Croke Park
UEFA delegation visit
The regulating body of European soccer, UEFA, has said Ireland's joint bid to host the Euro 2008 soccer championships with Scotland is alive and kicking and competing very strongly.
At a media conference this evening, UEFA's Director of Communications, Mike Lee, said the visiting team had been very impressed with the political commitment from the Taoiseach and the Government.
Referring to the stadia, he said no bid had all its stadia in place and finished. He said what UEFA would have to make sure of was that there was certainty about the plans.
Meanwhile one of the country's leading businessmen has confirmed that he is interested in being involved in the construction of the proposed National Stadium.
Noel Smyth, Executive Chairman of property developers Dunloe Ewart, said he would be responding to the Government's request for "expressions of interest" in the stadium.
Mr Smyth said ultimately, if the stadium is to be built by private interests, it will probably have to be a project for a consortium, rather than for one developer alone.
He said that if the public and private interests lined up, agreement on the project could be reached by March of next year and that planning permission could be got in 12 months.
Mr Smyth said he believed the stadium would take 18 months to build, which would suggest that it might be ready by 2006, two years before the Euro 2008 soccer tournament.
