Turkey, as the first candidate to deliver its final presentation prior to UEFA Executive Committee's meeting on May 28th when the host nation for the 2016 European Championship (EURO 2016) will be announced is preparing a very convincing and striking presentation.

EURO 2016 Project Director Orhan Gorbon, answered the questions of AA reporter at the TFF headquarters in İstinye. While indicating that the presentation that will be delivered prior to the UEFA Executive Committee's meeting on Friday May 28th will be very important he said "We will be the first bidder to deliver our final presentation that will take 30 minutes. In this half hour we will try to get together everything we have been telling to this day and it will be a great opportunity to tell all to everyone one last time."

Gorbon conveyed the messages that they will be putting forward in the final presentation where Defne Samyeli will be the master of ceremony. He said "First of all we will emphasise the fact that Turkey has never hosted this organization in previous years, we are the candidate for the 3rd consecutive time and some European countries hosted the tournament more than once. Then we will go on with the hundred per cent increase that Turkish tourism potential achieved in the last 6 or 7 years. And finally we will highlight the transportation infrastructure investments that are in the process."

"It is the perfect opportunity to tell about developing Turkey, its young population and the new stadiums" said Orhan Gorbon and continued: "No matter what the result is, we need to look at the positive side. The rule for this kind of candidacies is that you have to win even though you lose the competition. It is like a football match, 90 minutes and the additional time ends 0-0 and the result of the game depends on penalty shoots. In the presentation, we will be telling how far Tukey has come, how much the Turkish youth wants this and how well we can execute the bid dossier, the presentation and the stadiums. Voters will further the respect Turkey. The presentation and the ceremony will be aired live on international TV channels. This will also be a golden opportunity to advertise Turkey." 

"IT IS TRUE THAT THE INVESTMENTS IN TRANSPORTATION IS VERY IMPORTANT"

On the evaluation report that UEFA published on May 14th, Turkey did not receive a grade as good as France on the subject of transportation. Orhan Gorbon commented on this state as "We say that 8 to 10 billion dollars is invested in transportation projects every year but no one seems to believe. There is no guarantee mechanism for this subject in the bid dossier. UEFA does not require any guarantee letters and therefore we can only claim that the figures we provide are correct."

While mentioning that he cannot deny that Turkey is a country still developing Gorbon continued:
"On the subject of transportation we argue that what we have done in the past is the guarantee for what we will do in the future and try to convince UEFA by saying 'if you are concerned about the 300 km railway network that we propose to finish in the next 6 years, take a look at what we have achieved in the past 6 years'. The new airports, new passenger capacities, Ankara - Eskisehir high speed train, Marmaray, Gebze - İzmir motorway, Konya - Ankara high speed train, Antalya and İzmir Airports, these are monstrous investments.

We cannot deny that Turkey is a developing country by looking at the reports. It is a fact that the French high speed railway lines were constructed 15-20 years ago and it takes only 3 hours to get from Paris to Southern France. In the current situation, the investments for transportation is significantly important but the condition is 'we will make the investments in 100 percent even we win the tournament or not' instead of 'the investments may be made given that we are awarded with the EURO 2106'. Our Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and Minister of Transportation Binali Yıldırım were both present at the meetings held with UEFA. The investment figures proposed are taken to be so high in Europe that leaded everyone to think that they will only be made on the condition that we are awarded with EURO 2016. Lately we are trying to convince everyone that this is not the case.

Furthermore, it is unfair to say that Ankara and İzmir airports are below the requirements. Ankara airport is one of the few airports in Europe that is new and receives awards continuously. In the report, 'below the requirements' as a term means that UEFA is concerned with the daily capacity of the airports on the match days. For example there will be a match between England and Spain in Konya. 60 thousand spectators will get to Ankara with several flights and leave after the game. They say that this would require a capacity of 70 thousand and the airport may not be able to serve to this capacity. This is a correct determination but very limited number of airports in Europe is eligible for serving to this kind of population and there are alternative measures that can be taken to make this possible. Passport control desks may be increased, planes may be parked. It is not surprising to see that Turkish infrastructure projects are evaluated as partially inadequate because Turkey is a rapidly developing country. It is normal that UEFA and people in Europe are following these developments from a few steps behind. Our job is to change this."

"WHAT HIIDINK SAID WAS REALLY IMPORTANT"

Orhan Gorbon said that what A National Team Coach Guus Hiddink and Fenerbahçe Coach Cristoph Daum told about Turkey to foreign press members during the candidacy process was very important. Mentioning that he did not have the chance to meet with Daum very often but he got together with Hiddink to present their projects in detail, Gaorbon said "Comments given by the foreign football authorities' and respected football members' are more important than the advertisements made by Turkish people to Turkish people. Hiddink complimented our project very much. He spoke to foreign press about it in every chance, wrote about it in i-his column in Dutch press. Coaches like Hiddink are the professors of this subject. They are the ones to know how a bid dossier should be because the teams and the coaches are the ones that actually live through the organization. Hiddink, a coach that is very knowledgeable about Australia, Holland, South Korea, England and Russia is very experienced and what he says is very important."

