Gilberto Madail, head of the organising team in Portugal, and chief of the Portuguese Football Federation, said the country was now expecting 1.5m fans to visit during the tournament.
Said Madail: “When people said more than half a million people would visit Portugal because of Euro 2004 I never believed it. Now the estimates we have say more than one and a half million will travel to the country."
Organisers of this summer’s Euro 2004 soccer tournament say they are bracing themselves for bumper numbers of visitors – far exceeding initial expectations.
