President Praises Euro Under-21 Football Tournament as Best Advert for Slovakia

Bratislava, 9 July (TASR) - President Peter Pellegrini on Wednesday praised the work of the organisers of the European Under-21 Football Championship and expressed his appreciation of the national team for their performances during the tournament. The head of state welcomed team representatives, players and head of the Slovak Football Association (SFZ) Jan Kovacik at the Presidential Palace. Pellegrini was pleased with the high level of the event and the reactions of the participating teams, UEFA representatives and the public. "It is a great honour for me that today I can receive a delegation of the Slovak Football Association to round off a wonderful event that took place in Slovakia for the first time in 25 years. I want us today to highlight and thank all those who helped to make this huge event a success. We were unique in Europe in that we were the first country in several years to host this event on our own. We brought European football at the top level to all corners of Slovakia, and I'm glad that almost 300,000 spectators were able to watch it at Slovak stadiums," said Pellegrini at Wednesday's meeting, highlighting the fact that the number of viewers of the event across Europe was a record in recent years. "It was a huge advertisement for the Slovak Republic because more than 120 million viewers is a huge number," he said. According to the president, these figures also show that it is worth investing in sport infrastructure in Slovakia. He also praised the work of the security forces and the fact that the event passed by without incidents. "Top UEFA officials have expressed their thanks, stating that it was one of the most successful championships in recent years, and Slovakia received a high rating for that," he said. The young Slovaks lost to favoured teams Spain (2:3) and Italy (0:1) in the group stage, but said goodbye to the championship with a 2:1 victory over Romania and took third place in Group A with three points. Despite not making it to the quarter-finals, the team made a positive impression. The SFZ delegation headed by Kovacik presented the first batch of data and figures about the championship to the head of state. "In a few weeks we'll also have economic indicators of what this championship has brought to Slovakia. We can say that the benefits have been many times greater than the investments. Ten years ago, when we started dreaming this dream, six of those stadiums weren't even built yet," said Kovacik, expressing thanks for the support shown. am/df