Portugal has invested a great deal of money in Euro 2004. Two stadiums have been renovated and eight new ones built, not to mention the money spent on access roads. The government has high hopes for a good return on the investment. A good profit will help the economy, benefiting the construction industry and tourism and helping to lower unemployment.

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They’re expecting over a million visitors with a lot of money to spend. And over a hundred TV stations will broadcast the event, making it a great opportunity to promote the country abroad.

But what do ordinary Portuguese people think of the event? Is it money well invested or a waste of resources?

“One thing is for certain - it will bring a lot of tourists to the country. Even the ones who don’t come will hear about it. It’s not much good for the ordinary Portuguese though. They can’t even afford the tickets for the games. But of course, it isn’t meant for us. I don’t know if the investment will be worth it. We’ll just have to wait and see I suppose. And pray that nothing goes wrong to damage our country’s image.”

“Of course it’s important to promote our ‘little country by the sea’, but is it worth the cost? This isn’t a rich country so just imagine how many social problems could be helped with so much money. There must be better ways of showing the world what we can do. On balance I’d choose not to have it, thank you very much.”

“I’m not sure that we’re ready to welcome so many foreigners, whether they’re peaceful or not. I think a lot of people are worried about whether our services can cope – like hospitals and transport for example. But this is a country that literally stops when there’s a football match - we love it. Are there any other countries with three daily sport newspapers? So what better way to forget our economic problems for a while.”

“Portugal has proved in the past that it’s an excellent organiser of international events - Expo 98, for example, and the tennis Masters in 2000. The Portuguese people are really involved in Euro 2004 and full of enthusiasm. There are flags on balconies all over the city. We have a reputation for welcoming foreigners and it’s going to be a wonderful festival.”

“So we’ll all be happier for a while and it will be good for the tourist trade - but only for three weeks. It’ll be good for the economy in the short term but in the long term we’ll be paying for it. And if that means taking money away from schools and hospitals then it just isn’t worth it in my opinion. But I do think that the architecture of some of the stadiums is interesting. I love the one in Braga. I really like the way they’ve integrated the landscape into the design and used the rocks as part of the building.”

“Too many stadiums in too many places if you ask me. Why on earth did we need ten of them? I agree that it shouldn’t be held just in Lisbon but did we really need such expensive stadiums in such small cities? Some of them are only being used for two games! And the cheapest one was about 40 million Euros, and others cost two or three times as much. That’s a lot of money.”

“I’m really proud of what we did with Expo 98, and I’m hoping we can do the same again. Everyone who lives in Lisbon agrees that Expo was a huge success. The whole of the eastern side of the city on the river was regenerated and now it’s a really popular place to go. If we hadn’t had Expo, it would still be a rundown slum like it was before. They would never have spent the money on it. We showed other cities that it is possible to build things for these big international events that are useful afterwards.”

“If other countries can do it why can’t we? Spain did it, and we’ll show that we can do it better then them. The Portuguese are always so pessimistic – “something will go wrong”, “the stadiums won’t be ready”, or “it won’t make a profit”. Moaning is a national pastime. It’s going to be a great success and really put our country on the map.”

“It’ll be fantastic for tourism, and not only in the short term. People might only stay for a few weeks this time, but they’ll see different parts of the country, Lisbon, the Algarve, Coimbra and so on and they’ll realise what a great place it is, and come back for holidays again and again. I’m sure it’s worth the investment.”

Your turn
What do you think? Would you like to see your country host an international sporting event like this? Would it be worth the cost or could the money be better spent on something else?  Send us your opinions.

Links
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EURO2008
European Football Championships: history
British Council Portugal: Euro 2004 homepage

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