Austrian politician puts boot into Ireland’s hopes

HOPES that Ireland might again be in the running to stage the UEFA 2008 European Championships have been dashed after a far-right Austrian politician pledged cash to make sure a vital stadium is built.

Soccer-mad Joerg Haider, who is governor of the southern province of Carinthia and president of local club FC Kaernten, was horrified when he heard the plans to build a stadium in Klagenfurt had fallen through. The intervention of Haider in diverting taxpayers’ money to have the stadium built will dash Irish hopes that the contract might be awarded elsewhere as specified in the deal to host the tournament signed with UEFA.

Under the contract, Austria needed to build the world-class stadium in Haider’s province. Austrian media reported last week that the country’s entire UEFA hopes could crumble after the German managers of the project were sacked for falling behind in attracting investment. Haider said: “Thanks to me the UEFA deal is safe. I will not have my province blamed for losing such a prestigious event.”

Austria, together with Switzerland, won the right to stage the event after beating off stiff competition from several other countries, including a joint bid from Scotland and Ireland.

As part of the agreement, Austria pledged to build a new stadium in the southern city of Klagenfurt. But the £30m project, as was originally proposed, has collapsed after the German Investment Group that was behind it was sacked by city officials and the Austrian FA. They said the plan put forward by Deutsche Arena AG was laughable and had failed to attract any financing, and accused the German firm of incompetence.

Klagenfurt’s mayor Harald Scheucher said the complaints included a pledge for almost £60m towards the costs of the entire project that were from a Swiss firm that apparently did not exist. The £30m stadium was supposed to have 32,000 seats and in a second stage of development a football academy, shops and indoor soccer hall were supposed to be built.

UEFA’s contract with the two Alpine countries specifies that if the stadium is not built, they can award it to one of the unsuccessful bidders, including Scotland and Ireland.

Carinthia will have to cut back heavily on school building projects, hospital buildings and other investments, which means the mayor will face an uphill struggle to get approval for a new financial model.