DOHA: The 4,000 media representatives covering the European Championship finals in France this summer will not benefit from any travel cost concessions writes KEIR RADNEDGE.

This was confirmed by Lucas Achermann, head of event services for European federation UEFA, during the annual congress here of AIPS, the international sports journalists’ association.

AIPS has received a number of inquiries about travel costs after the provision of free rail travel at the finals in Austra and Switzerland in 2008 and on a number of journeys in Poland and Ukraine four years ago.

Inner city free travel would also not be possible as at the last two Euro tournamemts.

Achermann said that UEFA had worked hard to try to negotiate concessions with the French transport authorities but in vain.

The initial provision of free rail travel had been conceived by Deutsche Bahn at the 2006 World Cup and proved a highly successful public relations exercise on behalf of both the organisers and the host country.

The finals, between June ?? and July ??, will see 24 teams play 51 matches in 10 cities, with at least four matches in each city and seven in Paris, including the Opening Match and the Final.

The Stade de France wll be the largest stadium with an 80,000 capacity, the smallest Toulouse at 33,000.

UEFA and the French hosts expect to sell 2.5m tickets with the matches broadcast in more than 200 countries.

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