EURO hopefuls get base camp catalogue

The 53 UEFA member associations have been issued with a dossier giving them a choice of 38 potential team bases for the UEFA EURO 2012 final tournament in Poland and Ukraine.

The local organising committees in the two co-host nations have been working since 2008 to compile a list of suitable complexes for sides competing at the finals, in order to give teams a stable environment for the tournament. Now 21 bases in Poland and 17 in Ukraine are hoping to welcome one of the 16 eventual finalists.

As part of the bid requirements, Poland and Ukraine were each required to suggest 16 training bases to UEFA which fulfilled the following criteria:
• 4-5 star hotel or sport complexes
• sufficient number of rooms
• privacy and amenities for a long stay: gym, swimming pool, massage room, leisure areas, meeting rooms and private dining facilities
• training facilities close to the hotel and up to UEFA standards: at least one standard-sized natural pitch which allows for both open and closed training sessions

Between now and the draw for the finals in December 2011, national associations will be encouraged to peruse the potential bases, and conduct site visits. Nations can provisionally book their UEFA EURO 2012 camps with UEFA, making a first choice and a maximum of two reserve options for each nation. Reservations will be made on a first come, first served basis, and must be confirmed after the draw.

Presentations
"It's with great pleasure that we present the results of a joint effort by the two local organising comitees and UEFA," Ukraine tournament director Markiyan Lubkivskiy said. "We began compiling this catalogue at the start of the bidding process and now we present 17 training camps chosen from 50 candidates.

"I should add that this list is not final because we have six or seven reserve camps. Every three months the electronic version of the catalogue will be updated and we will not stop our search because there are still many beautiful places in Ukraine that could serve as homes for national teams during EURO 2012."

Polish tournament director Adam Olkowicz said: "Since the start of 2008 we have received 160 applications from Polish cities to become official team bases. In the verification process with site visits, meetings, etc., we have finally chosen 21 locations which have been included in the base-camp catalogue.

"Actually in Poland we have another location, Grodzisk Wielkopolski, which will serve as the base for the Polish team. Thanks to the tournament, the infrastructure of training grounds in Poland has significantly improved."

While the eight host cities are already decided, the team base system will bring UEFA EURO 2012 to the heart of 16 more communities in Poland and Ukraine, with famous locations like Krakow, Kielce, Gdynia, Wieliczka, Sevastopol, Poltava, Odessa and Uzhgorod eager to be put on the finals map.

UEFA and the local organisation committees recommend that teams are based in the country in which they play their group stage matches.