Ukraine Euro 2012 Director Refutes Removal of Lviv as Host

According to Ukraine’s tournament director for the UEFA 2012 European Championships, Lviv will not be stripped of its hosting rights, despite having been the setting of violent scenes during the recent Victory Day on May 9.

Widespread clashes occurred in Lviv, with fascist demonstrations marring the Victory Day celebrations while concerns over hooliganism are also rife in Euro 2012 co-host Poland, with the country’s government having threatened to force matches to take place behind closed doors to clamp down on the problem in the build-up to the event.

Markiyan Lubkivsky stated: “I would not like the Communist Party (CPU) to [decide] which cities are worthy to host the Euro 2012 and which are not. The CPU is not an institution that can choose the format of the tournament. The only structure that decides on the format is UEFA. The UEFA agenda currently does not include the issue of a format change [for the tournament].”

Lubkivsky added that were UEFA to remove Lviv as a host city, “neither Dnipropetrovsk nor Odesa” would be ready to stage games at Euro 2012, adding that the May 9 protests in Lviv were “thoroughly monitored” by UEFA, considering “the problems of security on the territory of Euro 2012”.