Losers let down

Swiss, Austria welcome Euro 2008 to the Alps

ZURICH/VIENNA (Reuters) -- Switzerland and Austria acclaimed their successful bid to stage the 2008 European soccer championship, the biggest sporting event for 50 years to be hosted by the two Alpine neighbors nestled in central Europe.

"We are very happy. It is good for Switzerland. In the past we have missed out on several sports events such as the Winter Olympics so we are really happy," said Hansruedi Moser, a Swiss government spokesman, after Thursday's decision.

Opinion polls show a high level of support in both nations for the event and both governments backed the bid.

"Soccer is the most popular sport in Europe and it is good for the reputation of Switzerland. We are not in the EU but we are part of Europe," said Roger Huber, a football fan in Zurich.

The tournament is expected to cost the Swiss and Austrian football federations around 170 million Swiss francs (US$116.8 million), according to the provisional budget submitted to UEFA.

However, the event is expected to boost tourism, attract visitors who would not otherwise go to Austria or Switzerland, and upgrade the two nation's football facilities.

"This kind of opportunity doesn't happen much more than once a century," said Christa Lausenhammer, spokeswoman for state agency Austria Tourism.

The last comparable event in Austria was the Innsbruck Winter Olympics in 1976, Lausenhammer said. Switzerland staged the World Cup, soccer's biggest tournament, in 1954.

Euro 2008 is expected to create between 3,000 anmd 4,000 jobs in Austria and bring in as much as 152 million euros ($154.1 million) in tourism earnings.

Important boost

Austrian Economics Minister Martin Bartenstein said the decision was "an important boost for our country," bringing new investment in stadiums as well as a boom in tourism.

The Austria-Switzerland bid beat out competition from Scotland-Ireland, Bosnia-Croatia, Greece-Turkey, a Nordic bid from Sweden, Denmark, Finland and Norway, plus solo bids from Russia and Hungary.

Games will be held in stadiums in the Swiss cities of Berne, Geneva, Basel and Zurich and in the Austrian cities of Salzburg, Innsbruck, Vienna and Klagenfurt.

The decision is a further boost to Swiss football, where the Swiss under-21 team acquitted itself well during the summer's European championship, hosted by Switzerland.

FC Basel have impressed foreign experts by surprisingly making it to the second round of the Champions League and the national team is well placed to qualify for Euro 2004.

Thursday's decision should prove a boost for Austrian football which has been hard-pressed of late with the national team struggling to qualify for Portugal 2004.

"This was the most positive decision for Austrian football in the past 30, 40 or even 50 years," said Austrian national coach Hans Krankl. "It is the best thing that could happen, simply wonderful."

Even Austria's far-right firebrand Joerg Haider joined in the cheers from his post as governor of the southern province of Carinthia, whose capital Klagenfurt is one of the host cities.

"This means enormous opportunities for sport, the economy and tourism in Carinthia," Haider said.

The bid was supported by celebrities with connections to Austria and Switzerland, including Austrian-born actor Arnold Schwarzenegger and Formula One driver Michael Schumacher, a German who lives in Switzerland.

The decision will go some way to easing the hurt felt when the Swiss capital of Berne was forced to drop out of the race for the 2010 Winter Olympics after local voters rejected paying for them. Austria's Salzburg is still in that bidding race.

Euro 2000, jointly hosted by the Netherlands and Belgium, made an 18 million euro profit, the first European championship finals to make money.

Euro 2008's lead sponsor is Credit Suisse Group.

Disappointed losers

Hungary said it had now all but given up hope of hosting the European championship.

"I'm disappointed by the decision. This has been our last chance, as the candidates for the 2012 European Championship will probably include such soccer superpowers as Italy or Spain," said Imre Bozoky, president of the Hungarian Football Federation.

Milo Corcoran, president of Ireland's Football Association, said he was "disappointed, sick."

"We thought we were in there with a great chance, sure we were. But at the end of the day you've got to get it, you've got to be successful."

Greece-Turkey could launch joint bid again, says official

ATHENS (Reuters) -- Greece and Turkey may have failed in their attempt to host the 2008 European championship, but a Greek football official hinted on Thursday that the traditional rivals could launch joint bids again.

"It's very positive that we got this far. Our appearance and performance are a resource for the future," Greek soccer federation vice president Vassilis Hatziapostolou said.

Greece and Turkey's failure to win the event did not come as a surprise to many experts, who felt the crowd trouble that blighted the UEFA Cup tie between Greek club Panathinaikos and Turkish rivals Fenerbahche last month could hamper the bid.

But Greece's soccer federation president Vassilis Gagatsis attacked UEFA's decision makers after Switzerland and Austria were named hosts for Euro 2008 on Thursday.

"The decision-making process was subjective," Gagatsis told a Greek private radio station.

"The bid filed by Switzerland and Austria was inferior in terms of stadia and security to ours, which was outstanding."

However, a senior UEFA executive committee member told Reuters: "In general terms, the Austrian-Swiss bid scored in every department. It was the best bid."

But after the failure of the Greece-Turkey proposal, one of seven bids to host the event, Gagatsis added: "We remain proud but aggrieved."

To succeed in the future, both countries will need to ensure that the violent scenes which marred the first leg of November's UEFA Cup match in Istanbul do not occur again.

During the tie, supporters from both teams responded angrily to a delegation of Greek-Turkish foreign ministers pelting them with yoghurt during a walkabout at pitch-side.

The clubs decided to ban travelling supporters for the return leg in Athens, which passed off without incident following an unprecedented security operation at the Apostolos Nikolaidis stadium.

Hungary fail but gain widespread acclaim for 2008 bid

BUDAPEST (Reuters) -- Hungary may have failed to win the right to stage the 2008 European soccer championship on Thursday -- but their second-place finish in the final voting was a huge credit to their very impressive bid.

"There's no need for despair," Sports Minister Gyorgy Janosi said. "This decision could be foreseen as several candidates had a more developed infrastructure than us."

"The main reason for our unsuccessful application was not just the infrastructure, but the current level of Hungarian soccer," Janosi added.

Despite failing, in some ways Hungary scored a qualified success.

Their bid hugely impressed the UEFA executive committee members and they were second in the final voting, losing out by nine votes to three to the successful Austria-Switzerland bid.

It was the second time Hungary had bid and failed to land the biggest prize on offer from UEFA after their 2004 joint-bid with Austria lost out to Portugal.

A senior UEFA executive told Reuters in Geneva: "It was very impressive, very professional and obviously very well prepared.n Their singular message was that they are at the forefront of a new eastern Europe -- and it was a very powerful message.

"Hungary has done a fantastic job, and could well land the competition in the future."

Last chance

Although the Hungarians might consider bidding for the 2012 championship in due course, Imre Bozoky, president of the Hungarian Football Federation, could not hide his regrets at the outcome.

"I'm disappointed by the decision. This has been our last chance, as the candidates for the 2012 European Championship will probably include such soccer superpowers as Italy or Spain."

He added he had now given up hope that Hungary could host a major continental tournament any time in the next 15-20 years.

"If we build a modern stadium, we might get the chance of a cup final," he said.

Bozoky said Hungarian soccer had to be developed, and expressed his disappointment at UEFA not helping less developed regions in the way FIFA does.

He said this would have been a good chance for eastern Europe to catch up.

"Life goes on, we have to accept the decision as we can do nothing about it," he added.

But Lars-Haue Pedersen, an advisor to the Hungary bid was rather more scathing.

"UEFA lost a great chance today to do something for football in eastern Europe. Tomorrow the EU [European Union] will recognise Hungary and grant it membership, today UEFA turned us down. They have made a big mistake."

 

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