Weekly Article by the The Economist

What price euphoria?
segunda-feira, agosto 02, 2004

For Portugal and Greece, Euro 2004 and the Olympics serve similar purposes. They are international coming-out parties for small countries that fret about being on the geographic, political and economic fringes of Europe. Both countries moved from dictatorship to democracy in the 1970s. Both had their fitness to host big sports events questioned, because of their small populations (around 10m apiece) and relative poverty; Portugal and Greece were long the poorest of the EU's 15 countries. Both see this summer's sporting events as a chance to make a statement. The press handbook for Euro 2004 contains a potted history of Portugal featuring revolution, dictatorship and loss of empire, before noting, a touch defensively, that “Portugal is now a modern and progressive nation.” Certainly anyone ambling past the bars and restaurants of Lisbon, packed with football fans, would find it hard to believe that 30 years ago this was a city choked with refugees, as a million settlers flooded back into Portugal after the liquidation of its colonial empire....

...The Portuguese bid to host Euro 2004 was made in the middle of a long economic boom. But by the time the tournament was actually on the horizon, the country was suffering from a severe economic hangover. Government spending had got badly out of control and Portugal achieved the dubious honour of becoming the first of the 12 countries in the euro area to break the stability-pact ceilings on budget deficits. The government of José Manuel Durão Barroso was obliged to slash spending, freeze civil-service pay and raise taxes. The result, at least in the short term, was to make the recession worse. Mr Barroso's virtue has been rewarded this week with his appointment to the presidency of the European Commission. Portuguese virtue could yet be rewarded with higher growth. But there must have been many times when the Portuguese people cursed all that cash going into sky-boxes for football fans, while civil servants marched through the streets in protest at their pay freeze....

...The economy is now at least expanding again, but the extravagance of spending on Euro 2004 may seem even more marked when the tournament is over. The Stadium of Light looks and sounds fantastic when capacity crowds of 65,000 roar on their teams. It could feel a little sad and empty during the normal Portuguese football season. Its normal occupant, Benfica football club, attracts an average attendance of 22,000. The figures are even starker for new stadiums outside Lisbon. The new Braga arena holds 30,000 supporters; FC Braga, the local team, attracts an average attendance of just over 5,000....

...Indeed, the economic arguments for hosting big sporting tournaments are largely spurious. The real case for Portugal taking on Euro 2004 is that sporting success seems to make people feel marvellously good. The English still drone on about winning the football World Cup at home in 1966. Danish supporters in Portugal carried banners bearing the date 1992: a reference not to the signature of the Maastricht treaty, but to Denmark's historic victory in that year's Euro tournament. For the past month the whole of Portugal has been agog as the national side, after an uncertain start, has progressed through the tournament, notching up heart-stopping victories over bigger, richer countries such as Spain, England and the Netherlands on the way.

Against most expectations, the Portuguese may even carry off the championship in the final on July 4th. Who needs an empire, or an economic boom, if you can have moments as ecstatic as that?...

Publicado por António Duarte 16:38:00    

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