European Championship: Switzerland and Austria's plans to jointly host the 2008 European Championship remain on track despite the threatened bankruptcy of one of the stadiums earmarked for the tournament, football officials from the two countries said yesterday.
On Tuesday the operators of Geneva's Stade de Geneve ground filed for creditor protection after their tenants - top division side Servette Geneva - sought financial protection with estimated debts of at least 10 million Swiss francs (€6.5 million).
"We do not think there is any problem at the moment as far as the Geneva stadium is concerned," said Switzerland's tournament director Christian Mutschler.
"It's quite difficult to analyse what's happening (with Servette Geneva) as nobody knows what will happen there in the next few days, weeks and months.
"However a contract has already been signed between the stadium and the tournament organisers, guaranteeing that the stadium will fulfil its requirements for 2008, regardless of who is operating the stadium by then."
UEFA spokesman William Gaillard said European football's governing body did not believe it would impact on Euro 2008.
"The stadium has already been built, so as long as it is maintained properly, it wouldn't be a problem if no games were being played there on a regular basis," said Gaillard. "It's quite common to have stadiums that are not linked to a football club, such as Wembley or the Stade de France, where you only have matches when the national side are playing there."
Austria is also facing its own headache over the rebuilding of the Klagenfurt stadium, with the regional government threatening to withdraw funding following a dispute about building contracts.
"There should be no major delay in the timetable. Things may be held up by two or three weeks, but we're confident the building work will begin in September 2005 and be finished by autumn 2006," said Austria's tournament spokesman Christian Schmoelzer.
Eight stadiums will host Euro 2008 matches with Basel's St Jakob stadium already in use while Bern's Stade de Suisse Wankdorf ground is due to open later this year.
Austria's stadiums comprise the already-built Ernst Happel stadium in Vienna, the Salzburg stadium and the Tivoli-Neu stadium in Innsbruck, which are due to be completed in 2006.
Meanwhile, Italy kicked off its bid to host the 2012 European Championship yesterday, with officials warning the country will have to combat racism and violence to be in with a chance.
"We will be more credible if there are moves to fight and beat the racism and violence that we have seen around soccer matches," Italian Football Association chairman Franco Carraro said.
UEFA will decide on the 2012 host country in December 2006.
