Blue &Yellow: Politics and Economics in Ukraine

As match tickets go on sale on March 1st, the country is pouring more and more money into getting its much-delayed infrastructure projects finished on time. The urgency has only increased the opacity, says Serhiy Leshchenko of the news website Ukrainska Pravda. Describing the tournament as "a Bermuda triangle into which state funds disappear", he says the authorities are simply "handing out all the contracts to their friends and families' companies".

According to Leshchenko, one firm called Altcom is making as much as 640 million euros from various road and airport projects, as well as the stadium in Lviv. These roads are among the most expensive in the world. It's not clear who ultimately owns Altcom.

Kiev's Olympic stadium re-development could also turn out to be the most expensive ever, with a price tag of 300 million euros widely expected to rise. Much of that work is being undertaken by AK engineering, a firm Leshchenko identifies as being connected with Ukraine's Deputy Prime Minister, Borys Kolesnykov. Kolesnykov firmly rejects the allegations, but Leshchenko says the documents he submitted are unconvincing.