UEFA recently 
announced that France would host the 2016 European football championship. The other contenders were Italy, who were eliminated on the first ballot, and Turkey who finished one vote behind France in the second ballot. I have been traveling in Europe the past month, and most of the coverage of this decision over here has stressed that France was happy to get the championship because many football stadiums in la France need to be renovated. First, didn’t France just host the 1996 World Cup and weren’t stadiums renovated then? And second, why does France need to host a championship to make this infrastructure investment? If the stadiums need refurbishing, then refurbish them.
