EURO 2008 INFO

In major European soccer championship, the trend is clear and long-standing ban on smoke smoke in certain areas or throughout the stadium. That will not be the case for EURO 2008.

Audiences will draw on their unrestrained clopes in all eight stages Swiss and Austrian which will host the competition. There will be no restriction in Zurich, Basel, Bern and Geneva, nor in Vienna, Salzburg, Innsbruck and Klagenfurt, told ATS Vögeli Pascale, a spokesman for EURO 2008 SA.

Legal requirements Swiss and Austrian allow smoke in stadiums. As organiser, the Union of European Football Federations (UEFA) would have been able to impose restrictions during the tournament, but rejected. Instead, UEFA has opted for a practical liberal: it allows what is allowed in normal times in the eight stages of the tournament, "said Vögeli. However, no pack of cigarettes will be sold this summer in stadiums and recommend to the spectators not to smoke.

Although UEFA has adopted a liberal doctrine for the EURO 2008, the future appears, however register under the auspices quite different. In Britain for example, all stages are already non-smoking. In the motherland of football, the one who risk to enkindle in the stands liable to a fine and repeat offenders are banned from the stage.

At Giuseppe-Meazza Stadium, where AC Milan and Inter Milan disputing their meetings at home, smoking is prohibited for some time. Violators écopent also a fine. In the German Bundesliga stadiums, more and more smoke-free areas are also furnished. Only the arenas in Munich, Stuttgart, Bremen and still leave Cottbus smokers to indulge their vice unrestricted. In the other venues on the other hand, there are more and more areas where smoking is banned and an extension of the ban is being seriously discussed.

At Borussia Dortmund for example, the club of the Swiss striker Alexander Frei, a smoking ban has been in effect for some time in a forum called families. At Schalke, Hamburg or Berlin, cigarette packets must also remain in the pocket in some sectors of the stadium.

The world federation, FIFA, follows the same line: a smoking ban has been declared for the first at the World Cup in 1994 in the United States. FIFA has itself imposed at the 2002 edition in Japan and South Korea. Four years later, during the 2006 World Cup in Germany, the smoke was not prohibited - like the EURO 2008. Only warnings against the dangers of smoking were broadcast.

A EURO 2008, the only smokers who suffer will be the coaches and other coaches of the teams. Unlike forums, the players' bench will be in effect subject to a strict ban on smoking