Soccer: Swiss-Austrian bid planned for Euro 2008

Switzerland and Austria plan to make a joint bid to host the 2008 European football championships.

Swiss minister Samuel Schmid and his Austrian counterpart Susanne Riess-Passer said the two nations had a sports infrastructure capable of hosting the tournament and so had a realistic chance of success.

They said the Euro 2000 tournament, shared between the Netherlands and Belgium, showed that joint hosting could be successful.

The presidents of the Swiss and Austrian federations are due to meet in Bern on March 9 to discuss a formal bid to European soccer's governing body Uefa.