Euro 2012 Stadium

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.