The UEFA Cup will be renamed the UEFA Europa League from next season in an effort to boost the competition that has lost much of its appeal, European soccer's governing body said Friday. The event will not only have a new name but also a new 48-team group stage with both home and away matches, UEFA said in a statement after a meeting of its executive committee. UEFA hope centralized marketing of broadcast rights and of sponsorship as well as a new logo will give the competition a new lease of life. “These changes will improve this historic competition”, UEFA President Michel Platini said. The UEFA Cup, which was introduced in the 1971-72 season to replace the Inter Cities Fairs Cup, has struggled in recent years, taking second place to the more prestigious and more lucrative Champions League. 2012 hosts unchanged UEFA also confirmed that Poland and Ukraine remained the co-hosts of Euro 2012, under “a certain number of conditions” to avoid any possible disruption to the tournament. There have been mounting concerns over the two countries' readiness to co-host the European championships, with doubts over the ability of both ex-communist states to meet the massive challenge of building the required stadiums and upgrading their transport and hotel sectors in time. UEFA noted that a visit in January to Poland and Ukraine revealed that “the national bodies overseeing the project erred because of a lack of experience and rigour, and that the development of the necessary infrastructures needed for the good running of the final tournament was practically at a standstill”. Platini then led a UEFA delegation to both countries in July and said he was still unhappy at the lack of progress, warning officials they could lose the right to host Euro 2012 if considerable improvements were not made. The executive committee said Friday, however, that it wished “to underline that progress has been achieved by both countries in the last six months at an organizational level and in the advancement of the infrastructure elements, although progress is neither uniform nor constant”. “The executive committee reconfirmed UEFA's commitment to organize the 2012 UEFA European Championship in Poland and Ukraine,” UEFA said in a statement. “At the same time, the Executive Committee stressed a number of conditions which must be met in order to bring the whole project forward.” Both host countries must continue to make the necessary efforts as any slackening could put in doubt the organization of this tournament in these countries, UEFA warned. The body added that it will decide how many and which stadiums (and therefore cities) will be used as venues for the competition, with a minimum of six and a maximum of eight, taking into account that contracts have been signed with eight stadiums, cities and airports. Betting unit UEFA is to launch a gambling investigation unit after it emerged 25 UEFA Cup matches were being studied due to irregular betting patterns, European soccer's governing body said on Friday. “There is a danger within our game but we will not let irregular betting patterns or corruption affect the outcome of matches,” UEFA secretary general David Taylor told reporters at the end of a two-day meeting of UEFA's executive committee. The unit should be fully operational from next season and will feature experts who will review suspected irregularities in matches from European competitions, said UEFA legal affairs director Gianni Infantino. “We will start recruiting immediately,” Infantino said. “We need additional expertise. We have to set up the necessary tools to fight against this.” UEFA, Infantino said, had started reviewing 10 matches from the current season and 15 from last season, all from preliminary rounds of the UEFA Cup. Wembley to get 2011 final London's Wembley Stadium will be awarded the 2011 Champions League final. The UEFA sources said that European soccer's governing body and the British government had resolved taxation issues which paved the way for the decision to be taken at the next meeting of UEFA's executive committeee in December. Qualifiers kickoff Plans to play the next round of African World Cup qualifiers at the same time have been ditched after complaints from participating countries. FIFA had ordered 22 matches across 12 groups to kick off at 1300 GMT on Oct. 11 to avoid any side having an advantage before playing their final game of the second round group phase. The decision has since been reversed
