Fans have reacted angrily to Fifa’s changing of the international calendar to allow clubs the return of their players a day early, which means that three of England‘s Euro 2012 qualifiers will be played on a Friday. All double-headers have now been shifted from the traditional Saturday-Wednesday timetable to Friday-Tuesday.

David Taylor, the secretary of Uefa, confirmed that it was compelled to fall into line with the world governing body, which had brought in the change to appease managers around the world. “Players now play with teams throughout the world so this is a result of Fifa being concerned about the release of them back to clubs and so it has changed its international calendar,” said Taylor.

While the FA is understood to have no issue with the switch, Mark Perryman, a spokesman for England supporters, said: “Many supporters are saying that Fifa just doesn’t care about fans. A Friday night game at Wembley is fine if you live in London, the home counties or south of Watford but not for anyone else. This will only make it more difficult for those supporters to watch England at Wembley.”

The games against Bulgaria on 3 September, plus those away against the same opposition in September 2011 and in Montenegro the following month will all be played on a Friday. With Premier League clubs in action the weekend before, it means Fabio Capello will effectively lose a day’s preparation.

Perryman added: “The question is will there now be no games at all on the Sunday prior to a Friday international to allow Capello to maintain the status quo? I don’t think so.” The FA confirmed there would still be a full weekend programme ahead of England‘s Euro 2012 qualifiers.

Source: The Guardian (http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2010/mar/25/england-fans-upset-euro-2012)

UEFA has insisted there are “absolutely no plans” to drop any of the Ukrainian cities set to host the Euro 2012 tournament despite mounting concerns over preparations.

Ukraine’s family, youth and sports minister, Ravil Safiullin, fuelled fears over the weekend by admitting that stadium construction work in Kiev, earmarked to stage the final of the tournament, is five months behind schedule.

But a UEFA spokesman told the Press Association that Safiullin had been “really pessimistic” and organisers were still working towards an even split of the eight designated competition venues across the joint hosts, Ukraine and Poland.

However, he admitted hurdles need to be overcome in Wroclaw – which is in Poland – and Lviv in Ukraine. “There are absolutely no plans to drop any of the cities but it is true we have some delays in Wroclaw and Lviv,” the spokesman said.

“We are not really worried about Wroclaw. Things need to move a bit quicker in Lviv because they also have had some trouble with the financing.

“There has also been a visit there from the new vice-prime minister of Ukraine just five days after he was appointed and I think they understand that they need to do it now.

“At the moment there are some issues but we are not considering the option of dropping any of the cities. There is no time frame for any such decision to be made because at the moment it is four [in Poland] plus four [in Ukraine], with eight stadiums.”

The spokesman also said there are no plans to move the Euro 2012 final away from Kiev, although UEFA is sending specialists to look at the progress being made in the city tomorrow.

Source: The Guardian (http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2010/mar/23/ukraine-euro-2012-uefa)

Upgrades to Kiev’s Olympic Stadium, venue for the UEFA 2012 European Championship final, have fallen more than five months behind schedule, prompting Ukraine’s new cabinet to speak out on the delays.

Ukrainian sports minister Ravil Safiullin said the situation was “depressing”, but promised to do “everything possible” to speed up stadium preparations.

Source: Kyiv Post (http://www.kyivpost.com/news/city/detail/62287/)

A draw will determine the fixture schedule in the four UEFA EURO 2012 qualifying groups where the competing nations have been unable to agree a schedule between themselves.

A draw will take place in the Israeli city of Tel Aviv next week to determine the fixture schedule for four groups in the UEFA EURO 2012 qualifying competition.

The draw will be made during the UEFA Congress activities, when all of the UEFA member national associations will be present for Europe’s football parliament on 25 March.

The groups in question are Group B (Russia, Slovakia, Republic of Ireland, FYR Macedonia, Armenia and Andorra), Group F (Croatia, Greece, Israel, Latvia, Georgia and Malta), Group G (England, Switzerland, Bulgaria, Wales and Montenegro) and Group H (Portugal, Denmark, Norway, Cyprus and Iceland).

No agreement was reached in relation to a fixture list for these four groups by the deadline of Tuesday 16 March.

For associations in a group that has been unable to reach agreement, matches will be played according to the standard fixture list. The position of each association in the standard fixture list (A, B, C, D or E for groups of five teams and A, B, C, D, E and F for groups of six teams) will be drawn.

Further information on the draw in Tel Aviv will be given in due course.

Source: UEFA (http://www.uefa.com/uefaeuro2012/news/newsid=1465821.html)

Martin Kallen, the UEFA Director responsible for the organization of the Euro 2012 finals, has said that if any of the host cities’ stadiums are not prepared for the championship on time, the finals will be held in six cities instead of eight.

The UEFA director said this in an interview with the Polish Futbol News Web site (www.futbolnews.pl).

He said that the main problems are related to the construction of stadiums in the Ukrainian city of Lviv and Poland’s Wroclaw.

“We’re not very concerned about Wroclaw. Lviv is quit another matter. Much of the construction work is falling behind the schedule. There are problems with funding. It’s time to act. Otherwise the stadium won’t be completed on time,” said Kallen.

He expressed hope that the facilities for hosting the championship will be prepared on time, but stressed that the number of host cities could be reduced.

Kallen said UEFA has a plan B – holding of Euro 2012 in six cities. A final decision has not been taken yet, but the number of host cities could be reduced to six, he said.

In April 2007, Ukraine and Poland were chosen to stage the finals of the Euro 2012 European Football Championship. Matches in Ukraine are to be held in Kyiv, Donetsk, Lviv and Dnipropetrovsk, while matches in Poland were to take place in Warsaw, Gdansk, Wroclaw, and Poznan. The final is to take place in the Ukrainian capital.

Source: Kyiv Post (http://www.kyivpost.com/news/nation/detail/62130/)