Numbers rise

The Euro 2004 football championship is now expected to attract 1.5 million fans to Portugal – three times the number originally estimated by the tournament organisers. “When people said more than half a million people would visit Portugal because of the Euro 2004, I never believed it,” Gilberto Madail, Portuguese Football Federation chief and head of the company running the tournament, said at a news conference. “The estimates we now have say that Euro 2004 should bring more than a million and a half people to Portugal.”