Portugal arrange tournament base

Agreement signed
The agreement was signed today at a ceremony attended by Gilberto Madaíl, Portuguese Football Federation (FPF) president and chairman of the board of Euro 2004, S.A., and national coach Luiz Felipe Scolari. Also in attendance were Sporting president António Dias da Cunha and academy director Pedro Mil-Homens.

Academy details
The academy complex, situated on the south bank of the Tejo river, has five 110m x 70m grass pitches, a 60m x 40m artificial pitch, and a 60m x 40m indoor pitch. Scolari, who led his native Brazil to victory at the 2002 FIFA World Cup, was enthusiastic about the set-up, saying: "This venue has everything we need for Portugal to do the job everybody wants us to do.

'Excellent location'
"The training centre is in an excellent location. We can work in privacy every hour of the day with individual plans for each player." However, Scolari has elected to use a resort near Óbidos for Portugal's pre-tournament training camp.

Thorough planning
Asked about his aims for EURO 2004™, Scolari repeated his insistence that Portugal can reach the semi-finals at least. "I have three matches that I can plan thoroughly, where we can lose once and still qualify," he said. "Then we will have another match. I do not want to ask for more from the players than I am already. But from the semi-finals, it is different matter. We certainly hope to get there."

President's wish
Meanwhile, Madaíl was happy to stress the importance of the academy. "This will be a neutral ground for 30 days and we hope to stay here for that period of time," he said. "It also corresponds to the wish of the Sporting president to have the national team training here."

'Complete satisfaction'
"This is a UEFA EURO 2004™ official training centre and it is with complete satisfaction that we are here," he continued. "I hope the players and staff can feel at home and the national coach has everything he needs to perform quality work in order to achieve the success every Portuguese person desires."