Disappointment gives way to anger
As they began to piece together the elements of the process that yesterday resulted in the finals being awarded to Austria/Switzerland, the anger stemmed not from the fact Scotland/Ireland failed in their attempt to secure the support of UEFA for their bid for the finals, but from the realisation that a case believed to rank a close second to the winners was not rated by a UEFA committee charged with running the finals tournament.
The furrowed brows of puzzled Scotland/Ireland delegates were gradually tightened by the effects of a growing feeling of frustration as it emerged the 11 members of the National Teams Committee (NTC) of UEFA had not included Scotland/Ireland amongst the four potential hosts they deemed best qualified to stage the finals.
The NTC members' function was to evaluate the reports of a technical committee whose members visited 56 potential cities and venues across Europe and placed them in order of merit based on technical grounds drawn up by UEFA.
Critically, Scotland and Ireland did not make the list of four drawn up by the NTC, who suggested the bidders from Austria/Switzerland, Greece/Turkey, Hungary and the Nordic countries were all better positioned.
The members of UEFA's executive committee refused to confine the voting competition to the four recommended by the NTC but it is inconceivable to think that their viewpoint did not carry some weight when delegates cast their votes.
The executive first eliminated bidders round by round with Bosnia/Croatia being voted out first, then Russia, the Nordic countries and Scotland/Ireland in that order.
The executive then eliminated Hungary and the final contest was between Austria/Switzerland and Greece/Turkey. The final vote in favour of Austria/Switzerland was either 9-3 or 7-5. The recollection of the delegates differed. But all conceded that it was a closely run race.
A word of explanation as to why the initial process was decided by eight members of the executive those eight were members who were not associated with any of the bids.
Four extra members were allowed in to vote on the final three candidates because the application they were associated with had been eliminated. In this case the bid from the Nordic countries three members and a member from Russia.
The members of the Scotland/Ireland delegation were preparing to leave Geneva to fly home before the background to the process had emerged.
They had been seated, alongside the delegates from the other bidders, in the body of the hall together with the media representatives and they were only beginning to piece together shreds of information as they left for the airport.
Their initial chagrin was gradually being replaced by an anger borne of puzzlement with the reaction of David Will from Scotland, vice president of UEFA and a non-voting member of the executive, helping to paint in the changing colour of emotions: "I cannot understand why the National Teams Committee did not recommend Scotland/Ireland. We could never recover from that. I am astounded by their decision."
Des Casey, just retired as vice-president of UEFA and the FAI, was considered an influential member of the delegation and he responded to the emerging detail by saying: "We were not in the four recommended by the National Teams Committee which I just don't understand."
He added: "I cannot get an explanation. The point is we were not in the three who got into the final vote and that destroyed a vital part of our strategy.
"It was probably political, of course, but I cannot understand it. Our whole strategy was to get into the last two or three.
"The fact that the NTC did not put us forward as one of the four they were recommending meant we were behind the 'eight-ball' from there on."
Geoffrey Thompson, English FA president and a member of the executive said: "Eight members voted in turn to eliminate from the seven candidates.
"Scotland and Ireland were the fourth to be eliminated so you just missed the cut, you finished fourth.
"The executive, they wanted a final three to open it up for the final vote. It could have been three or two but they decided three.
"They allowed four other executive members who were not conflicting with the remaining three bidders in to vote at that point and after the third bidder was eliminated they voted again and placed Austria/Switzerland first."
Milo Corcoran, president of the FAI, said: "We would have been quite happy to have been in the last four because we believed that if we were then we would survive when it would break down to two but we don't really know what happened.
"We felt if the Nordic countries were not involved that we would pick up some votes but it is difficult to know how it shakes out at the end. I was happy with our tactics."
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