The Irish Government has rejected criticism over the failed Scottish-Irish bid to host the Uefa Euro 2008 championship.

Favourites Austria and Switzerland were awarded the right to host the championships in Geneva on Thursday.

The Scottish-Irish submission was regarded as one of the front-runners but reasons for the failure are likely to focus on the uncertainty surrounding the availability of stadia in Ireland.

From our position, I think we came in late Bertie Ahern Irish premier

Ireland's biggest stadium, Croke Park, is owned by the Gaelic Athletic Association, and its current rules do lot allow for "foreign games" to be played on its grounds.

Irish Prime Minister Bertie Ahern rejected criticism of his government's handling of the failed attempt.

He said the winning Swiss-Austrian bid would "be very strong from a football politics point of view".

"This was their third time up and they had been disappointed on two previous occasions, and they had quite a strong lobby behind them," he said.

"I must congratulate them and say well done to them."

Austrian FA President Friedrich Stickler is congratulated

The Irish premier added: "From our position, I think we came in late.

"I particularly want to thank the Scots - they put a huge amount of effort into this. We fulfilled what we had to fulfil."

The Irish Republic's Sport Minister, John O'Donoghue, rejected suggestions the bid was undermined by the stadia debate.

"Naturally we were not able to give an absolute guarantee in relation to Croke Park," he said. "We could merely set out the factual position.

"But the reality of the situation is that the bid did not fail because of Ireland. Ireland supported the bid all the way home."

But Jimmy Deenihan, sports spokesman for Ireland's opposition party Fine Gael, blamed uncertainty over stadia.

He said the bid would have probably been successful but for the Irish Government's interference with the FAI and the GAA.

Congratulations

Both Scottish Football Association chief executive David Taylor and Milo Corcoran, president of the Football Association of Ireland, expressed their deep disappointment at the decision.

But they wholeheartedly congratulated the winning countries on their success.

The Scottish side was very good, they�ve spent a lot of money on their stadia, but we were a long way behind in Ireland Frank Stapelton Former Irish striker

"We are clearly very disappointed with the outcome but we extend our congratulations to an excellent bid and an excellent campaign in Austria and Switzerland.

"We are very proud to have been part of this process, we put forward the best possible bid and we gave it our very best shot.

Corcoran echoed Taylor's words, wishing the winning countries the best of luck.

"I'd like to thank our own government and the Scottish government for the support they have given us to bring the bid to this stage," he added.

Former Republic of Ireland striker Frank Stapleton said he felt the Irish had let Scotland down with their failure to guarantee stadia for the tournament before the submission of the bid.

"There was no definite commitment from the Irish Government and there was never going to be a chance of Croke Park being used - and that's as good a stadium as there is in Europe.

"The Scottish side was very good, they've spent a lot of money on their stadia, but we were a long way behind in Ireland.

"Lansdowne Road is antiquated and there was talk about a national stadium but it got caught up with politics and the sport suffered in the end."