No wonder our offside promises on Euro 2008 fell on deaf ears

THE Football Association of Ireland and their Scottish counterparts have been commending themselves on their unsuccessful bid for the European Championships in 2008.

They put up a great fight and only just lost out. Well, actually they were not even in the top four, and only the most optimistic would ever have thought they would be when they did not have even one suitable stadium in this country.

Of course, the Taoiseach Bertie Ahern supported the bid and promised that his government would ensure that a suitable stadium would be ready. Did the continentals not believe his promise? Would anyone in Ireland have believed him, or any other member of his government, after what happened during the last general election campaign? The Taoiseach or his government were not credible and the people that they were trying to convince were not gullible, with the result that the joint bid by Scotland and Ireland never really had a chance.