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On Sunday, September 14, the first Ukrainian stadium for EURO 2012 was opened in Dnipropetrovsk. The disclosure of Dnipro arena was held at a high level. There was a thirty minutes long show in which over 4.5 thousand persons took part. Among them there were professional actors, circus actors, acrobats, stunt men, sportsmen and also the pupils of Dnipro club child-youth football school.

Congratulation from the President
The President of Ukraine Victor Yuschenko made a congratulating speech: «I’m sure that this nice stadium is the gift to all Dnipropetrovsk citizens. At the same time it is a gift from Dnipropetrovsk to all Ukraine», − he mentioned. FFU president Grigoriy Surkis also accentuated the attention on importance of opening of the stadium Dnipro: «It is a great step towards EURO 2012 both for Ukraine and Poland and for UEFA. I want to thank PrivatBank and personally Ihor Kolomoiskiy who worked over this project with state structures. And today you see what a great joy they gave to people».

EURO 2012 − common effort of Ukraine and Poland
FFU chief also waived away the speculations stating that UEFA president has declared Poland is advancing on its way to EURO 2012 staging. «I’ve never heard Michel Platini saying this. We don’t have such an airport as Warsaw does. But in terms of sports infrastructure, we are fairly ahead of our partner − today we hold an inaugural ceremony of the stadium in Dnipropetrovsk, next year it will be arena in Donetsk. However, UEFA EURO 2012 is a common concern of Ukraine and Poland, and we work on it as one team».

No feast without football
The first one to kick the football on the new pitch was Victor Yuschenko. Then purely football part of the holiday followed. The spectators saw the champions of 1983 competing with Spartak Moscow, like 25 years ago in the ‘golden match’. This time the teams drew the match. The scoring was opened by Victor Onopko, the equalizer came after Henadiy Lytovchenko struck a penalty kick. Later on the audience greeted with applause the champions of 1988 who faced Dynamo footballers. This encounter didn’t define a winner as well − 2:2.

Show must go on
The football part concluded with a presentation of FC Dnipro’s official anthem composed by Yuriy Ryzhko. The organizers then extended the joy with a concert of Ukrainian and Russian singers. At the end the ceremony erupted with amazing fireworks accompanied by the legendary composition Show must go.

(Source: FFU)