France gets boost from Euro 2016

FOUR French cities are to get new state-of-the-art stadiums and eight others will have their existing facilities improved after France was confirmed as the host of the Euro 2016 football tournament.

The French Football Federation hopes 4,000 long-term jobs will be created after the country beat off competition from Turkey and Italy to host the event.

A further 15,000 jobs should be created during the construction and renovation phase, between now and 2014.

The FFF is also expecting a major boost to tourism - with an estimated 2.5 million visitors spending between €150 and €200 a day on tickets, hotel accommodation and meals.

Construction work will now begin on new stadiums in Bordeaux, Lyon, Nice and Lille with a combined budget of more than €1bn, on top of the €700m of renovation work planned at eight other venues around France hoping to stage matches.

The four towns with new stadiums and the Stade de France in Saint-Denis are guaranteed to see some of the action in summer 2016.

Out of the other seven towns, four will host matches and three will act as reserves. The candidates are Toulouse, Marseille, Saint-Etienne, Lens, Nancy, Strasbourg and Paris's Parc des Princes.

Euro 2016 will be France's first chance to host a major football tournament since the 1998 World Cup, which it won.

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