"THE LETTER OF OUR PRIME MINISTER HAS A VITAL IMPORTANCE"

Gorbon, highlighting the 55 guarantee letters required by UEFA, spoke about UEFA's contentment in the report about the guarantees provided by the Turkish government. He said "The wordings of the guarantee letters are fixed. Candidates are expected to sign the text as it arrives. As the TFF, we took a serious approach. Our government acted devotedly since they want this to happen as well. We have cooperated greatly."

Orhan Gorbon, pointed out that the letter of guarantee that is worth 920 million euro signed by our Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan was not the only one but each of the guarantees required by UEFA was signed by ministers, mayors, governors and sponsors and he added:

"Dedicated efforts are very important. This proves how strict we are in our devotion. The letter signed by our Prime Minister for the proposed stadium investments is very important. If our Prime Minister has not signed the guarantee letter it would be just us committing to do the investments but now it is guaranteed by our government.

We have asked to our foreign consultants and UEFA officials how the perfect stadium financing shall be, they said the best would be by government initiative and therefore we followed this route. In Turkey since the stadium areas from the existing stadiums are available the cost to build new ones are not so overwhelming for the government as in Kayseri and Turk Telekom arena.

The reports on other candidates were a little demagogic. In France's report for example it is stated that, 30% will be financed by the government and the rest by private funding. In another sentence it is then said that the guarantee from private sector is missing. The same goes for Italy. Turkey is a country with young population. Stadiums are around 60 - 70 years old. In the past 7 or 8 years airports, hotels, hospitals, public offices all become brand new and they are sparkling. Only stadiums are remaining. This is a natural process. Renewal of the stadiums, bringing all of them to the quality of Fenerbahçe Şükrü Saraçoğlu is becoming a necessity. They will all be taken care of very soon independent from EURO 2016."

"WE HAVE VISITED 25 COUNTRIES"

Orhan Gorbon also mentioned that after the submission of the bid dossier to UEFA on February 15th, they have travelled to a lot of countries to popularize the Turkish bid. He said "There are 13 country representatives that are eligible to vote and there is the evaluation committee, which is the National Teams Committee with 11 members. The committee that wrote this qualitative report will suggest their opinions to the voters. We have travelled to 25 countries in the process of our candidacy to popularize our bid."

Gorbon pointed out that according to the report prepared by UEFA, Turkey was position above Italy and at least equal to France which is a great success. He commented on this situation as follows:
"I am pleased with UEFA's findings. If examined in detail the missing governmental guarantees in the French report can be seen. Very few people are aware of the contents of these guarantees. I know how important they are so I am a little more optimistic. In Italy's report for some reason there are criticisms in 11 headings out of 19. According to my analysis we have criticisms under 6 headings while France has 7. Another point of view to look at this is that each of the 3 candidates has provided an adequate report to host this tournament. UEFA has a 60% minimum passing grade. Any grade below this level is accepted as inadequate. I think we are around 90% while Italy who seems to be not as good is around 80%. The report result shows that all the three candidates can execute this tournament. Now it all depends on the votes.

Besides the report that was published for public use there is another one with more specific details and that makes scientific comparisons between the candidates. We will not be able to see that report. Most of the voting members expect to see that report in order to make their final decisions. With this report, no one can decide who would be a better host, France or Turkey. When the more detailed report is presented to the voting members everything will be clearer."

On the matter of private security Orhan Gorbon said meetings were held between UEFA, District Sports Security Committees and with representatives from relevant departments of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and UEFA committee was satisfied with the achievements. Gorbon said that the overall security aspects were not significantly important in the candidacy process and added "Security is not a definite concept. A part of the world cannot be regarded as safe as it is indeterminable. Anything can happen anywhere."

As a response to a question about the incidents that took place during and after the game between Fenerbahçe and Trabzonspor at the last week of Turkcell Super League Orhan Gorbon said "The quality of the match organizations should be increased. It is not hard to prevent the audience from entering to the pitch. The relationship between police and the private security is important. I hope we can host this tournament and upgrade the current level as a consequence."

"4 BILLION EURO REVENUE IS EXPECTED OIF WE WIN"

Gorbon talked about what a fantastic opportunity EURO 2016 would be for Turkey if we are awarded with the tournament. "If we win, millions of tourists and press members will be travelling to 8 host cities of Turkey in 2016. Our expected revenue is 4 billion euro" Gorbon said.

He also pointed out that EURO 2016 would be the perfect opportunity to advertise Turkey. Gorbon said "For example in 2014 the Ministry of Tourism will start a campaign all around the world, situated in the airports with the theme "We are looking forward to see you in Turkey in 2016" Advertising by the money you pay is one thing but having a theme as this one is another thing. Both will come together to change the image of Turkey."

Orhan Gorbon said "5 million tourists are expected to visit Turkey for the tournament. They will be around for the whole month and all the hotels will be fully booked. New stadiums, new facilities will be built. This is very important for the construction, transportation and telecommunication sectors. Total income is estimated at around 4 billion euro.

If we win this week, touring agencies and media companies will come to Turkey as soon as next week, on Monday. People in European football industry will hopefully turn their heads towards Turkey after Friday" to finalise his words.