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.