Soccer: Henderson puts faith in joint European Cup bid

John Henderson, the leader of Scotland’s joint bid with Ireland to host the 2008 European Championships, last night insisted he is confident that Ireland will be able to fulfill their part in the project.

The Scottish Football Association have dropped plans to pursue a solo bid after the Scottish

Executive told them they would be unable to provide the sufficient funding required to built the stadia needed for the tournament.

Now they have joined forces with their counterparts at the FAI, who will supply two grounds in Dublin.

One will be a refurbished Lansdowne Road but the second venue is still to be confirmed.

It had been thought that the yet-to-be-completed ’Bertie Bowl’, named after the Taoiseach Bertie Ahern, would be used but that now remains to be seen.

Henderson is convinced, though, that whatever avenue the FAI go down they will have two arenas that fit UEFA’s requirements ready in time for the finals in 2008, should the bid be successful.

He said: ‘‘I think we have been very fortunate for some time to have two winnable positions in a solo bid and a joint bid.

‘‘I’m very pleased that we have clarity now and backing from the Scottish Executive.

‘‘We can go to the European Championship draw now in Oporto and speak to UEFA with certainty and we can then begin the work ahead with Ireland.

‘‘We’ve been monitoring their situation but all the indications are our Irish partners will be ready to support us.

‘‘The Scandinavian countries have still to find two venues - let alone stadia - that they can use for their bid and we need to put it in that context as well.

‘‘We are in a much stronger starting position with four large stadia. I think if you look at Lansdowne Road, it obviously comes into the equation with an upgrade and would provide one venue.

‘‘There has been a commitment in the recent past for a new stadium in Ireland but what form that will take, I’m not wanting to anticipate. Ireland might prefer a different solution.

‘‘Bearing in mind that what the guidelines say is that you need to have two 30,000 all-seated stadia for group matches, it remains to be seen in our discussions with Ireland how much further they want to go with that but I’m confident they’ll be ready.’’

SFA Chief Executive Roger Taylor was adamant that joining forces with Ireland did not damage Scotland’s hopes of landing the prestigious tournament, the third-biggest in world sport behind the Olympic Games and football’s World Cup finals.

And he denied that the fact FIFA have said this summer’s World Cup finals in South Korea and Japan - a tournament hosted by two countries - is likely to be the last of it’s kind, will have any hindrance on the joint SFA/FAI effort.

Taylor added: ‘‘FIFA and UEFA are different entities and the experience of UEFA, in terms of the Euro 2000 Championships in Belgium and Holland, is very positive, both organisationally and financially more profits were made from that tournament than anticipated.

‘‘If you look at our main competition for the tournament, these are joint bids, so I think that the fact it’s a joint bid will not hinder us at all we’ve just got to work hard at putting forward the distinctiveness and the quality of the bid that we eventually put together.

‘‘I think a joint bid will take away any lingering doubts that Scotland is too small a country to host such a major international sporting event, the third-largest in the world.

‘‘It will double our influence in the decision-making process and it helps that Ireland will be participating in this year’s World Cup finals tournament.

‘‘Our main competition have joint bids, we are now in that arena as well and we think it is a winnable proposition although we will be up against stiff competition.’’