The Courier & Advertiser (Perth and Perthshire Edition)
Government may back Euro and world bids
THE GOVERNMENT will consider backing a bid to host the semi-finals and final of football’s European Championships in 2020 while a number of British cities may bid for the Commonwealth Games in the next decade, it emerged yesterday.
UK Sport has announced a £27 million campaign to bring 36 world and European championships to Britain over the next six years, including bids for the Paralympics world athletics championships and the European swimming championships.
Sports minister Hugh Robertson said the Government would also consider a bid should moves to set up a European Olympic Games be successful.
Robertson confirmed the Government had already held talks about supporting a possible bid to hold the climax of football’s Euro 2020 in London, with the final at Wembley Stadium.
Uefa will wait until the outcome of next year’s 2020 Olympic bid before deciding on the bidding process for the Euros because Turkey and Istanbul are in the running for both.
The FA has already expressed its interest to Uefa president Michel Platini in hosting the semi-finals and finals if the tournament is, as has been suggested, spread across Europe.
Robertson said: “We have discussed it internally and it is difficult to make any progress on that until the 2020 Olympics is decided. If it were to become available we would give it very careful consideration.”
The minister did, however, rule out any thoughts of bidding again for the football World Cup after the disastrous failure of England’s 2018 bid.
He added: “All those of us who went through that experience are scarred as a result of it.
“Fifa needs to reform the way it does these things and we need to have a better relationship with FIFA otherwise I’m not sure the result would be any different.”
UK Sport’s Gold Series Event will use £27m of Lottery money over the next six years to attract top sporting events to the country.
“The campaign aims to bring more than 70 sporting events in total to the UK, including the 36 world and European Championships.
UK Sport chief executive Liz Nicholl said: “UK Sport is building on the success of London 2012 and supporting the UK’s ongoing legacy goals.
“The continued hosting of world-class events supports our athletes’ performance ambitions, provides a unique platform to inspire participation and allows sport to contribute towards the economic growth agenda.”
UK Sport’s director of major events and international relations Simon Morton said “several British cities” could be interested at bidding for the Commonwealth Games in the 2020s.
He also revealed the £269m Olympics Aquatics centre would not be able to host the world swimming championships because 15,000 of the 17,500 seats will now be removed to make a much smaller venue.