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Strike action may hit the Euro '96 football championship after the train drivers' union Aslef yesterday called for a ballot on 24-hour stoppages in protest at a 2.7 per cent pay offer to its London Underground staff.

The union's executive said the first threatened walk-out is on 26 June, the date of the semi-final when tens of thousands of fans will be travelling to Wembley for the game. Aslef said the company was attaching unacceptable strings to its offer in order to finance a one-hour reduction in the working week to 36.5 hours. Aslef said London Underground was only prepared to 1.9 per cent if there were no concessions.

Voting for one-day walkouts among the union's 2,000 members at London Underground will end on 19 June, leaving a statutory seven days notice for the first stoppage on 26 June. Lou Adams, general secretary of Aslef, accused management of reneging on a deal which bought last year's pay dispute to an end. A spokesman for London Underground said management was "rather surprised" by the ballot decision and warned that a strike would not help the business or its staff.