Alpine passion calling for EURO 2008

Tuesday November 12, 2002. Time: 10.40 p.m. A chilly evening in Basle, north of Switzerland. A spectacular football match in FC Basel's state-of-the-art St Jakob Park Stadium has just come to an end and I am standing here, applauding a great show of football and sportsmanship.

FC Basel, spearheaded by Christian Gross, have made national history by becoming the first Swiss team to progress to the second group phase of the much-coveted Champions League. This came about after their enthralling three-all draw against English giants Liverpool secured them second spot in Group B of the Champions League.

In spite of the great disappointment caused by their missing out on a lucrative berth in the last 16 of the Champions League, Liverpool certainly deserve credit for their glorious fightback which saw them cancelling out a 3-0 first-half deficit.

For all the clatter surrounding incidents involving some Liverpool fans in the run-up to last Tuesday's decisive game, the atmosphere in the impressive St Jakob Park Stadium was electrifying but peaceful.

There are still thousands of genuine football fans out there who, like myself, go to the stadium to enjoy a game of football. My visit to FC Basel's stadium is the climax of a two-and-a-half-day tour of Austria and Switzerland on the invitation of the committee leading their joint-bid to host the EURO 2008 Championship.

Wearing a suit and tie and taking a seat very close to the section occupied by Liverpool fans, I was called all sorts of names by the Reds supporters. They thought I was a fan of the home team presumably because I was in the company of officials from the Swiss association in a part reserved for home fans.

The Liverpool faithful never stopped urging their players on, even when they were trailing Basel by three goals and, to their credit, a couple of them approached the fence separating the home fans from the visiting ones, to shake my hands at the end of the match.

The camaraderie among the fans is further underlined when they acknowledge each other with a warm applause, FC Basel fans complying to the request of some Liverpool supporters to throw them a woollen cover, bearing the lozenge of FC Basel. This blanket is used by home fans to keep their feet warm during games on cold nights.

Indeed, FC Basel's qualification to the second round of the Champions League, the excellent stadiums in Austria and Switzerland and the passion of the people for football reinforced my view that the two countries are capable of organising a great European championship in 2008.

Being the only Maltese among 10 journalists from different media all over Europe, I felt privileged to have been invited for this short but packed visit by the amiable Bernd Fisa, the communications manager of the Austro-Swiss EURO 2008 bid.

As a journalist, I am fully aware of my responsibilities of objectivity and impartiality in providing an assessment of any sort. The European Championship is the most important event in UEFA's calendar and given that it also concerns our country, not least due to the fact that the number of Maltese fans attending matches from such tournaments is increasing all the time, I would have preferred to have been able to comment on the other bids. This was not possible.

The Times/Sunday Times sports desk has not received any information from the other six bids, namely Scotland/Ireland, the Nordic countries, Turkey/Greece, Hungary, Russia and Croatia/Bosnia Herze-govina.

This was not the case with the Austro-Swiss candidacy who have kept us updated with the events concerning their project by mailing us press releases and other quarterly publications.

This promotional tour was obviously aimed at showing the media that Austria and Switzerland have what it takes to host the EURO 2008 Championship.

During our visit, we were shown around stadia, had informal talks with the people behind the bid and given information about this joint venture.

However, this was not the kind of information-feeding experience but rather a relaxed tour in which the organisers were all too happy to let us see for ourselves that they indeed have the right credentials to organise this championship.

The programme kicked off on November 11 with a presentation of the bid at the plush Intercontinental Hotel in Vienna. Thomas Helbling, the overall head of the project, went through the audio-visual presentation after a short speech by Friedrich Stickler, president of the Austrian FA.

"From the outset, we were convinced that it would be a better proposition to have two small countries launching a joint bid for the EURO 2008 Championship," Stickler said. "This joint venture has brought two neighbouring nations even closer, in the process learning many new things about each other."

Austria is bidding to host the European Championship for the third time and Stickler expressed his hope that his country would finally earn the right to organise this tournament at the third time of asking.

"Austria and Switzerland are located in the centre of Europe. The slogan of our bid is 'Football's best - close to you' mainly because of the easy access to both countries from all parts of Europe. The distances between the cities earmarked to stage matches from the EURO 2008 Championship are also relatively short. We obviously regard this as a big advantage.

