Senior officials of the governments of Euro 2008 co-hosts Austria and Switzerland have given high praise to the tournament up to a close here on Sunday ahead of the evening’s final between Spain and Germany.
"It's been a mega event. The third-biggest sports event in the world has been organized with no problems," said Swiss Defence Minister Samuel Schmid, adding that Euro 2008 has had significant positive effects in his country, despite the fact that both co-hosts were eliminated in the first round.
"In Switzerland, we've had fewer traffic bottlenecks, less road congestion and even the crime rate dropped in some places," he said.
"The Swiss population has been enthusiastic about football. The event has been peaceful, any exceptions only confirm the rule. The security services were adequate. We had hundreds of additional trains running on schedule, this took a burden off the roads. Many of these elements will have a sustainable effect."
Austria Chancellor Alfred Gusenbauer echoed to describe the tournament as a success off the pitch because of security, public transport and ecological measures.
"We were able to cope with difficult situations -- the heavy rain in Basel, the thunderstorm in Vienna during which the fan zone had to be evacuated," Gusenbauer said. "In terms of security, the more critical matches like Germany against Poland, Croatia against Turkey and Switzerland against Turkey, these were all situations that were coped with very, very well."
Gusenbauer slammed the critics who had predicted chaos before it had begun.
"This was a green European Championship because much of the traffic, long distance and in the cities, were carried by public transport," he said." While the atmosphere in the viewing zones was excellent, was peaceful.
"The negative scenarios that had been announced by certain prophets of doom, that city centers would be destroyed, that there would be hooligans all over the place, that the public parks would be ruined. All sorts of fears and anxieties had been expressed, but nothing like that happened," he added.
Source: Xinhua
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