( RIA Novosti ) - Ukraine will spend around $600 million of its 2008 budget funds on preparations for the Euro 2012 soccer championship, deputy finance minister Sergei Rybak said Monday.
In April UEFA President Michel Platini announced that Ukraine and Poland had been chosen as joint hosts for the 2012 Euro Cup. The joint bid from the two countries was chosen ahead of Italy and another joint bid from Croatia and Hungary.
"The economics ministry has worked out a Euro-2012 program on financing and preparations for the championship. I believe the program will be prepared and confirmed by the government by the end of the year," Rybak said.
Earlier this year Andriy Sadovy, the mayor of Lvov, said the western Ukrainian city would allocate at least $1 billion for the championship. The funds will be spent on renovating and rebuilding tourist and sports infrastructure and facilities in the city, which is home to around 860,000.
The selected venues for the championship in Poland are Gdansk, Poznan, Warsaw, Wroclaw and Chorzow, while Ukraine has proposed stadiums in Dnepropetrovsk, Donetsk, Kiev and Lvov.