Polish sausages

WARSAW -Greetings from snowy Poland (though probably not as white as the East Coast of the US right now).

I'm sitting in the grandest press room I've ever seen, high up within the chandeliered Palace of Culture & Science, as Stalinist an edifice as you could imagine, but with a hint of the grand old skyscrapers of New York or Chicago. It dominates the skyline of the Polish capital and still has vestiges of the Communist past - I saw worker statues and the names of Lenin, Marx and Engels on my way in.

Assembled hacks like myself have just heard UEFA President Michel Platini welcome us to the Euro 2012 qualifying draw, which takes place here tomorrow. Depressingly, four separate English reporters saw fit to quiz him on John Terry, which ended up with Platini spouting 'Je m'en fous!' (I don't care!) at them.

What was being alluded to was the fact a French player in their 1982 World Cup squad, Jean-Francois Larios, was dropped from the roster because he was having an affair with the wife of his club teammate, a certain....Michel Platini. I felt sorry for Platini just now - English hacks are a dumb bunch in general.

Euro 2012 has been a bit of a millstone around Platini's neck since Italy defaulted on its status as hosting favourites following the Calciopoli scandal and some ugly hooliganism incidents in 2006. Poland & Ukraine pipped them to the hosting but it soon became clear they were not up to the job. The infrastructure remains well behind Western European standards, particularly in Ukraine, and after several deadlines, the pair were only confirmed as hosts late last year, though doubts remain.

What is interesting about this tournament is how politics on the continent's fringes have encroached on sporting territory. Old enemies Armenia and Azerbaijan cannot be drawn against each other tomorrow, and neither can Georgia and Russia following their military spat in 2008 - France and the Republic of Ireland can however!

Russia lurks in the background to Euro 2012, with Ukraine's strategic position between the European Union and the great power to the East the main reason it was not stripped of its hosting. Russia supplies much of Europe's gas through the country and has been turning it off when it wants to force a political point on its former possession. Sunday is also Presidential election day in Ukraine, which could see pro-Russian Viktor Yanukovich swept to power.

The coaches of UEFA's 53 member nations will be here tomorrow, with the exception of Italy's Marcello Lippi, who has put Serie A before the draw.

Andriy Shevchenko and Oleg Blokhin (who was the USSR's star man for years and won the European Footballer of the Year in 1975) are on hand for Ukraine, along with Polish Juve legend Zbigniew Boniek and Andrzej Szarmach, who bagged five goals for the Poles at the '74 World Cup.

I'm going to make a beeline for Fabio Capello tomorrow, and make sure at least one hack is asking him about soccer.

- Sean O'Conor, Warsaw