Football: Scotland chief bullish about bids

SCOTLAND SHOULD use the award of the 2002 European Cup final to Hampden Park as a launch-pad to bid for football's other showpiece events, according to Scottish Football Association's chief executive, David Taylor.

Taylor accepts Scottish ambitions are limited by the size of the country. He said: "As it is constructed at the moment we could not host a World Cup and the same goes for the European Championship. It's fair comment to say both would be difficult for Scotland to organise.

"But it should be remembered there are an increasing number of other competitions including talk at the moment of a new Nations' Cup. Any final tournament involving, say, eight teams or countries, we would have the facilities to cope with.

Uefa, European football's ruling body, also announced on Saturday that the European Cup final will be held at San Siro stadium in Milan in 2001. The 2001 Uefa Cup final will be held in Dortmund, Germany.

This season's European Cup final will be held at the Stade de France in Paris, the scene of last year's World Cup final. Copenhagen's Parken stadium will host the Uefa Cup final.

n All 31 matches in the 2004 European Championship in Portugal will be shown free on terrestrial television, Uefa announced on Saturday.