By Andrew Warshaw
May 19 – France has emerged as clear favorite to host football’s European Championship in 2016 after UEFA published evaluations of the three bidding nations.
UEFA openly praised France for creating a “very good long-term legacy” plan in its bid dossier, which detailed plans for spending €1.7 billion (£1.4 billion/$2 billion).
UEFA is understood to have marked down Italy because Rome’s Olympic Stadium does not meet standards to host the final, saying the bid also offered too few five-star hotels and had unrealistic hopes for ticket sales.
Turkey offered “access to new and interesting markets” for Europea football, but faced challenges with transport and accommodation.
The world’s third most-watched sports event after the World Cup and Summer Olympics, the European Championships increase from 16 teams to 24 in 2016, making it vitally important to present sufficient infrastructure.
Although Turkey, hoping to make it third time lucky when the vote is taken on May 28, would be a popular choice in terms of passion and opening up new frontiers, it appears UEFA may be seeking a safe option for the first of its expanded tournaments.
Considerable uncertainty still faces Ukraine’s ability to co-host Euro 2012 with Poland and there must be doubts over whether UEFA President Michel Platini, even though he cannot vote, would take the risk of selecting a second succesisve untried destination.
Although the Turkish Government has guaranteed a massive budget for building seven new stadiums and renovating two more, UEFA is concerned about Turkey’s airport capacity and transport links outside the main cities of Istanbul and Ankara.
The three bid teams will make their final presentations to 13 members of UEFA’s Executive Committee just before the vote in Geneva.
Platini, Senes Erzik from Turkey, and Italian member Giancarlo Abete are barred from taking part.
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