Lviv Euro 2012 stadium inches closer to completion
According to the official website of Ukraine’s Euro 2012 team, the emerging stadium in Lviv is 64 percent ready.
Given that this time a year ago, the arena was only 10 percent done, the current statistic is not entirely bad news.
Elsewhere in Ukraine, there are other signs of optimism. Although the Kiev and Lviv stadiums are still not finished, those at Donetsk and Kharkiv have already been opened.
Co-host Poland has also experienced delays, with stadiums both at Warsaw and Gdansk behind deadline.
There were concerns in Lviv , after the cost of building the stadium spiralled four times over budget since 2008. Likewise, the cost of reconstructing Lviv’s airport has doubled. Numerous hotels are also being built to host guests.
However, UEFA Euro 2012 director Martin Kallen has told Agence France Presse that ‘great progress’ has been made in Ukraine as a whole, although he noted that ‘there is still a lot of hard work to do.’
The championships are due to kick off in June, leaving organisers eleven months to get things up to scratch.