Six bids for EURO 2008™

Suedesi

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<a href="http://www.uefa.org/uefa/news/Kind=32768/newsId=12157.html" target="_blank">Six bids for EURO 2008™</a>

Initial bidders
A statement said that interested initial bidders are Austria/Switzerland, Bosnia-Herzegovina/Croatia, Greece/Turkey, Hungary and Denmark/Finland/Norway/Sweden (NORDIC 2008). Scotland are the sixth bidder, and will consider a joint bid with the Republic of Ireland after reviewing the tournament's schedule of conditions.

Some interesting pairings.
 
What's with having it in seperate countries now anyway?

Are Bosnia and Croatia having a laugh?

Turkey? they can forget it.

Let's have it in Afghanistan, if the crowd gets out of hand we could execute them at half time. plus Tonysama Bin Ladams could show up to cheer on his beloved Gooners :p
 
Originally posted by 77:
<strong>What's with having it in seperate countries now anyway?

Are Bosnia and Croatia having a laugh?

Turkey? they can forget it.

Let's have it in Afghanistan, if the crowd gets out of hand we could execute them at half time. plus Tonysama Bin Ladams could show up to cheer on his beloved Gooners :p </strong><hr></blockquote>


Afghanistan is in Asia :rolleyes:
My vote goes to Nordic 2008 - it would be interesting in Scandinavia in so many different places.
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Originally posted by Gazza:
<strong>


Afghanistan is in Asia :rolleyes:
My vote goes to Nordic 2008 - it would be interesting in Scandinavia in so many different places.</strong><hr></blockquote>

Finland is not in Scandinavia :rolleyes:

Norway's biggest ground, Ullevaal, has a capasity of 25000. Not good enough. Needs capacity improvement badly.

But yes, my vote goes to Nordic 2008 as well, in strong competition with Austria/Switzerland. Scotland/Republic of Ireland could also be interesting. How are the grounds in Ireland?
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If the Nordic bid wins will all four countries qualify as hosts? What a load of bollocks that is. May as well not hold a qualifying tournament and let every one play in the finals. That way Scotland get to play as well. <img src="graemlins/lol.gif" border="0" alt="[Laugh Out Loud]" />
 
Originally posted by ManUinOz:
<strong>If the Nordic bid wins will all four countries qualify as hosts? What a load of bollocks that is. May as well not hold a qualifying tournament and let every one play in the finals. That way Scotland get to play as well. <img src="graemlins/lol.gif" border="0" alt="[Laugh Out Loud]" /> </strong><hr></blockquote>

This is a problem, would be ridiculous to have 4 host countries. Denmark and Sweden are the only ones that are have the level required. But looking at the other countries applied, hungary and bsonia - hercegovina ?, I think not. Atleast the nordic countries have money, don't know how it is with denmark though, they have any industry apart from carlsberg?.
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I doubt that Austria/Switzerland have a chance after the Swissair collapse. Greece/Turkey stand a chance because they have good football stadiums and there will probably be some political pressure for them to host in an attempt to improve relations between them. A receipt for disaster IMHO but you never know. The complete arse Greece are making of the next Olympics might scuttle their chances.

Hungary probably doesn't have the infrastructure and they don't have a block of support. I have also heard that they have no real financial backing so they will probably fall at the first hurdle. Denmark/Finland/Norway/Sweden (NORDIC 2008) probably have the infrastructure and the finances to run a great competition but the chances of a 4 country consortium being awarded the comp are very slim indeed. Scotland :rolleyes: don't have a hope in hell. Do they actually have more than 2 decent grounds? I wouldn't hold a caber tossing competition there, never mind Euro2008. Which leaves Bosnia-Herzegovina/Croatia who would be a joke contender in most circumstances despite their proud football heritage. However their shortcomings in finance and infrastructure will most likely be covered by EU grants and most governments would back their bid as a demonstration of how well UN/NATO intervention worked. Yugoslavia will hate it but they have next to no power in political or football terms anymore.

This must be the weakest set of candidates for a major championship but if I was a betting man I would put a tenner (at very long odds) on Bosnia - Croatia.
 
Probably not a bad bet there Wibble, given the fact that no clear contender exists from this bunch. The Bosnian/Croatian bid will succeed or fail on the strength of the countries infrastructure which is still in need of much work but the bid could be the spur needed to get things moving.

Look at the good work that went on in Manchester to back their Olympic bids which have left lasting improvements around the city. I think the EU could and should back this one to the hilt to give all the people of a region, which has suffered too much in recent history, something to celebrate.
 
Finland has never hosted a major event like the Euro Cup and since our national side has also improved enormously in the last few years I say we deserve to have a knack at the job.
 
Originally posted by Wibble:
<strong>I doubt that Austria/Switzerland have a chance after the Swissair collapse. Greece/Turkey stand a chance because they have good football stadiums and there will probably be some political pressure for them to host in an attempt to improve relations between them. A receipt for disaster IMHO but you never know. The complete arse Greece are making of the next Olympics might scuttle their chances.

</strong><hr></blockquote>


i disagree, switzerland and austria are in the process of building new stadia, they will be up to date in a couple of years.

greece and turkey have a lack of modern stadia, altho, fenerbach's ground and a new natinal stadium is being constructed/reconstructed. Greece will be redevolping their olymipc stadium, which currently looks dated... they don't have an international class stadium other than the olymipic, furthermore they're struggling to finance the 2004(?) olympics.. euro 2008 may be a step too far.
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Originally posted by ManUinOz:
<strong>If the Nordic bid wins will all four countries qualify as hosts? What a load of bollocks that is. May as well not hold a qualifying tournament and let every one play in the finals. That way Scotland get to play as well. <img src="graemlins/lol.gif" border="0" alt="[Laugh Out Loud]" /> </strong><hr></blockquote>

Word is that it would be a Nordic Cup in 2005 and the two best teams would qualify while the two others would have to go into regular qualification.
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I wouldn't mind seeing it go to Hungary. They do have Nepstadion, which can support something like 60-70 thousand people. While many of their club stadiums are much smaller, they do have a lot of money pooring in from the West. Of course, so too does Austria. As for a Greece/Turkey joint bid, UEFA would do it for two reasons:

1. Least importantly, for the government pressure of building up better relations.
2. More importantly, for the fact that those two teams would avoid each other in the group stages and thus, not have about a million deaths at a major European competition.
 
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