Kolesnikov: Ukraine to get strongest support at Donbass Arena
Borys Kolesnikov has said that the national football team will receive the strongest support during the Euro 2012.
Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister and Infrastructure Minister Borys Kolesnikov has said that the national football team will receive the strongest support during the Euro 2012 European Football Championship in Donetsk.
“The stadium will be full here next summer. There are always a lot of fans here, because the average attendance of matches with Shakhtar is the highest in Ukraine. Therefore, our national team will receive the strongest support at the Donbass Arena,” he told the club’s press service during his visit to the stadium along with representatives of the CNN television company.
“Our club Shakhtar has existed since 1936, and our home army of support has always been considered one of the most numerous. There were only four clubs in the Soviet Union, which could collect more than a million spectators per year, in particular, Shakhtar, Dynamo Kyiv and Dynamo Tbilisi, and Spartak Moscow. We have always been proud of our fans, and I hope that they will have reason to be proud of Shakhtar,” said Kolesnikov, the club’s vice president.
He said that the Donbass Arena would host five Euro 2012 matches, the same number as the tournament’s main arena – the Olympiysky National Sports Complex in Kyiv.
“I was present at the negotiations with the architects of the stadium. Then, the club’s president, Rinat Akhmetov, who built it, asked them to ensure that the arena is unique, recognizable and very comfortable. So we feel this is so at this stadium. And I hope that all of the guests in our country who visit the Donbass Arena will be impressed,” he added.
Ukraine will play two of its three Euro 2012 group stage matches at the Donbass Arena – on June 15 and June 19.