By David Owen in Istanbul
April 12 – Mahmut Özgener (pictured), President of the Turkish Football Federation, today expressed confidence in the integrity of the Euro 2016 bidding process, as the body unveiled a new four-year strategic plan.
Responding to a question pointing out that Michel Platini, President of UEFA, the European football confederation, comes from France which also happens to be one of the bidders to host the tournament, Özgener took to the microphone to say:
“I think that it will be a very fair competition.
“It will be very objective.”
Turkey is up against traditional European football powers France and Italy in a contest whose outcome will be decided at a meeting in Geneva on May 28.
It is the third consecutive occasion on which this secular, majority Muslim country, located between the Mediterranean and Black Seas, has bid.
Italy was also among the defeated candidates last time.
In fact, neither Platini nor the Italian or Turkish members of UEFA’s 16-man Executive Committee (Exco) are eligible to take part in next month’s vote, which will be held in two, or possibly three, stages.
In the first round, the 13 remaining Exco members will be asked to rank the three bidders in order of preference.
Bidders will garner one point for each third-placed ranking, two points per second-place and five points per first.
If the two countries with the fewest points are tied, an intermediate ballot will be held to decide which one is eliminated.
In the run-off, Exco members will simply vote for their preferred choice among the two remaining candidates.
In Platini’s absence, the meeting will be chaired by Geoff Thompson, England’s top administrator in international football.
The 2016 competition will be the first to be contested by 24 teams, up from 16 at present.
A 13-member UEFA delegation was in Turkey last week and was received by Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, the Turkish Prime Minister.
The 24-point strategic plan includes the goal of obtaining “rights to host at least three championship finals held by FIFA or UEFA and to host at least one UEFA or FIFA Congress by the end of 2013”.
Turkey is also aiming to increase the number of amateur and grassroots licensed players from 320,000 at present to one million over the same time-frame, and to boost the number of women players in grassroots activities from 5,000 to 75,000.
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