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Switzerland/France joint bid for 2003 Confederations Cup

1676 Views 4 Replies 2 Participants Last post by  SwissGCZ
The host for the next Confederations Cup in 2003 has yet to be named. Australia, Egypt, Portugal, South Africa and the United States have expressed an interest while France and Switzerland were considering a joint bid. The bids have to be submitted officially to FIFA before May 1. Lyon and Saint-Etienne would be the French pair and both are well prepared after hosting 1998 World Cup matches. The Swiss venues Enault proposed are Basel (St. Jakobs Park) and Geneva (The new Stade de Genève.)

Getting the Confederations Cup would be great, but the chances are slim in my opinion. The 2005 tournament will already be hosted by Europe (Germany), and Fifa might give it to Africa as a consolation for missing out on the 2006 World Cup. So far - France, Japan, Colombia, USA, and Cameroon have qualified.

I hope Switzerland gets it - hosting the tournament is probably the only way Switzerland will ever play in it...
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This is a tough call for me since naturally i'd want Australia to get the tournament since i'd be able to go and see the games and because its the sort of tournament that could boost the game in our region. I also think we deserve it because out NT takes the tournament seriously (since the NT doesn't get to play together that often and hence qualification is essential - we f***ed up a few years ago :doh: :eek: and hence New Zealand played in the 1999 tournament, it won't happen again anytime soon though)

Having said that, it would be great for Switzerland to get the tournament for a few reasons, although the reasons u mentioned SwissGCZ as well as the fact Switzerland is already hosting the UEFA U-21 tournament may count against them. However, it would be :cool: for St Jakob Park and if Chipperfield was still at Basel it would be kind of Ironic and funky if he were to play some of his teammates in the home ground of his club

I don't think a joint bid is the way to go though since the Austria-Switzerland bid has caused some problems and co-hosting with France would favour the French speaking communities who would host 3 out of the 4 venues (unless Lugano got to host instead of Geneva which would be more fair IMO)
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The problem with Lugano is the stadium - the Cornaredo needs some serious renovation. Also, Lugano hasn't exactly shown much support for football lately. By 2003 Geneva will have this beauty ready: http://www.stadium-geneva.com/
Bump - the bid is about to become official.
Update: Switzerland declined France's invitation :(

France are to persist with their bid to win the right to host the 2003 Confederations Cup despite Switzerland ruling out co-hosting it with them it was announced here Friday. The Swiss had declined France's invitation to put on the FIFA-authorised tournament but after a meeting of the French Football Federation board Friday they decided to carry on alone.

I guess the Swiss federation didn't want to jeopardize it's Euro 2008 bid. Maybe they also didn't want to rush the completion of the Stade de Geneve...
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