Euro 2008 organisers braced for large crowds

By Mark Ledsom

LUCERNE, Switzerland (Reuters) - Euro 2008 preparations are on track with six months to go but an expected avalanche of German fans could force changes to plans for fan zones in small cities, organisers said on Saturday.

"We are very well on track for the moment," Euro 2008's chief operating officer Martin Kallen told a news conference.

"We have achieved the milestones we wanted to achieve and there are not a lot of open points remaining. Of course things can still crop up but for the moment everything is going according to schedule.

"Of course you cannot compare the public viewing zones that they had at last year's World Cup in Germany to what we will have in Switzerland and Austria. The Berlin fan zone could hold one million people whereas we will have up to 70,000 in Vienna and 20-40,000 in the other cities.

"I think that will be sufficient but we will see what happens in the draw tomorrow (11a.m. British time on Sunday). If Germany are drawn to play in Berne then the fan zones there might prove too small but we will look at it all after the draw and see what we can do in the following weeks."

Public viewing zones for fans without match tickets were first provided on a large scale at the 2004 European championship in Portugal and became one of the big success stories of the 2006 World Cup.

The relatively small size of the Euro 2008 cities -- with only Vienna boasting more than a million inhabitants -- has prompted concern over their ability to handle large numbers of fans.

The potential pressure on Switzerland in particular has been increased by the qualification of its three biggest neighbours -- Germany, France and Italy -- although England's failure to reach the tournament should ease the load.