World cup 2010 news

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UEFA President Michel unveiled his home country France as hosts of Euro 2016 today. I know what you’re thinking. “Fix!”, right? But probably not. UEFA is not a dictatorship, and France was elected as Euro 2016 host after a series of ballots by UEFA committee members.

The other two bidding nations were Italy and Turkey. Italy was knocked out after the first round of voting, and France defeated Turkey by just one vote in the runoff.

“I want first to thank our friends from Italy and Turkey; I feel for them and the feelings of frustration and sadness after months of work and I wish Italian and Turkish football good luck,” said French Football Federation (FFF) president Jean-Pierre Escalettes.

“For us it is a moment of intense emotions, given that in 2016 we will welcome European football to France. We will fulfil our promises and we thank our friends on the Executive Committee at UEFA. They have put their trust in us and that’s what counts for us. This is a beautiful day for us.”

Maybe the last few years have been a blur for me. But it feels like France only just hosted the 1998 World Cup last week. France also hosted the 1984 Euros and the third ever World Cup back in 1938.

I’m sure most will agree that Turkey would have been the much more interesting choice, if only because they’ve never hosted a tournament before. Turkey’s most recent big European football event was that insanely entertaining 2005 Champions League final between Milan and Liverpool in Istanbul. I’m assuming every game at a tournament hosted by Turkey would be just as dramatic.

I’d imagine that the reason France won out in the end was the big Euros expansion we’re getting in 2016, when the tournament goes from 16 to 24 teams. Upping that number by a third is a gamble in and of itself, so I can understand why UEFA would want a host who’s been there, done that, and got the Footix t-shirt.

We haven’t quite entered “worst secret” territory, but when the lotto ball for Euro 2016 is plucked from that bin by a scantily clad Michel Plantini, the world expects him to show a French one, and for good reason: they’re throwing money at it.

The other two candidates are Italy and Turkey. The latter has been something of an edgy bid, needing a great deal of infrastructure work, while Italy has offered up the least amount of money to upgrade stadia, reportedly trumpeting Rome’s modern new stadium, the Colosseum.

France, on the other hand, would hold the final at the Stade de France, which was built in 1995, as opposed to “many, many moons ago”.

The French have pledged to spend £1.44billion [€1.7b] on renovating and building new stadiums, which is more than rivals Italy and Turkey combined have promised.

French Football Federation communications director Pierre-Jean Golven said: “We know we have our chances and have a strong bid, but we remain very humble.

“Our spending commitment is more than what Germany invested for the 2006 World Cup and 60 per cent of that money will come from private investors, which is a guarantee in times of crisis making public money harder to get.”

France, who have hosted the championships twice, including the inaugural finals in 1960, are planning four new venues at Bordeaux, Lille, Lyon and Nice and would stage the final at the 76,000-seater Stade de France.

The problem is partially that 60%, because private investment has known to fail once or twice in recent football memory. Turkey has offered up €1b of government money, which comes with a bit more guarantee. And then there’s the allure of the atmosphere which would be, in a word, unrivaled.

Yet it only makes sense that it’ll go to France: they’re the safe bid and even though Polkraine 2012 still has two years left to run, the road has been bumpy – quite literally in certain instances.

Even without the government providing the bulk of the cash, it’s still more cash (more is better – remember that), so you’re likely to book your trip to Paris and Bordeaux in 2016, where you can get wasted with a red-nosed geezer named Alex suspiciously eyeing up all the children.