The Taoiseach has defended the Government's handling of the joint Scotland Ireland bid for Euro 2008 soccer championships, claiming internal football politics was to blame for its failure.
The Government, and Mr Ahern in particular, has been blamed by Opposition parties for the unsuccessful bid.
The failure to guarantee two stadiums and the intervention by the Taoiseach that led to the FAI abandoning plans to build its own stadium was blamed for UEFA's decision to back Austria/Switzerland.
But speaking on the fringes of the EU summit in Copenhagen this morning, Mr Ahern said: "We fulfilled what we had to fulfill, it would have been nice if things had been tidier but that's the way the world goes. But in the end of the day I think on our technical performance and presentation we were only a point short of the bid . . . I think it was football politics and I'm not surprised with that, but disappointed".
However, after it first appeared the Celtic proposal had been one of four shortlisted, it emerged the bid did not make it past the first round of consideration.
UEFA sources indicated the stadium issue was a significant problem with the bid. They also said the proposal to use three Glasgow stadiums - potentially creating crowd-control issues - was seen as a negative aspect of the application.
Fine Gael claimed that defeat was inevitable due to the Government's failure to back a guarantee that two stadiums would be available. "The Government must take responsibility for the unsuccessful outcome. But for their interference with the FAI and GAA, the probability is that the bid would have been successful," Mr Jimmy Deenihan said.
The leader of the Labour Party, Mr Pat Rabbitte, said the UEFA decision had not come as "a major surprise" given the uncertainty about the availability of stadiums."At the end of the day, UEFA has clearly decided that the Taoiseach could not be relied upon to deliver on the written commitments he gave this week," he said.