Stunned Swedes blame 'football politics' for Euro 2020 snub

By Philip O'Connor STOCKHOLM (Reuters) - The leader of Sweden's Euro 2020 bid said "football politics" had denied his country a chance to provide a host city for the Euro 2020 tournament. Goran Havik told Reuters, by telephone from Geneva, where the 13 host cities were announced on Friday, that he was "very, very, very disappointed" with the outcome of the vote. "The members of the executive committee have looked after their own interests and their own candidacies and it made no difference who the others were," he said. "It's not like they said 'this is not good enough'... Other things have steered (this vote)," he said. "We had a good application, a very good and modern arena, we showed last year with the Women's Euros (in 2013) that we are good at organising. We were optimistic and we got a good evaluation report from UEFA." Despite being praised for their hosting of the 2013 UEFA Women's European Championship, the Swedes were one of six bidders left empty-handed. As the announcement sparked celebrations for the likes of Baku, Bucharest and Bilbao, Stockholm was left to commiserate with Skopje, Cardiff, Minsk, Sofia and Jerusalem. The Swedes were unique in that group as hosts of both the World Cup and the European Championship for men and women in the past. Havik dismissed suggestions that the quality of the pitch at the Friends Arena had been a factor in the decision. Sweden captain Zlatan Ibrahimovic and club tenants AIK are among those who have criticised the playing surface. "It's the members in the executive committee that vote and about half the candidates have members on the executive committee," Havik added. "They haven't been able to vote for themselves in any way, but obviously they have been working for their own candidacy within this group, as we would have done if we had someone there. "But we had no-one and that is the big difference. "We said that there was a political dimension which is completely unpredictable and that was shown to be true." (Reporting By Philip O'Connor; editing by Tim Collings)