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Poland say they will step in and provide six of the eight venues for Euro 2012 if co-hosts Ukraine are not ready to help stage the tournament.

Ukraine have been given until September by Uefa president Michel Platini to prove they are capable of co-hosting Europe's showpiece football event.

Uefa have told Ukraine to speed up work on building stadiums and improve roads and transport infrastructure.

But Poland say they have a plan in place, if Ukraine continue to struggle.

"We are hoping Euro 2012 will be co-hosted by Poland and Ukraine as planned, but the risk factor must be assessed and a contingency reserve prepared," Polish sports minister Miroslaw Drzewiecki told Polish news channel TVN24 on Saturday.

"Our reserve is the fact that we are building not four but six stadiums, so we can sleep peacefully no matter what happens."

Poland and Ukraine, who were awarded the competition in April last year, have admitted that preparations had fallen behind because of political instability in both countries.

Work has not started on the new stadium in the Polish capital Warsaw, while contractors have not yet been appointed for the major refurbishment of the Olympic Stadium in Kiev.

Eight venues are due to stage the matches - Warsaw, Poznan, Wroclaw and Gdansk in Poland and Kiev, Donetsk, Lviv and Dnipropetrovsk in Ukraine.

The two reserve stadiums in Poland are in Chorzow and Krakow, both in the south of the country.

Uefa will make its next announcement on the subject at a meeting on 23 September.

(Source: BBC)