Poland

By Gabriela Baczynska and Patryk Wasilewski

WARSAW, Aug 11 (Reuters) - Now that the Olympic Games have started and years of construction work in Beijing have ended, Poland hopes Chinese construction companies will come to build the infrastructure it needs for Euro 2012.

Poland, which will co-host the European soccer championship with Ukraine, lacks roads, stadiums, hotels, air and train networks, as well as other large-scale infrastructure needed for the event.

Suffering from labour shortages in the construction sector, Poland has only a few firms able to carry out work on such a scale.

The amount of work made Poland an attractive market for Chinese construction companies, the head of PL.2012, a government agency created seven months ago to coordinate Euro 2012 preparations, told Reuters in an interview.

"Huge investments in Beijing are now over and the U.S. market is suffering from a slowdown," Marcin Herra said.

"The demand for the service of large construction companies is falling and Poland, with its political and budget stability, becomes a very attractive place for such firms."

Herra said a few Chinese firms were already part of consortiums competing to build the stadium in the northern city of Gdansk.

Poland plans to prepare, build or renovate six stadiums for 2012 -- in Warsaw, Gdansk, Poznan, Wroclaw, Krakow and Chorzow.

UEFA DECISION

Last month, UEFA president Michel Platini said Poland and Ukraine risked losing the right to host the championship if stadiums were not ready. He said UEFA would make a final decision at its executive meeting in Bordeaux on Sept. 25 and 26.

Kiev authorities broke off dealings with a Taiwanese contractor due to renovate the city's stadium, venue of the final, and said last week that German firm GMP von Gerkan, Marg und Partner had been chosen instead to do the work.

"We have to remember we got the games thanks to Ukraine in the first place," Herra said referring to the 2004 "Orange Revolution" that brought pro-Western liberals to power in Kiev.

"So we have to keep patient and we still have time to stick to Ukraine. Ukraine doesn't have the luxury of the European Union funds and is only a few years after transformation."

He said wealthy Ukrainian oligarchs were likely to invest in stadiums and hotels but the Yulia Tymoshenko government still had to collect cash for roads and other public investments.

"I am travelling to Ukraine this week to talk this all over again and for an update on the Kiev stadium. I assume, after Platini's July visit, everybody worked hard in Ukraine and the progress will be significant," Herra added.

"Even if from the formal point of view Poland could host the games alone, from the political, technical and sports point of view the games should take place in Poland and Ukraine together."

Herra played down suggestions that Poland and Ukraine could loose the right to host Euro 2012.

"If I were UEFA, I would threaten the chosen hosts with taking the games away from them every third month to motivate them," he said. "Honestly, we still have time." (Additional reporting by Szymon Lach; Editing by Clare Fallon)