Soccer bid failure set to prompt recriminations

The failure of the joint Irish-Scottish bid to stage the 2008 European soccer championships today looked set to prompt political recriminations on both sides of the Irish Sea.

Taoiseach Bertie Ahern – a life-long football fan who supports Manchester United – made a late effort to salvage the so-called Celtic tilt for the prestigious tournament.

But it proved to be too late, and possibly too little, as well.

A little more than 24 hours before the decision about the championships was due to be taken in Geneva by UEFA, the Taoiseach gave the European soccer authorities an official pledge that two top-of-the-rank stadiums would be ready and able to keep up the Irish end of the competition in six years time.

That was aimed at removing all lingering doubts about Ireland’s resolve in the joint project – but in the end it was not enough.

A rival Swiss-Austrian bid won out in an ultimately two-horse race and Ireland will have to wait to orchestrate a major international sports event on home territory.

It may have been a lack of clarity on the part of Mr Ahern’s last-minute intervention that created the problems.

For while he made it clear that two grounds would be available, he did not stipulate which location would be partnering Dublin’s venerable, and at least partly outdated, Lansdowne Road, traditionally known as the home of Irish rugby, but also the base of the national soccer squad for years past.

Mr Ahern was unable to specify whether the second venue would be Croke Park, the headquarters of the GAA, or a brand new sports centre known in Dublin as the “Bertie Bowl“.

Two short years ago, at the height of the Celtic Tiger, the Taoiseach was on course to provide – through a public-private partnership funding plan – a state-of-the-art stadium capable of hosting a number of sports and the equivalent of anything to be found on the continent.

But growing financial realities in Ireland forced that scheme to be scaled down and finally put on the long finger.

Even the Croke Park dimension was surrounded by doubt. The GAA have yet to confirm they would permit soccer to kick off on their hallowed turf.

Given approval from the GAA authorities – something that would have required a specially-convened and potentially politically-sensitive special congress of the organisation – Croke Park would have proved an ideal European Championships venue.

Recently revamped, it has 80,000 seats and is the envy of many rival sporting organisations at home and abroad.

But, following today’s development, the GAA is not likely to have to face an early decision on soccer.

And Mr Ahern, who flew off to Copenhagen for a European summit as the announcement was made in Geneva, and his Government were braced for the political inquest.

That meant almost certain strong criticism from both home – where opposition parties were lining up an attack on Mr Ahern’s handling of the whole affair - and abroad, with Scottish interests far from impressed with Ireland’s role in the doomed joint bid for a share of soccer glory.