Sign up to The Irish Times Archive (1859 - 2008)My Account »

Wed 11 Nov 2002Johansson denies Euro bids decidedSOCCER/News: UEFA president Lennart Johansson has distanced himself from quotes attributed to him by Swiss newspaper Le Dimanche which implied several of the bids to host the Euro 2008 championship were already effectively out of the running.Johansson was quoted in an interview as citing the Moscow theatre siege and the crowd trouble between Greece's Panathinaikos and Turkey's Fenerbahce as reasons why UEFA might look unfavourably on the two bids while other bids, including the Scotland and Ireland campaign, were sufficiently flawed to leave the Nordic bid and particularly the joint Austria/Switzerland bid as firm favourites ahead of the executive meeting in Geneva on December 12th when the final decision will be made.