A year after the championship: broken roads, empty airports and unprofitable stadiums

Finally, Ukrainians had a chance to witness the European worldview – free of post-totalitarian fear, restraint, rudeness and anger

Bon ton for every fan is to rise and give his or her respect to the defeated team as if to say that they love and respect their team not only when it wins. Loyalty and fidelity is not about success; nor is it about reward.

Because of a lack of information, foreigners expect the worst of Ukraine and are generally pleased with what they see. Meanwhile frequent foreign guests are surprised by the fact that old Soviet habits are dying so hard in Ukraine.

As planned, the government is trying to convert the positive impressions of the “great football celebration” into political dividends before the election.

Dr. Pascal Boniface, founding Director of IRIS (Institute for International and Strategic Relations), speaks on football as a factor of globalisation, the crisis of NATO and the future of Eastern Europe

Foreign football fans share their impressions of Ukraine with The Ukrainian Week

Dougie Brimson, co-author of the “Green Street Hooligans” script, tells The Ukrainian Week whether Ukrainians should be afraid of foreign football fans, coming for Euro 2012

The special Ukrainian attitude to life can turn any intent upside down. And after that, things that would seemingly unite and inspire only lead to a new round of social confrontation and discontent.

In the lead-up to Euro 2012, the Western media has been competing to paint the scariest possible picture of Ukraine. The Ukrainian Week looked into what foreigners fear and what they are actually likely to find challenging in Ukraine

A large number of tickets for Euro 2012 football matches may go to Ukrainian scalpers

Many Ukrainians are willing to host foreign football fans at their homes for free

Apart from the known dog torturers in the country, many Ukrainians actually drop their careers and sacrifice their health to help abandoned and crippled animals

Bankova Street’s hopes to manipulate the EU have crashed. Europe has let Ukraine know that it cannot integrate with its current government, but the issue of an efficient alternative remains open

Innovations at Ukrainian Railway are good for nothing and passengers suffer

The victims of the “football-minded government” are not only coalminers in Donetsk but also children in Galicia

If the Ukrainian government does not change its domestic policies, the country will face international isolation and subjugation to Russia after the 2012 European Football Championship

They say that a theater begins with a coat stand and a European soccer championship with the draw. In the case of our national squad, pessimists use this metaphor to say the show will be a flop.

A little over six months before the launch of Euro 2012, the Ukrainian government is starting to implement a program to “boost the country's image abroad”, unfortunately forgetting to create any basic foundation first

Money spent on promotional videos will be wasted if the country fails to shed its Soviet attributes

Martin Kallen, UEFA Operations Director for 2012, says he’s happy with preparations for the championship in Ukraine

As it prepares for Euro 2012, the government wastes billions to build Potemkin villages

The biggest problems facing Kharkiv include the airport construction, opaque tenders and corruption

Wrocław Vice President Jaroslaw Obremski: “Citizens’ creativity is a value to the city”

Soaring costs and still too few hotels in Donetsk

Why the police raid football gangs

There is an aura of mystery concerning the way billions allocated for Lviv’s preparations for the championship have been appropriated

The Ukrainian government cannot be trusted with a large-scale construction project

The Ukrainian Week discovers the likelihood of a dubious scam to import and export goods during Euro 2012, which is being lobbied on the legislative level

National projects are not so much determined by the interests of Ukraine, but by those of business structures, that are linked to politicians