A Taiwan firm said Thursday that it has sued the Ukrainian government for breaking an agreement for the firm to renovate a Kiev stadium for the Euro 2012 football championship, the dpa reported.
Archasia Design Group (ADG) filed the suit with the Kiev Circuit Administrative Court against the Ukrainian sports ministry for making false charges against the company in order to break the agreement, ADG Manager Lai Shih-hao said.
The court is gathering evidence and is expected to hold a hearing in August.
"Although we have filed the suit, before the court has made a ruling, we will continue with our design work for the stadium because we know that holding the Euro 2012 football championship is important for Ukraine," Lai said in a phone interview.
Lai stressed that ADG, as a trans-national company, was not interested in politics or lawsuits.
"We were forced to take legal action because the Ukrainian sports ministry drummed up charges against us so that it could withdraw its decision to award the contract to us," he said.
In April, ADG beat 18 contestants to win the bid to renovate the Olympisky Stadium in Kiev for the Euro 2012, which will be co-hosted by Ukraine and Poland.
The 84,000-seat stadium, built in the 1920s, will host three group matches, one quarterfinal and the final.
The refurbishing budget is about 200 million euros (314 million dollars).
ADG said it beat other contestants because it seeks to preserve the original style of the stadium.
However, ADG claimed Ukraine kept delaying signing the contract with ADG, questioned its ability and required ADG to provide proof that it was a legal firm in Taiwan for political reasons.
On June 19, Ukraine's sports ministry ordered ADG to provide Ukraine - before the afternoon of June 20 - legal verification of all of ADG's documents related to the contract. If the deadline was not met, Ukraine would annul the contract with ADG.
ADG called the request unlawful and unreasonable as it takes many days to complete the verification due to the two countries' lack of diplomatic ties.
ADG suggested letting its HK or Shanghai branches sign the contact but the ministry refused, saying it would deal only with the Taiwan ADG.