On Saturday, in Kharkiv in eastern
Ukraine the modernized stadium of the Metalist club was opened. Matches of the
European football championships will take place here in 2012.
I am convinced that Euro 2012 matches will take place at the facility – said
the Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko at a ceremony. In his brief speech he
stressed that Ukraine organizes the finals together with Poland. “The hosts of
Euro 2012 can only be Ukraine and Poland.”
Metalist Stadium in Kharkiv is also
known as Oblasny SportKomplex (OSK) Metalist. The first construction of this
arena started in 1925 and the first name chosen for new building was… Traktor
Stadium, sponsored by the local tractor production company. During World War II
the stadium was renamed to Dzerzhinets Stadium after the name of Felix
Dzerzhinsky – first head of Cheka. Last change of name did happen in 1967 and
the stadium achieved current name and capacity of 10.000 seats.
The National Stadium in Warsaw which has a capacity of 60 thousand seats will
be built in the place where at present is the 10th Anniversary Stadium.
According to current conception the National Stadium is expected to be the main
element of a sports-recreational centre.
The National Stadium is expected to be one of the main centres of the European
Football Championships Euro 2012, where according to the original scheme it
will be played among others: the opening match, some of the group matches, one
quarter-final and one semi-final.
