U19 finals win Boyce backing

By Andrew Haslam in Belfast

UEFA's youth and amateur football committee chairman Jim Boyce had a special reason for wanting the 2004/05 UEFA European Under-19 Championship finals to go well.

Crucial role
As president of the Irish Football Association (IFA), Boyce was instrumental in bringing the tournament to Northern Ireland, the first time the country had staged a major international final tournament at any level. Having worked so hard to see his vision fulfilled, Boyce could not be happier with how the tournament has gone.

Unlimited praise
"I've been absolutely delighted with all of the organisation, and we can't praise people highly enough for that," he told uefa.com. "We couldn't have done this without help from the government, Belfast city council, the sponsors and everyone else who has contributed to making this such a success. Before they left, every one of the teams thanked me, praising the state of the training grounds and the pitches, and said what a wonderful time they'd had in Northern Ireland."

Media support
"I'm delighted as well with the number of people we’ve had attending games," he continued. "My aim for the tournament was a total of 20,000 people, and I'm hopeful we can achieve that with the final. Another key factor has been the media coverage. We've had tremendous help from the media, who've been superb and have helped a lot. The media have always given me fantastic support as president of the IFA, they promised me that they would get behind this tournament and I thank them for doing that.

High standards
"The crowds have been tremendous, and they've seen some wonderful football," continued Boyce, who recognised that the last part was particularly significant. "The standard of football has been very, very high, and there's been plenty of goals, and lots of exciting matches. I have no doubts that many of these young players will go straight into their U21 sides and I think that a lot of full internationals could come out of this tournament."

Clear roles
Northern Ireland submitted a bid for these finals to UEFA in 2001, and Boyce says a lot of hard work has gone on in the intervening years. "It's been a very lengthy process and the work that [tournament director] Craig [Stanfield] and his staff have put in has been immense. We set up a board to run this tournament and it has run so smoothly because everyone knew what they had to do."

Future ambitions
With the tournament almost over, thoughts are turning towards the future and Boyce believes the success of this event has broadened Northern Ireland's horizons. "This is not the height of my ambitions," he said. "UEFA have changed the rules for the European U21 Championship, from 2007 it'll be a bidding process and I would like to think that, because of the success of this tournament, we could maybe launch a bid for that in 2011.

'Proud'
"I don't think we rest on our laurels now," he went on. "There's the possibility of hosting a youth conference, or a UEFA executive committee meeting in Northern Ireland. This tournament has opened those doors for something bigger in the future without a shadow of a doubt. Our U21 side will be back next season after we had to withdraw them from the current qualifying campaign for financial reasons, and I think our U19 team did everyone proud here. I see a bright future for Northern Irish football on and off the pitch."