The Football Association of Ireland (FAI) and Scottish Football Association (SFA) have launched a joint-bid the host the 2008 European Championships. UEFA was informed of the bid on February 28 2002, and both Associations are now lobbying for the right to host the prestigious tournament.
As part of the joint bid, the Republic of Ireland will host one group, one quarterfinal and one semi-final in two stadiums with Scotland hosting three groups, three quarterfinals, one semi-final and the final in six stadiums.
A revamped Lansdowne Road (Work commenced 15 May 2002) will be one of the grounds while the Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA) have said it would "consider the request to accommodate some European Championship games at Croke Park," if the bid is successful. The proposed Stadium Ireland at Abbots town will also be considered if it is completed in time.
Stadium Pictures & capacities
Lansdowne Road Stadium Dublin - (After revamp and improvements in UEFA Safety standards) – Capacity: 35,000
Croke Park Stadium Dublin - Capacity: 80,000
Proposed new Stadium, Abbotstown Dublin - Estimated Capacity: 60-65,000
The joint Irish Scottish bid is one of seven bids that UEFA have received. “Greece and Turkey”, “Croatia and Bosnia-Herzegovina”, “Austria and Switzerland”, and “Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden” all submitted joint bids while “Hungary” and “Russia” have submitted solo bids.
UEFA will make their decision on who will host the Championships in December 2002. On 14 April 2002 the GAA voted “NO” by a result of 197 votes to 106 to Croke Park Stadium not being made available. GAA chairmen were fearful that by allowing soccer to be played in Croke Park it would eventually pressure them into opening up all the other grounds in Ireland. However, both the FAI & the SFA are still hopeful in their bid, and again the GAA have reiterated that Croke Park may become available. An Taoiseach, Mr Bertie Ahern (The Irish Prime minister)is a soccer fanatic of the Republic of Ireland. And during May of this year An Taoiseach was voted back into Irish government in the general election, with his party Fianna Fail. Fianna Fail as government leaders were 100% behind the Euro 2008 bid and the opposition (Fianna Gael and the Progressive Democrats coalition) had it come to power over Fianna Fail, certainly would NOT have placed the new Stadium Ireland on the Top of their agenda. On 30 April 2002 the Bid logo was launched.
On 29 May 2002, Sir Alex Ferguson was confirmed as a new high-profile ambassador for Scotland and Ireland's joint bid to host the Euro 2008 Championship. He will now join football luminaries such as Bertie Vogts (Scotland National Team Manager), Pat Bonner (Republic of Ireland National Soccer Team coach, ex-Republic of Ireland and Celtic Goalkeeper, Alex McLeish (Glasgow Rangers F.C. Coach) and Martin O'Neill (Glasgow Celtic F.C. Coach) as champions for the Scotland and Ireland Euro 2008 Bid. Like most modern day sports paperless ticket technology is being being proposed to ease the passage of press and supporters around the tournament. Electronic 'Smartcards' will replace the traditional travel tickets and media accreditation passes. Training facilities for the competing teams will be located in a variety of towns across the host nations including Stirling, Perth and Galashiels, all based in Scotland. On 29 May 2002, Bertie Ahern officially signed off the FAI's and Scottish Football Association's joint bid to host the 2008 European Championships. The bid will now be formally submitted to UEFA. It was announced on 30 May 2002, that the GAA "would" let UEFA into Croke Park in a couple of months time to review the lay-out of the Stadium . On 26 June 2002, BT Scotland announced that they would be contributing by way of a five figure sponsorship to the join bid.
David Will, FIFA Vice President lent his support to both the FAI & the SFA bid on July 18 2002. He (Will)stated that along with the Swiss & Austrian bid, our bid may be favourite of the two bids what with the World Cup 2004 finals due to be held in Germany so soon to the overall winner being announced. Also in our favour according to "Will", was that our joint bid had the majority of large capacity stadiums. The joint bid gathered more momentum on 24 July 2002 with confirmation that international drinks giant Diageo has come on board as its latest sponsor. The company are the owners of drinks giants Guinness and Bell's whisky distilleries.
On Wednesday 15 August 2002 the GAA released a statement which contradicted the FAI plans to use " Croke Park " as an available stadium for hte Euro 2008 bid. The statement read: "The Association has further stated that suggestions from unattributed sources in the media, that Croke Park will be made available for soccer and rugby games in the next few years are unfounded and mischievous".
While everything seemed to be going according to plan, escept for mabye the GAA's negativity on the aspect of Croke Park use, then came a set-back. The Irish Government on Monday 09 September declared that in current economic circumstances it was not in a position to provide any exchequer funding in the medium term for a national stadium .
It is believed that An Taoiseach Bertie Ahern sent another letter to UEFA in November, underlining his commitment to delivering two venues to underpin the eight offered by the Scottish FA.
The countdown to UEFA’s announcement on the winning bid to host Euro 2008 is drewing close and it looked like the Ireland/Scotland proposal has slipped to third place in the pecking order.
In December 2002, the joint proposal of both Austria and Switzerland won the prize, that of, to host the Euro 2008 Championships..........We had lost...
Back to Current News page Home
