Politics foils joint bid at final hurdle

In sporting terms, the Scotland-Ireland bid for the European Championship finals of 2008 failed to make the cut in spectacular fashion.

When the decision was announced by UEFA in Geneva yesterday, it transpired that the bid was not among the four bids recommended by the executive committee. The Scotland-Ireland effort was even relegated behind Hungary, which was rather astounding given the pre-selection hype making it a strong second place contender, verging on being the outright winner.

So confident were the promoters of the joint bid, that the eventual contest was predicted as being a straight fight between the Scotland-Ireland bid and the “other favourites”, Switzerland-Austria.