EURO 2008 Austria-Switzerland

UEFA EURO 2008

The 13th European Football Championships will be started with the match of Swiss Basle on 7th June 2008.

After EURO 2000, played on fields in Netherlands and Belgium, this will be the second, European football final organised by two countries together. This is the most important sport event in the history of Austria and Switzerland. The organisers will take all efforts to make these finals even the more sport, organisational or financial success than those from four years ago, held in Portugal.

And it is worth to fight for. The Portuguese final gathered over half a million fans, television broadcasts were viewed in 200 countries and each of 31 matches was watched on TV by 150 million viewers on average. The Swiss and Austrian championships have a chance to cut everything. It is estimated that, except Europe, live broadcasts will be viewed by over 2 billion 600 million people!

Logo

The official countdown to EURO 2008 was started with the championships logo. Its premiere took place at the Hofburg Palace Ceremony in Vienna, Austria. The logo presented in exactly three years before opening the championships, relates to symbolic of the host-countries, namely high, slender mountains. The dominant white and red are the colours of the national flags of both countries.

 

 

Mascot

Trix and Flix are the names of the two official mascots for UEFA EURO 2008 that have been chosen by more than 67,000 Austrian and Swiss football fans.

In the competition for mascots’ names the UEFA proposed to fans three pairs of names to choose from. The “Trix and Flix” proposal won but it was a very close result – “Trix and Flix” received 36.3% of the votes, followed by “Flitz and Bitz” (33.7%) and “Zagi and Zigi” (30%). The results were announced in Innsbruck ahead of the friendly international between EURO 2008 hosts - Austria and Switzerland on 11th November.

"It's like when parents announce the birth of a child," said UEFA EURO 2008 tournament director for Switzerland, Christian Mutschler. "A child's name isn't always to everyone's liking, but the fact 67,406 football fans in Austria and Switzerland cast a vote shows that the names proposed were very popular."

The three pairs of names were selected by UEFA in consultation with the Austrian and Swiss national associations, and had to fulfill a number of criteria: "We suggested names that were short, simple, pronounceable in different languages, and which reflected the lively, happy nature of the mascots," said Christian Schmölzer, UEFA EURO 2008 tournament director for Austria. "They also had to be legally registered in advance."

Trix and Flix are two figures wearing football outfits: red and white, and they hair is reminiscent of the mountain ridges. The design of the hair reminds in shape the logo of EURO 2008, which is intended to symbolize the ridges of the Alps uniting the two host countries of the championships. The white-clad player has number “20” in front, while the red-clad one has number “08”.

The pair of mascots was not designed with two countries in kind- one for Switzerland and the other for Austria, but with an intention to symbolize the joint hosting of the event.

- They are an inseparable pair, dressed in national colors of both our countries – said the president of the Austrian Football Federation, Friedrich Stickler.

The mascots were presented in Vienna on 27 September. Since then, Austrian and Swiss supporters have been voting to choose their names – via www.euro2008.com, in McDonald's restaurants in Switzerland and Austria, or via a hotline.

Host cities

The matches of the 13th European Championships shall be played on 8 stadiums (4 in Austria and 4 in Switzerland). In Austria, the fans will gather on stadiums in Salzburg, Innsbruck, Klagenfurt and Vienna, where the final match will be played. The Swiss prepared stadiums in Bern, Geneva, Basle and Zurich. All arenas of EURO 2008 may be seen on the following webpage stadionwelt.de.

Organisation

About 400 persons gathered in seven groups work over reliable organisation of EURO 2008 finals. The headquarters is situated in Nyon, Switzerland, and the national branches in Bern and Vienna. We know that each of 31 matches will be serviced by about 1800 persons – policemen, medical care assistants, firemen, volunteers. The organisers are in disposition of a large budget amounting to 130 million Euro that may be increased by the UEFA as needed.

Cooperation

Friedrich Stickler, president of the Austrian Football Association (ÖFB) is very enthusiastic:
– We want to relocate the fantastic, positive atmosphere from Portugal to the Central Europe. We will organise the best football championships of a festival nature. Our beautiful cities, namely Vienna, Salzburg or Innsbruck are ready to become the football capitals.

Stickler does not doubt that close cooperation between partners is the key for success:
– Cooperation between our two countries was very fruitful for us. This is an indispensable experience, which will pay off in the future. I am convinced that we will take the chance of common organisation of this event. Undoubtedly, we sense the higher rank of our national, football federations, the level of our football will be increased and of course, we expect only economic advantages. It is important to get citizens of our countries closer to themselves. The Austrian and Swiss people work together for their success; they sensed the "common mission". This message is extremely important: we are the best prove that the chance of hosting the EURO finals may be posed not only for countries tat are large and famous for football achievements.