Government rejects blame for Euro2008 failure

The Government has rejected accusations that it was to blame for the failure of Ireland and Scotland's joint bid to host the European Championships in 2008.

The Labour Party and Fine Gael have both accused the Government, and particularly the Taoiseach, of meddling in the bid and ultimately destroying its chances of success.

Fianna Fail's Cecilia Keaveney, the chairperson of the Oireachtas sports committee, said: "There was a very strong effort made to achieve what was a very difficult bid in the first place."

Meanwhile, Milo Corcoran, the president of the Football Association of Ireland, said the fact that Ireland could not guarantee two adequate stadiums for the competition did not play any part in the bid's failure.

"We felt from the outset that that wasn't an issue at all,!" he said. "We got the support from the Government - that was two stadiums would be available - and that was accepted by UEFA."

Mr Corcoran also said he believed Ireland and Scotland had a "far better" supply of stadiums than Austria and Switzerland.