Euro 2012: Grounds for optimism for Uefa

Uefa believes the stadiums for Euro 2012 in Poland and Ukraine are better than those in which the 2008 tournament was staged.

"We didn't have a stadium in Austria or Switzerland which could compare to what we have in Gdansk or Donetsk," Martin Kallen, Uefa's head of operations, said yesterday.

The stadium in Warsaw is due to be finished next month, while those in Gdansk, Wroclaw and Poznan in Poland and Kiev, Kharkiv, Lviv and Donetsk in Ukraine are ready now.

PA