Party time in Portugal

Press briefing
Speaking at a press briefing in Lisbon today, Martin Kallen, the Euro 2004, S.A. COO, said all the signs pointed to a successful tournament, with the organising body having experienced "less and less problems" as the first week reached a close.

'Almost no incidents'
"I am pretty satisfied with how the tournament is going and I am happy with where we are standing today," Kallen said. "We have less and less problems. There is a festival of football in almost all matches with almost no incidents. I am very pleased with the activities organised in and around the stadiums."

Positive feedback
Kallen said that he had received positive feedback from supporters attending matches and expressed satisfaction with the television coverage. "I had spoken to many supporters in various stadiums and they told me that they like the tournament and they especially like very much this country and the warm and friendly reception from the local population.

Worldwide interest
"Also the figures show that it's a success from the television aspect and that the EURO is very well watched throughout the world." Tomorrow brings the beginning of week two of the tournament and on Sunday the first stage will start to conclude when the final Group A matches are played.

Decisive matches
UEFA's director of communications and public affairs, William Gaillard, said that unlike in other tournaments, "the third round will be in many cases decisive for the big teams and this makes it a very exciting tournament. That of course will attract a lot of viewers".

Audience figures
Gaillard gave the television audience figures for the second round of Group A fixtures, including Portugal's victory over Russia which drew 3.3m viewers in the host country, an audience share of 80.2 per cent. Over ten million viewers in Germany watched the same match and 8.5m in France. "Even in countries that were not involved in that match we had one third of the total TV audience watching that game," said Gaillard.