Agence France Presse

Lisbon, July 6:

Portugal’s success at staging what UEFA called the best European championships ever has encouraged the the country to make a bid for the World Cup. Portuguese Football Federation president Gilberto Madail told A Capital he would propose a bid to the government. “Today we have confirmed our capacity to respond. We are prepared for everything,” he said. The event also won praise from football‘s ruling body FIFA, which decides on hosts for the 32-nation World Cup.

Portugal spent $800 million on 10 new stadiums for the 16-nation EURO 2004, which ended on Sunday with the hosts losing 1-0 to Greece in the final. Germany will host the next World Cup in 2006 and in May FIFA selected South Africa to stage the tournament in 2010. Under FIFA’s new policy of rotating the World Cups between continents, South America is next in line for the 2014 World Cup. The earliest Portugal could hope for is 2018, unless FIFA decides it’s North America’s turn.