Thirteen months prior to the kick-off at the 2008 UEFA European Football Championship™ it has been ascertained that the event involving 16 of Europe’s best national teams will be a bumper festival for fans. A “summer fairy tale relived”, promising a carbon copy of the 2006 FIFA World Cup™ in Germany, is the optimistic forecast for the football competition in Austria and Switzerland between June 7-29, 2008. Ticket sales have already set a record, with 588,716 fans from 142 countries applying for a total of 10.35 million tickets. This means the initial 1.05 million tickets made available by UEFA EURO 2008™ have been over subscribed tenfold in the first sales round, for which the deadline was March 31. The requests for tickets were 18 times higher than four years ago for the UEFA European Football Championship™ finals in Portugal, and more or less equalled the demand for the FIFA World Cup™ last year when requests amounted to 10.8 million tickets.

The UEFA European Football Championship™ tickets were drawn at random under supervision of a notary, match by match and price category by price category, and allocated to lucky applicants. An earlier planned further round of sales in June was cancelled due to the massive overbooking. Most requests sought tickets for the final and semi-final in Vienna, and the semi-final in Basle. When it came to individual teams the largest interest was in matches involving host teams Austria and Switzerland, and for the matches of Germany, England and the Netherlands.

This intense demand for tickets surpassed by far all expectations of the organisers. Their calculation was that overbooking would possibly amount to three times the total number of tickets available. One third of the 1.05 million tickets are sold direct to the public, with the remainder finding their way to spectators by other means – as was the case at the 2006 FIFA World Cup™. Thirty eight percent of tickets are allocated to the 16 participating national football associations. Many sponsors also donate a major part of their allocation to fans. At least 75 percent of tickets finally end up in the hands of the football enthusiasts who create the atmosphere at the games. However, the organisers of the UEFA EURO 2008™ reckon that the eight stadiums involved with the European Championship are actually too small – and have admitted it publicly.

The finals are being organised at the lowest possible level. “You could not have thought smaller for a UEFA European Football Championship™”, says Martin Kallen, the managing director of the UEFA EURO 2008™ Organising Committee. “We simply don’t have such big stadiums as the fans became accustomed to at the UEFA EURO in Portugal and the FIFA World Cup™ in Germany. We have capacity problems everywhere”, Kallen explains. The crowd-capacities of Prater Stadium in Vienna and of St. Jakobs Park in Basle, the biggest of the stadiums, have been increased by new extensions. A substantial increase in the number of tickets was not achieved, however. But a small, compact tournament, as proved by the 1992 UEFA European Football Championship™ finals in Sweden, certainly has its attractions.

“Experience Emotions” is the inviting slogan offered by Switzerland, which expects 1.5 million visitors, while Austria reckons on 1.6 million. Public viewing, with giant screens in large public fan zones, promises to be a summer hit in the two Alpine nations, in the same way as at the 2006 FIFA World Cup™ Not just in host cities Innsbruck, Klagenfurt, Salzburg and Vienna in Austria, and Basle, Bern, Zurich and Geneva in Switzerland, but other cities where hundreds of thousands of football enthusiasts are expected to enjoy fan festivals during the three weeks of the Championship finals. In Switzerland alone 3.2 million visitors are expected to turn up at public viewings. No fewer than 38 Swiss cities want to show the matches live on giant screens, but only 17 will be permitted. The selection will be made in June 2007.

The budget for the UEFA EURO 2008 ™ has recently been increased from 133.2 million to 147 million Euros. “We do not aim at a financial profit”, Mr Kallen disclosed. The profit for the organisers would be minimal. Security remains a major priority. After the initial allocation of tickets, 40 people had them cancelled as they were found to be listed as possible troublemakers on national police files. The security is continually widening, with complete co-operation between EU member Austria and its non-EU partner Switzerland.

The National Council of Switzerland has already approved the mobilising of 15,000 soldiers to support the civil authorities in various fields, such as first aid, protection of property and logistics. All efforts to ensure the UEFA European Football Championship™ finals remain a trouble-free event have also been established in Austria. Further preparations are in full swing.

There has never been any doubt that the UEFA EURO 2008 ™ will be organised with the highest of standards.