Marriage was shaky from start

EURO 2008 BID/Scottish view: There is a widely held belief here in Scotland that our chances of hosting Euro 2008 disappeared with Henry McLeish when he walked out on his job as Scottish First Minister in November last year.

McLeish was not without his faults - looking after his office expenses clearly being one of them - but he was a gut-instinct populist and he recognised early on the huge benefits, political as well as financial, which would follow a successful bid of this type.

A former professional footballer, McLeish gave the Scottish-solo bid for Euro 2008 full backing throughout 2001. When he resigned in November of that year, he was replaced by Jack McConnell, a much more cautious politician. It became apparent very early on that McConnell was not convinced by the arguments in favour of a Scottish bid and within two months of taking over, the new First Minister had ruled out a solo bid and instead decided only to enter the bidding process with a partner country - Ireland.

The decision to drop the Scottish-only bid was driven by fear and politics, not by the spectre of so-called "white elephant" stadia cluttering up Scotland's cities. McConnell approached Ireland because he was scared of the risks - financial and political - of going it alone and he was desperate to ditch the legacy of his predecessor.

This decision was taken at the end of January this year. The deadline for notifying UEFA of any bids was the end of February. This meant that the Irish were given just four weeks to come to a decision on bidding for the tournament.

The farcical start to the Irish part of the bid with politicians arguing into the night on the eve of the deadline, trying to come to an agreement over a new national stadium, did nothing to help the Scottish-Irish bid get off to a good start.

But it would be unfair to blame the Irish for this when McConnell's hasty decision to ask the Irish Government for help left Bertie Ahern with so little time to come up with a coherent plan.

Despite all the assurances given that Ireland would deliver its promised two stadiums, the confusion over Stadium Ireland, Croke Park and Lansdowne Road provided UEFA delegates with an escape route - it gave them a reason not to back the Scottish-Irish bid.

Some people in Scotland have looked on in bewilderment for the last 10 months, aware that Scotland already has four great stadia in place and is ready to build two more while Ireland has not been able to commit a single one.

If these doubts have been expressed in Scotland - and they have - then they would certainly have been raised time and time again by the Austrians, the Swiss and the Scandinavians.The Scottish-Irish bid for the Euro 2008 championships clearly meant more to Scots than it did to the Irish.

Almost all the newspapers in Scotland publicly backed the plan, all the political parties united in support - although the Conservatives insisted that no public money should be spent - and 20,000 readers of the Daily Record, Scotland's main tabloid, sent in postcards of support to UEFA.

The bid was viewed as a symbolic coming-of-age for Scotland. For decades, Scots have felt overshadowed by England, but devolution and the arrival of the Scottish Parliament started an awakening of self-confidence which the Euro 2008 boost did much to boost.

The feeling was that this could never have been attempted before devolution. Securing the tournament would have done a huge amount for self-belief and confidence in a country where it has been in short supply, particularly around football, for many years.

But that is not to be, leaving Scotland and Ireland with the chance only of trying again for 2012.

Those behind the bid are well aware, though, that the competition for 2012 will be incredibly fierce as it is likely to involve England, France, Spain and Italy.

And they know that the best chance for both our countries may have slipped through our fingers, not to return for the foreseeable future.

Hamish Macdonell is political editor of The Scotsman newspaper