UEFA have received five bids to host the European championship in 2012, European soccer's governing body announced in a statement yesterday.

They comprise joint bids from Croatia-Hungary and Poland-Ukraine and single bids from Greece, Italy and Turkey.

Bids from Azerbaijan, Romania and Russia which were submitted by the initial deadline in February were not followed through by Thursday's final deadline.

The five bidding candidatures will be reduced to a short-list of three on November 7 and the decision on who will host the event will be taken by UEFA's Executive Committee in December 2006.

Italy are the only country to have staged a version of the finals in the past, hosting a four-team tournament in 1968 and an eight-team tournament in 1980.

The current 16-team tournament is considered the third biggest event in world sport after the World Cup and Olympics.

Last year's finals were staged in Portugal and the next finals will be held jointly by Austria and Switzerland in 2008.

Sign up to our free newsletters

Get the best updates straight to your inbox:
Please select at least one mailing list.

You can unsubscribe at any time by clicking the link in the footer of our emails. We use Mailchimp as our marketing platform. By subscribing, you acknowledge that your information will be transferred to Mailchimp for processing.