Loss of Euro 2008 will cost state €50m

IRELAND will lose €50m in tourist revenue following its failure to guarantee two venues for the 2008 European soccer championships.

The European football authority, UEFA, yesterday chose Austria and Switzerland to jointly host the games which were expected to attract an extra 100,000 soccer mad visitors to this country.

The Irish-Scottish bid finished fourth out of seven submissions, alongside rank outsiders Russia and Bosnia-Croatia.

Taoiseach Bertie Ahern put a brave face on things admitting the outcome was disappointing but congratulating all concerned with the joint bid.

But the outcome led to a welter of recriminations with Fine Gael, Labour and the Green Party blaming internal divisions between Fianna Fáil and the Progressive Democrats.

UEFA said they did not comment on the details of the various bids. "The bid by Austria-Switzerland had strength across all areas and was always going to be hard to beat," a UEFA spokesman said.

But sources close to the process in Geneva said the Irish-Scottish effort failed for three reasons including doubts about the required two Irish venues. Other factors were security risks associated with having three venues in Glasgow and doubt about funding, especially at the Irish end of things.

Fine Gael sports spokesman, Jimmy Deenihan, said Government interference with the internal affairs of both the FAI and the GAA contributed to the creation of a tangled mess whereby the two required Irish venues could not be guaranteed to UEFA.

Mr Deenihan said the Taoiseach had persuaded the FAI to abandon their own stadium and also heavily influenced a GAA vote aimed at easing the ban on soccer at Croke Park.

"These could have been the two Irish stadia. But to make matters worse the Government failed abysmally to deliver its promised alternative of a National Stadium," the FG TD said.

Labour leader Pat Rabbitte said the outcome showed UEFA had no faith in Mr Ahern's guarantee on providing the required two venues to augment the six Scottish stadia.

Green Party sports spokesman Paul Gogarty described the Government's handling of the provision of venues as totally shambolic.

Sports Minister John O'Donoghue, who had said the games would net 50m in tourist revenue from 100,000 extra visitors, conceded he would have liked more clarity in relation to the venues.

"But the reality of the situation is that the bid did not fail because of Ireland.

"Ireland supported the bid all the way," the Minister said.