"One of the chief goals of our bid is also to lure more young people to the game of football. We want to make football younger," Stickler added.

Stickler then proceeded to outline the qualities that make their bid so attractive, namely security, political and public backing and the two countries' appeal to tourists.

"Austria and Switzerland are two beautiful countries and our idea of having the EURO 2008 here is to give people an opportunity to visit us not only for football but also to explore the beauty and culture of this part of Europe," Stickler added.

The Austrian and Swiss populations are behind this joint-bid as evidenced by the results of a recent poll carried out by an independent research agency in July. In Austria, 75 per cent of those who are aware of the candidacy, were very positive about the bid. In Switzerland, as many as 80 per cent declared their support for the bid.

"This is the best we can offer. I feel we could not have presented a better proposal in line with the criteria laid down by UEFA," Stickler added.

On his part, Helbling explained that it would not have made sense for either of the two countries to go it alone for the simple reason they don't have enough stadia to meet UEFA's requirements.

"It does not make sense to have eight stadiums built in one country when you know that there is not enough potential to fill them with spectators week in week out," Helbling said.

The venues proposed for the EURO 2008 Championship in Austria and Switzerland are: Vienna, Klagenfurt, Salzburg and Innsbruck (Austria); Zurich, Basle, Berne, Geneva (Switzerland). The eight stadia, most of which are already under construction or in the process of being renovated, have a combined spectator capacity of 1.1 million during the entire tournament.

Helbling said that the success of the recent European U-21 championships in Switzerland, which attracted a total of 175,000 spectators, attests to the public's enthusiasm for football in this part of Europe.

Since Malta FA president Dr Joe Mifsud, is one of the UEFA Executive Committee members eligible to vote on the host of the EURO 2008 event, it was inevitable that he be mentioned during some conversations I had with some high-profile officials from the federations of the two bidding countries.

These people were not interested in trying to get to know from me whether Mifsud has hinted at a favourite for the EURO 2008. They did mention the cordial meeting a delegation from their EURO 2008 bid committee had with Mifsud in Malta on October 7.

Respect for Mifsud

Mifsud is clearly held in the highest of esteems not least for his achievement in becoming an influential member of the UEFA Executive Committee despite coming from one of the smallest countries in Europe.

Moreover, Mifsud also seems to have earned the respect of the Austrian and Swiss associations for his backing of the small federations within the European football family.

Apart from our visit to St Jakob Park Stadium in Basle, which is the epitome of the modern, multi-functional concept of stadia in Switzerland and Austria, we were also shown around the famous Ernst-Happel Stadium in Vienna and the Stadium of Geneva, which is due to open its gates in March, 2003.

The Ernst-Happel Stadium, which has hosted a number of European Cup finals, the last of which was in 1995 when Ajax beat Milan 1-0, is the potential venue for the final of 2008.

Its total seating capacity will be increased from 50,000 to 53,000 if UEFA decides in favour of the Austro-Swiss bid.

Once completed, the Stadium of Geneva will be one of the new generation of multi-functional stadia in Europe.

It will be the home ground of Swiss side Servette but will be managed by a foundation, consisting of representatives of the city authorities, the financial partners who contributed to the construction of this 30,000-spectator stadium and Servette FC.

The Stadium of Geneva, expected to cost 280 million Swiss francs when completed, will be equipped with a highly modern infrastructure that can be used for concerts, shows and festivals.

It is part of a multi-functional complex with a conference and leisure centre, a shopping centre and a hotel. The 'Centre Commercial & de Loisirs' opened earlier this week.

Having sampled the atmosphere at the St Jakob Park Stadium, seen the stadiums and plans for the further development of football and last but not least, met the people behind the bid, I left Geneva for Zurich and then to Malta last Wednesday convinced that Austria and Switzerland are not just two rich, picturesque countries in the heart of Europe.

They are also eager to show Europe that football is an important part of their culture and that was the driving force behind their decision to make a joint bid for the EURO 2008 Championship. Austria and Switzerland are ready for the big kick-off.