Ukraine and Poland are considering the possibility of hosting one of the upcoming World Cups — what the Ministry of Sport says

Ukraine and Poland are considering the possibility of submitting a joint bid to host the FIFA World Cup, but no official negotiations on this are currently under way. The Ministry of Youth and Sports stressed that Minister Matvii Bidnyi’s comments about potentially hosting the tournament referred only to the long-term perspective after the war ends and security is restored, reports UNN. 

Details 

Politico published an article citing Minister of Youth and Sports Matvii Bidnyi, in which the minister stated that Ukraine and Poland are considering the possibility of submitting a joint bid to host the World Cup. 

The nearest available date for hosting the FIFA World Cup is sometime in the 2040s, so we need to plan for this prospect right now 

At the same time, the press service of the Ministry of Youth and Sports told a UNN journalist that Ukraine is conducting no official negotiations or consultations with the Polish side regarding the submission of a joint bid to host the FIFA World Cup. 

The ministry noted that during the interview, a Politico journalist asked about Ukraine’s postwar future and its potential ambitions to host major tournaments. 

In his response, Matvii Bidnyi stressed that today the state’s top priority is victory in the war and the safety of its citizens. 

Ukraine has experience hosting international world-class tournaments, including UEFA Euro 2012 in partnership with Poland. After a just peace is achieved and security is restored, our country will be ready to host major sporting events again. However, thinking about the distant future is solely a long-term vision, not an operational plan. Today, the efforts of the Ministry of Youth and Sports are focused on critically important tasks: supporting athletes and veterans, defending our interests in the international sports arena, and creating accessible conditions for the physical and mental recovery of Ukrainians. Hosting or planning major tournaments will be possible only after stable peace and security have been ensured. Discussing specific bids or operational plans during active hostilities is premature 

Supplement

In 2012, Ukraine and Poland jointly hosted the European Championship. The right to host Euro 2012 was awarded to the two countries in April 2007. 

In preparing to host the 2012 European Football Championship, the host countries spent considerably more money than the hosts of previous tournaments because the infrastructure of the host cities and the countries as a whole was poorer compared with that of their Western European predecessors (stadiums, hotels, roads).

As of the end of 2011, Ukraine had spent approximately 115–140 billion hryvnias preparing for the European Championship. Poland, according to some estimates, would spend up to 80 billion zlotys (approximately 20 billion euros) on hosting the tournament. 

Also, after Ukraine was approved as a host country for the final matches, it emerged that the new stadiums hastily built for the event had design flaws and did not meet modern requirements. It turned out that budget funds were allocated to construction companies for building them in exchange for substantial kickbacks to officials involved in distributing the financial resources. 

Because of delays in the construction of the stadiums (especially the NSC "Olympiyskiy" in Kyiv and the stadium in Lviv), as well as infrastructure (airports, roads), UEFA threatened several times to take away the right to host the tournament or reduce the number of host cities. 

The cost of reconstructing the NSC "Olympiyskiy" and building the stadium in Lviv increased several times compared with the initial plans, triggering a wave of criticism in Ukraine over the embezzlement of budget funds. 

It should be recalled 

Since the beginning of the war, Russian occupiers have damaged or destroyed 88 stadiums in Ukraine, 14 of which were completely destroyed. Direct losses inflicted on sports infrastructure are estimated at $4 billion.

Since the beginning of the Russian Federation’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, 930 sports infrastructure facilities have been damaged or completely destroyed. The largest number are in the Kherson, Kharkiv and Luhansk regions.