Solo Scottish bid for Euro 2008 'would have fared better'

ONE of football's leading marketing consultants says Scotland would have had a better chance of winning the vote to stage Euro 2008 if they had gone it alone without Ireland.

Glen Kirton, who led the English FA's successful bid to stage Euro 96 and was tournament director of those championships six years ago, says Scotland's and Ireland's joint bid to stage Euro 2008 is one of the favourites to win when UEFA's Executive Committee votes on December 13.

The Scottish-Irish bid is up against a four-nation Nordic bid, joint bids from Switzerland and Austria, Bosnia and Croatia, and Greece and Turkey, as well as solo campaigns put up by Russia and Hungary.

UEFA inspections of stadia are due to begin in Switzerland and Austria next month with Ireland and Scotland scheduled to receive the inspectors in September.

But if Kirton had his way, the inspection visit would not have taken in Dublin at all.

As head of the soccer division of the Fast Track sports marketing company in London, Kirton was employed by the Scottish FA as a consultant at the beginning of their bid.

In an interview published in today's Arena supplement, he says: "The slight weakness I would see would be the early indecision about whether to make it a joint bid or not.

"I was a consultant to the bid at the outset and my personal advice was for the bid to have been a solo one, without Ireland.

"I'm not saying the Scottish-Irish bid doesn't have a chance. It clearly does.

"But the Scots had an advantage when it was a lone bidder a smallish country with four good grounds ready to go and able to negotiate to bring in two more.

"When UEFA insisted there must be eight venues, the Scottish Executive didn't feel they could deliver that many grounds and so they brought Ireland in and now they are in the same boat as all the others.

"There is now no unique selling point in being a joint bid."

While Kirton says the joint Swiss-Austrian bid are slight favourites, he still believes the SFA-FAI axis has a great chance of landing the prize.

"There are three contenders, definitely, the Scandinavians, Switzerland and Austria, and the Scottish-Irish bid.

"The rest have not got a chance realistically," Kirton says.

Guinness will today announce a 80,000 sponsorship of the Scottish and Irish bid proposal.

This is aimed at allowing the Irish and Scottish bidders to maximise all aspects of the proposal and to ensure they have the best possible chance of securing the championships.

The sponsorship will be announced by Guinness management and the Minister for Sport in Dublin.