Ukrainian climbers to mark Euro 2012 with football game on Everest

Mountaineers from Ukraine’s Donetsk Region will play a game of soccer on Mount Everest to mark the start of the Euro 2012 football championship, which is being jointly hosted by Poland and Ukraine next year, said Sergei Kovaloyov, president of Donetsk Region Alpinism Federation. “A team of Donetsk climbers plan to play a game of football on Everest in honor of Euro 2012. Let Ukraine score its first goal from the world’s highest mountain – from Everest,” Kovalyov said. There have been concerns that Ukraine was in no state to host Europe’s top football competition after it was hit hard by the global economic crisis. However, in late September the chief of European football’s governing body, Michel Platini, said Ukraine’s four host cities would be ready for Euro 2012.