Over the past two years, Ukraine has built two stadiums, opened four airports, and unveiled a fleet of high-speed trains. It has spent $14.5bn (£9.3bn) on preparations for the Euro 2012 football championships, a whopping sum for a small GDP country. Workmen have been tidying up outside Kyiv's impressive web-roofed Olympic stadium, the venue for the 1 July final. And yet on the eve of the tournament Ukraine is staring at nothing less than a full-blown PR disaster. In an interview with Panorama , the former England defender Sol Campbell bluntly says Uefa was wrong to give Euro 2012 to >>>

Over the past two years, Ukraine has built two stadiums, opened four airports, and unveiled a fleet of high-speed trains. It has spent $14.5bn (£9.3bn) on preparations for the Euro 2012 football championships, a whopping sum for a small GDP country. Workmen have been tidying up outside Kyiv's impressive web-roofed Olympic stadium, the venue for the 1 July final.And yet on the eve of the tournament Ukraine is staring at nothing less than a full-blown PR disaster. In an interview with Panorama , the former England defender Sol Campbell bluntly says Uefa was wrong to give Euro 2012 to Poland >>>

SPECIAL REPORTBy Clark WhitneyThe start of a football festival is less than a fortnight away, but as the glitterati of the game prepare to descend on Poland and Ukraine for the beginning of Euro 2012, the atmosphere from Gdansk to Donetsk is anything but a carnival.For the locals, excitement has been replaced by antipathy, bitterness and hostility. Concerns over sex trafficking, protests against Yulia Tymoshenko’s imprisonment, and questions about the long-term value of investment in infrastructure has cast a cloud of uncertainty over the tournament.So intense is the Euro-anxiety that a >>>

SPECIAL REPORTBy Clark WhitneyThe start of a football festival is less than a fortnight away, but as the glitterati of the game prepare to descend on Poland and Ukraine for the beginning of Euro 2012, the atmosphere from Gdansk to Donetsk is anything but a carnival. Bet: £5£10£20£50£100 Returns: Austria £25.00 Draw £31.00 Ukraine £25.00 Bet: £5£10£20£50£100 >>>

Ukraine's FEMEN group which specialises in topless protests in public, has been receiving a lot of media attention lately. The mandate, their agenda their political will although very serious in nature, it is their modality of protest that is attracting attention. The recent news flash of their appearance was at the Euro 2012 Soccer Cup.For some this method of women going bare-chested or topless in staging an agitation is considered as a very effective and non-violent >>>

While almost every major international sporting event is preceded by worries about logistics and preparations, Euro 2012 has been ill-fated from the moment that Uefa's executive committee voted by eight to four that it should be jointly hosted by Poland and Ukraine instead of Italy. Sixteen national football squads and their thousands of fans could have been heading to Florence, Milan and Rome. Instead they are about to sample the delights of Donetsk, Kharkiv and Lviv for what is widely regarded as the least compelling major tournament of modern times; and over the past week matters have been >>>

KYIV - Anna darts gleefully around the two sparsely-furnished rooms situated through an archway off a steep street that climbs up from Kyiv's Independence Square. She is a general showing off her new headquarters."This is going to be our training room for our Euro strikes," she says."That's for the girls to get fit on for when they scrap with the police or have to run away from them," she says, pointing to a set of wall-bars and an overhead muscle-tone pulley-bar by the front door.The topless activists of the Femen women's rights group, whose eye-catching antics have made them the cover girls of >>>

Being the patriotic, red-blooded American that I am, it's in my DNA not to care about soccer. And yes, I know it's become a bit of a clich to say that, but in my case it's actually true. I really, really, passionately do not care one iota about the world's most popular sport. If soccer never makes it big in the U.S. — despite all the decades we've been told it's just about to — I think I'll be OK.Given that sort of attitude, you might find it odd that I'm even aware of a soccer tournament called Euro 2012 that will be taking place next month in Ukraine. I have to say I find it a little odd >>>

Prague. With major European soccer leagues over, football fans have now turned their focus to the upcoming 14th edition of Euro 2012 championship to be co-hosted by Ukraine and Poland between 8 June and 1 July 2012. Many fans will flock the two countries to watch their favourite stars in action and may be engage in some “tourism activities”.The publicity accorded to this event has given scandalous Ukrainian women movement "Femen” more prominence lately. The group known for its daring attitude in voicing their concerns is now vehemently opposed to Euro 2012 fans not sticking to football matters >>>

Yana Zhdanova, an activist in the Femen group, peeled down her dress revealing
the words "---- Euro 2012" on her torso, and grabbed hold of the
60 cm high cup while it was being exhibited in a central square.

Via: telegraph.co.uk