Fans travelling to Poland and Ukraine for next summer's European Championship could face travel chaos with major roadworks, train links and airport terminals months behind schedule and workers racing to get them completed in time for the tournament, which starts in Warsaw on 8 June.
Martin Kallen, the Uefa operations director for Euro 2012, giving a progress report on the preparations at the International Football Arena conference in Zurich, said both countries' stadiums will be ready and of good quality but across vast areas, particularly in Ukraine, transport is the biggest headache.
"There is still major work to be done in the next three to four months, especially in transport, from the airports to the stadiums and to the city centres," Kallen said. "It will be a different Euro. On the football side, we want it to be on the same level or a little better than Austria-Switzerland in 2008. But it will never be on the same level in terms of transport."
Kallen listed the air and ground transport projects which are due to be finished as late as April, saying he has had "sleepless nights" about the delayed new air terminal in Gdansk, a key centre for the championship. Following delays, the completion date now is 2 April. Elsewhere in Poland, airport terminals due to be built in Poznan and Wroclaw have also been delayed, with Poznan due to open in the new year.
In Warsaw, which is well provided for with its stadium and hotels, Kallen's key worry is the rail link from the airport, which has been held up by delays on a crucial stretch of track only about 500 metres long. It was due to open at the beginning of next month, he said, but has also had to be rescheduled for March or April.
In Ukraine, Europe's second biggest country after Russia, work is still under way at the airports of all four host cities, Donetsk, Kiev, Lviv and Kharkiv, where a new terminal is scheduled for completion in March. Road and rail transport links are also patchy.
Fans will not know where their countries are playing until after the draw, which takes place in Kiev on 2 December. The England squad will be based in Krakow, Poland, wherever they are drawn to play their group matches.
Of the roads in Poland, Kallen said: "They are still building north-south and west-east motorways, and some projects will not be finished. You will have to go off the motorway and have to go back on again 10-15km later."
In Ukraine, where the distances are so great, the roads suffer great damage during the harsh winters, and Kallen said the authorities preparing for Euro 2012 have decided to focus on repairing the roads they have.
In general, he added, accommodation will be mostly adequate in all the host cities, with university halls of residence and campsites being utilised. His major concern is that there are too few four- and five-star hotels in Donetsk, where a quarter-final and semi-final will be played.
"The worst situation is in Donetsk," he said. "We are working with Ukraine's deputy prime minister and the mayor of Donetsk to arrange charter flights from Kiev to those matches."
Kallen did, though, say that with luck, Euro 2012 can be a success, saying the atmosphere will be greatly improved if the draw helps fans from neighbouring Russia and Germany to travel more easily, and the host nations go far in the tournament. "We need a little bit the luck of the draw, then a lot of our issues will be resolved. Overall we think it will be a good tournament and fans will have a good time in the Ukraine and Poland."