Intro:

The CEO of UEFA Events has admitted that concerns over the state of preparations for Euro 2012 at one stage almost forced European football's governing body to move the tournament.

All stadia are now ready, and David Taylor is confident that Poland and Ukraine are now on track.

Script:

There may have been a few 'ums' and 'ars', but we can safely say all of the the stadia for Euro 2012 in Poland and Ukraine are now fully constructed and ready for the tournament.

The media were given a guided tour of Warsaw's brand new National Stadium on Thursday, following works that started in 2009.

David Taylor, CEO of UEFA Events is a relieved man.

SOUNDBITE: (English) David Taylor, CEO of UEFA Events: "We have been worried this tournament in previous years, I think as you know. There have been some times when we were wondering whether we could actually continue it and go ahead with this particular tournament in this location, but we have all the stadiums, we have al the arrangements now largely in place, we have a major workshop with all the national delegations, here in Warsaw today and tomorrow, and the message is one of optimism, that this is going to be a great tournament. It's going to be different - eastern Europe, first time ever - but I think it will be great fun."

Thirteen of the 16 finalists will be based in Poland for the tournament.

Martin Kallen, Operations Director for Euro 2012, admitted it was disappointing to see just three teams choose to stay in Ukraine.

SOUNDBITE: (English)

Martin Kallen, Operations Director for Euro 2012:

"For UEFA, we have two countries, one tournament, so we gave the teams the choice where they wanted to stay. For Ukraine it was a disappointment that they would have more teams than three, bit the teams, it was maybe for them a little bit easier for them to go to Poland because it's a European country, and legislation is more or less the same than in Germany, France or Italy. That's why there were more choosing to go towards Poland than to Ukraine."

At Euro 2012 this stadium will host three matches in Group A, including the opening fixture between Poland and Greece.