“Around two out of three Poles think preparations for the Euro 2012 football championships are not going well and three out of four are pessimistic about the national team’s chances at the finals, finds a new poll.
The survey by Homo Homini, commissioned by Polish Radio found that 60 percent of respondents think that construction work in Warsaw, Gdansk and other cities hosting the event are proceeding poorly, with 22 percent thinking preparations are going well, while 18 percent have no opinion on the issue.
As regards preparations by the national team, led by coach Franciszek Smuda, 75 percent of Poles are not expecting success at the finals.
The poll was taken, however, before Poland’s 2-1 win over Argentina in Warsaw on Sunday, with goals from Adrian Mierzejewski and Pawel Brozek for the home side and Marco Ruben for the visitors.
Though a good result for Poland, Argentina put out a second-string 11 without stars such as Lionel Messi, Javier Mascherano, Javier Pastore, Carlos Tevez and Gonzalo Higuain.
Poland’s final game of the season comes against France on Thursday, which was meant to take place at the PGE Gdansk stadium in the north – but due to incomplete preparations it has had to be moved to Legia Warszawa’s venue in the capital.

Government optimistic
Sports Minister Adam Giersz, however, has said he is confident that everything will be ready for the finals next summer.
“The venues will be up and running well ahead of the first whistle,” he told Polish Radio. “Construction should be ready a year before the event although there may be slight delays with the National Stadium in Warsaw and maybe with the one in Wroclaw [western Poland],” the sports minister added. He argued that many previous host countries reported delays in their preparations and yet the tournaments took place as scheduled.“The construction of the stadium in South Africa was completed only a month before the [2010] World Cup,” said Giersz.
Marcin Herra, head of PL2012, the company supervising the preparation process, says that 70 of the construction work is being carried out according to the schedule. The remaining 30 percent has caused some delays to road and railway construction, including the renovation of the central train stations in Warsaw and Poznan”.

Source – Polskie Radio.