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Alpine triumph Austria, Switzerland to host Euro 2008 finalsPosted: Thursday December 12, 2002 8:41 AMUpdated: Thursday December 12, 2002 7:36 PM GENEVA (Reuters) -- Favorites Austria and Switzerland were chosen on Thursday to jointly host the European soccer championship in 2008, beating outsiders Hungary by nine votes to three in the final voting. It will be the first time Switzerland has staged a major soccer event since the 1954 World Cup finals -- and the first time Austria has hosted a soccer event of such magnitude although it regularly stages world skiing championships. Both world soccer's governing body FIFA and Europe's equivalent UEFA are based in Switzerland and the bid from two of the continent's soccer under-achievers trumped six other candidatures to stage the world's second-biggest football tournament. The decision by UEFA's executive committee means both the 2006 World Cup finals -- set for Germany -- and the 2008 competition will be held in German-speaking countries in Europe's heartland. Hungary, who jointly bid unsuccessfully with Austria to host the 2004 championship, were quoted as 25-1 outsiders but surprisingly finished second in the voting ahead of Greece-Turkey who were third. Bids from Scotland-Ireland, Russia, a four-way Nordic bid and Bosnia-Croatia did not pass muster with the National Teams Committee, the UEFA sub-committee that recommends the best bids to the executive members for their final voting. Hard fight "I am deeply touched. I'm standing here with big emotion," said Friedrich Stickler, president of the Austrian Football Association. "It was a hard fight that I know went right down to a very tight finish. "We are honored because the quality of the other bids was staggeringly high. But I am sure that Europe 2008 will be something special, something unforgettable and have something for everyone. I am delighted." His Swiss counterpart Rolf Zloczower was equally moved. "This is such an honor for our countries, we will do everything we can to ensure that it is a huge success. We have waited a long time for this honor. I am thrilled." But not everyone was delighted with the outcome. Scotland's David Will, a FIFA vice-president and a non-voting observer on the executive committee said afterwards: "I am astounded our bid was not recommended to the executive. It crucified us and we never recovered from that. "We scored equally with the Austrians and Swiss on the technical evaluation, I simply cannot understand where we fell down. None of us understands it and I am trying to find out why." Lars-Haue Pedersen, an advisor to the Hungary bid added: "UEFA lost a great chance today to do something for football in eastern Europe. Tomorrow the EU [European Union] will recognize Hungary and grant it membership, today UEFA turned us down. They have made a big mistake." UEFA's 14-man executive committee took almost four hours to reach their decision, which was complicated because 13 countries were involved in the bidding process and the countries of many executive committee members were involved. Eventually 12 of the 14 members were eligible to vote in the final round apart from Giangirgio Spiess of Switzerland and Senes Erzik of Turkey. One senior committee member told Reuters: "In general terms the Austrian-Swiss bid scored in every department. It was the best bid. There was nothing else to match it." High standard In particular UEFA was impressed with the high standard of hotels, communications and rail links. The Austrian/Swiss "Close to You" campaign emphasized that being in the heart of Europe would make the tournament easily accessible to fans from around the continent. Despite both countries having a good record in the early days of the World Cup, their records in the European championship are poor. Austria reached the quarter-finals in 1960, but have not qualified since the finals were organized in a showpiece tournament. Switzerland have reached the first round twice, in 1964 and 1996. The two countries also stressed they have the police and security expertise to deal with any undesirables. The 2000 tournament was plagued by hooliganism, especially by English fans. The estimated costs of more than 110 million euros (US$111.5 million) would be met partly through sponsorships by such Swiss financial powerhouses as Credit Suisse and Winterthur Insurance. Four cities Each nation will provide four host cities -- Basel, Berne, Geneva and Zurich in Switzerland and Salzburg, Vienna, Innsbruck and Klagenfurt in Austria -- with state-of-the-art venues proposed. Basel's 33,500-capacity St Jakobs Park will be used, while new 30,000-seater stadiums will be built in Zurich (Zurich Stadium) and Geneva (Stade de Geneve). A new 40,000-capacity re-built national Stadium in Berne, on the site of the old Wankdorf Stadium, is due to be completed by 2004. In Austria, the Ernst Happel Stadium in Vienna, one of UEFA's five-star stadiums that has hosted five European Cup finals, will be further upgraded to a 53,000-capacity arena and will host the final. Innsbruck's New-Tivoli Stadium will be increased in size to
hold 30,000, while new stadiums in Salzburg (Salzburg Stadium)
and Klagenfurt (Waidmannsdorf-Neu Stadium) will both be upgraded
to 30,000-all-seater grounds. All the new stadiums will be
constructed and in use by 2006 at the latest.
Copyright 2003 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved. |
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