When Michel Platini, the head of Uefa, tore open the envelope naming Ukraine and Poland as the joint hosts of the 2012 European football championships a year ago, there was surprise at the gamble the body was taking with one of the sport’s premier events. Just how much of a gamble becomes apparent in the office of Yevhen Chervonenko, chairman of the Ukrainian agency responsible for preparing the championships.
Mr Chervonenko complains that his efforts at co-ordinating the championships have been stymied by a fight for control between Viktor Yushchenko, Ukraine’s president, and Yulia Tymoshenko, the prime minister. “I have the full support of the president but the government is doing what it can to trip me up,” he says, sitting at a large desk below a picture of Mr Yushchenko.
