championship paraphernalia, organisers may face a constant media nightmare in founded or unfounded allegations of foul play and bribery in the process up till the 2012 UEFA Championships.

If this would become the case, two states with already politically tarred reputations, might end up with an irrepairable loss of status in European affairs. If, to the contrary, Ukraine and Poland would use the Championships as a vehicle to rid themselves of corruption and power abuse, they could both stand to win not only the laurels of sportmanship, but also the benefits of societal fair play. Consequently, the 2012 UEFA Championships may prove if Poland may fully assume its role as a major European power and if Ukraine will become a full-fledged member of the European Union family. Today, sport truly is politics, and who skilfully manages to exploit sports, will also win at politics.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

i would say sport is business rather than sport is politics. poland and ukraine really surprised me because i expected italy to win a bid for euro 2012. but looks like a "big market" in east europe decided the winner. but as you say now they face a gigantic task to make championship possible. i'm sure they will manage but the cost will be high. maybe even higher than greece had for olympics.

on the other hand, the third candidate croatia-hungary was somehow proclaimed as serious rival to candidacy of italy but at the end got 0 votes. personally i think it is for the best because croatia and hungary would now face the same problems as poland and ukraine and the economy of both croatia and hungary is not strong enough to stand such task. of course as a citizen of croatia it would be nice if croatian-hungary got the hosting, but that is strictly subjective point of view :)

Anonymous said...

what is business if not politics, or politics in the age of globalization if not almost entirely about business?

Unknown said...

Thanks for an intresting post. Yes, sports is politics. And music i s politics! Next weekend is the eurovision! Last time many russians gort really pissed over their second place, and hinted there must have been something murky in the voting.

Vilhelm Konnander said...

Dear Katjusha,

Of course, it goes both ways. Sports is both politics and finance today, and I should have known better than to predominantly cover the political aspect.

Yours,

Vilhelm

Vilhelm Konnander said...

Dear Amanda,

I did not follow the ESC, and therefore do not know which place Russia took this time. However, I seem to recollect that Ukraine came second after Serbia. Had it only been for the funny costumes, the Ukrainians would probably have won.

Yours,

Vilhelm