|
Swiss still have mountains to climb one month before
Euro 2008
Geneva: A giant helium-inflated football some 15 metres (49 feet) in diameter
was hoisted over Geneva's iconic 'Jet d'Eau' fountain last week, but aside
from that, a new row of UEFA flags in front of the central station and
an electronic countdown clock in a nearby shopping street, there are few
signs the city will be host to one of Europe's key sports championships
in just a few weeks.
Geneva will host games by the Czech Republic, Turkey and Portugal, with
the two latter teams playing the second game of the tournament at 1845
GMT on June 7. The city is home to large Portuguese and Turkish immigrant
populations and the organisers hope this high-profile game will get the
competition off to a lively start. Switzerland's capital Bern is another
host city which will welcome teams and fans from the Netherlands, France
and Italy for the competition. The Bernese are notorious throughout Switzerland
for their alleged slowness in speech and manner but will have to pick
up the pace in the coming month to finish off an extensive programme of
roadworks and transport projects in the city centre, including a new tram
interchange.
But the organisers remain upbeat that the tournament will be a sporting
and popular success. 'The tournament will really capture the popular mood
when the teams arrive,' UEFA president Michel Platini told journalists
in Geneva earlier this week. The teams are due to arrive in Switzerland
and co-host Austria on June 2. 'Then it'll be a real frenzy. It was just
the same in France before the 1984 European Championships and the World
Cup in 1998,' Platini said. It is certainly a massive undertaking for
the Swiss authorities, with police drafted in from neighbouring France
and Germany and even further afield like the Czech Republic. In total,
more than 2,500 foreign officers will help their Austrian and Swiss counterparts
police the competition. Germany alone will supply 1,700 officers, the
largest single contingent, to be divided between the two countries. France
will send 750 officers to back up the Swiss police; Croatia will provide
31 officers; Poland 25 and Sweden 15 officers; Greece 12 and Russia and
Spain 11 each.
Swiss telcoms company Swisscom also has its work cut out to ensure that
the telecommunications infrastructure is all in place to sustain such
a huge sporting and media event. Over the next few weeks, the company
will install 13 telecoms networks to serve the four Euro 2008 stadiums
- Geneva, Bern, Basel and Zurich - as well as other key sites such as
UEFA's central headquarters, fan zones, hotels, airports and stations
to ensure adequate bandwidth.
'This is three to six times more than what a major international company
would need,' said Swisscom director Urs Schaeppi. 'In the stadiums, we're
going to effectively install small telecoms factories,' he said, estimating
the cost at around at least 7 million Swiss francs (4.3 million euros).
Switzerland last hosted a major football tournament more than half a century
ago with the 1954 World Cup. That event became known as the 'Miracle of
Bern' after West Germany defied all odds to triumph in the final, setting
the stage for that country's postwar football renaissance. The organisers
of Euro 2008 must be hoping that some of that old magic rubs off a second
time around. afp
Dailytimes.com.pk,
May 7, 2008
|
|
