Sweden gears up for U21 finals

Swedish Football Association president Lars-Åke Lagrell is looking forward to a "great competition" as the countdown continues to the start of the 2009 UEFA European Under-21 Championship in Sweden in June.

Centre stage
The tournament kicks off two months from today at Örjans Vall in Halmstad when England take on Finland in Group A. With the Swedish domestic season having just begun, football is back on centre stage in the Scandinavian country and tickets are selling well for this summer's finals.

'Great competition'
Not since the 1992 UEFA European Championship has Sweden organised a tournament on this scale and according to Lagrell it is not only the players who will be picking up important experience this summer. "It's a great competition," he told uefa.com. "Among the under-21s you will find the great players of the future. That's why it's important for us to start with under-21s. I also think it's a great way for a football association to get more experience, and you only get experience by having the courage to organise."

New venues
The tournament is centred on the west coast of Sweden with Helsingborg, Gothenburg and Malmo hosting matches as well Halmstad. New stadiums have been built in Malmo and Gothenburg for the event, both of which have already hosted Allsvenskan matches this season. The Malmö New Stadium opened its doors for a competitive fixture for the first time on Monday when Malmö FF beat Örgryte IS 3-0 in the Allsvenskan, and Lagrell believes the new venues will add to the sense of occasion this summer. "Playing at two completely newly built arenas can help increase the interest," he said. "Both stadiums have space for around 20,000 spectators, they are very compact venues with close proximity between the pitch and the spectators."

Great interest
Interest in Sweden, of course, will depend largely on the success of the host nation. Holders the Netherlands enjoyed huge support on their way to lifting the trophy on home soil in 2007, riding a wave of orange to victory over Serbia in the final in Groningen. Lagrell is hoping for a similar galvanising affect from Swedish fans this summer. "When we play European and World Cup finals we usually get a huge rise in supporters, and many wear nothing but yellow," he said. "Sweden is behind this. This will help raise the level of interest for football. We have experience from EURO '92, which helped increase the number of spectators at our league games as well."

Toivonen impresses
As preparations off the field intensify ahead of the 15 June kick off, on it Sweden are also putting the finishing touches into place. In recent friendly matches Sweden have beaten the Netherlands 3-0, and drawn with Italy and Spain. A narrow 1-0 defeat by Finland on 27 March was simply further indication of how steep the competition will be this summer. Lagrell is impressed by the talent running though the Sweden side and picks out PSV Eindhoven striker Ola Toivonen as one to watch.

'Better and better'
"He's the breakthrough type, scores quite a few goals," Lagrell said. As for succeeding the Netherlands as champions, Lagrell is loathe to add to the pressure on the hosts: "That's hard to say. I think we have a good team at the moment, but you need a bit of luck to win a tournament. We've have been putting a new team together and it's been going better and better, so we do have ambitions. If that's enough to reach the end, I don't dare predict."