Ireland bid 'looks strong on paper' - UEFA

Ireland and Scotland’s bid to co-host the 2008 European Championships is “alive and kicking”, a top official from European football’s governing body said tonight.

UEFA's director of communications Mike Lee said: "It's still early days in the week but this bid has looked strong on paper and it looks strong at the end of today's presentation."

The delegation viewed the proposed site of the now in-doubt Stadium Ireland project in Abbotstown, as well as Croke Park, the 80,000 capacity home of the GAA.

The joint Scottish/Irish bid has been left hanging in the balance by increasing doubts about the ability of Ireland to deliver on its commitments.

The bid hinges on Scotland providing six stadiums and Ireland two.

Lansdowne Road, the home of the Irish Rugby Football Union, is set to be used as one Irish venue.

However a new development was seen as vital because Ireland’s biggest stadium - Croke Park in Dublin – only hosts Gaelic games and other sports are banned.

The Government told the delegation that it is to ask the owners of Croke Park, the GAA, for special permission to use the ground on a “once off” basis for the tournament.

But that would require a change of rules within the GAA, which would have to be voted for at the Association’s congress.

At the last such gathering, delegates remained firmly in favour of maintaining the ban on “foreign” sports.

However, Mr Lee said the UEFA delegation was not yet overly concerned about these outstanding issues.

“If you look across the bids, there is no bid which has all its stadia in place,” he said.

“The nature of bidding is that you proposed plans, you maybe building from new, you maybe developing or redeveloping.

“What we have to do is make sure that there is certainty about those plans and that when it comes to the decision in December, that all executive can feel confident in making that decision, but we are not there yet.

“Clearly there are some issues which have arisen and are still in place in relation to both of those sites but I think from the Taoiseach’s statements today, and to be fair to the bidding committee, they believe that those issues can be resolved. That is a matter for them.”

He added: “We are still in the process of evaluation and the decision day is not yet for several weeks.”

The UEFA delegation will move on to Scotland tomorrow to put the facilities of the co-host country under the microscope.

They will then finish their tour of the bidding venues by visiting Turkey, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Croatia and Hungary before a final decision on the venue for the championships is taken in Switzerland on December 12 or 13.