Metalist president Aleksander Yaroslavskiy told of his decision to prepare Kharkiv for Euro 2012.
I was pushed to do it by Metalist football club which, when I "overtook" it, was in the first league pushed me to do this. I had to lead it to the top division, the Premier League. And then by fate Ukraine won the tender to host Euro 2012, and everything began to turn to one another.
But the main, the key reason was still that I am a Kharkiv citizen, I live in Kharkiv, Metalist is in Kharkiv. So, investing in Metalist I struggled for a decent "place under the sun" for the Kharkiv football. And putting money into the stadium, airport, other facilities, I fought for my hometown to host the matches of Euro 2012. And this is the main motive.
In all of the objects that I do, I put my money - either fully or partially. Two projects - the stadium and the airport - were co-financed by the state. In the stadium the state invested 70%, I did 30%, in the airport - almost parity. I build the hotel completely by myself. I`ve built training facilities, a children's academy, reconstructed Dynamo stadium - also 100% for my money, there is no public investment there.
Of all the Ukrainian football arenas Kharkiv Metalist stadium is the only one which was prepared by the Ukrainian team of designers. Why?
Indeed, we`ve designed and built Metalist ourselves, using our brains and hands. We - this is I personally plus Kharkivproject institute - Chub, Yevel and many of our Kharkiv architects and builders. We went down this path, first, because our experts are not worse than the Western ones. Second, because we did not have a single minute to think long, it was necessary to act immediately in order not to miss the chance to "bring" Euro 2012 to Kharkiv.
Were there a lot of approvals with UEFA? Was there some kind of adjusting the plans?
It was not "some sort of adjusting", it was very serious and very hard work. We agreed on each element. And now our stadium meets the highest requirements of UEFA. Moreover, the cooperation with UEFA only deepens, as we move from investment to operational phase.
football.ua
