Soccer and politics

Traditional cocktail unsettling Portugal's Euro 2004 project

The latest spat threatens to disrupt preparations for the biggest international sports event ever held in Portugal: the 2004 European soccer championships.

The Socialist government pledged to finance up to 25 percent of the cost of building seven new stadiums and renovating three others to host games in the tournament. City councils also were to provide support.

But after the Social Democratic Party won a landslide in December's local elections and took charge of the largest city halls, its incoming mayors balked when they uncovered the financial burden of associated costs, budget overshoots and other alleged benefits granted to the 10 soccer clubs involved.

Officials representing the clubs met Monday in Lisbon for talks and sought to quell the controversy.

"The government and councils have given an undertaking on funding ... and so far that undertaking has been met. We're not uneasy," said Diogo Ferreira, the meeting's spokesman.

The new mayor of Lisbon last week reacted angrily to a claim by Benfica club that the previous Socialist mayor had pledged an extra 12.5 million euros (US$10.8 million) of city cash for the new 65,000-seat Stadium of Light.

The city's previous administration also promised planning permission for a real estate development around the stadium, Benfica said.

The problem? Those promises were only verbal; nothing was written down.

And, while the new mayor digs his heels in and says there is no cash available, the previous mayor says he never made such pledges.

Benfica initially said that unless city hall delivered on those promises the club would have to scrap its stadium plans, even though the foundations are already built and part of the old stadium has been torn down.

Benfica backed down from that threat, however, and talks between city hall and the club are set to continue. The stadium, costing 115 million euros (US$99.3 million), is to host the Euro 2004 final.

Meanwhile, the new Social Democratic mayor of northern city Porto expressed alarm at having to shoulder the cost of access roads to FC Porto's new venue.

In Coimbra, the new mayor said the new stadium's foundations had cost 60 million euros -- almost double the forecast amount.

The sparring, which has dominated the Portuguese media in recent days, fits with the Social Democratic Party's strategy for the March 17 general election. It accuses the Socialist government, which quit after December's electoral defeat, of cronyism, being lax with public funds and economic mismanagement.

In Portugal, there is a long tradition of overlap between politics and soccer, by far the country's most popular sport.

Senior politicians have headed clubs and sat on club boards. The capital's new mayor is a former president of Sporting Lisbon. Being kind to clubs is widely seen as a sure vote-winner.

Weekly paper Expresso lamented in an editorial that soccer clubs "establish promiscuous relationships with the political world to obtain favors from the authorities."

Expresso columnist Nicolau Santos said the blurred lines between soccer and politics have created "an explosive mix which could end with taxpayers footing an unacceptable bill."

If, as is predicted, the Social Democrats win the general election, a very public showdown with soccer chiefs over spending is probable.