Two joint bids, Italy get green light in Malta meeting

Italy, Croatia/Hungary and Poland/ Ukraine are vying for the right to host Euro 2012 after their bids were shortlisted for the second bidding phase by UEFA yesterday.

Greece and Turkey are no longer in contention to stage the European Championship in seven years' time though. Their bids gathered the least number of preferences from the 12 members of the executive committee who were eligible to vote during a two-day meeting at the Corinthia Palace Hotel, Attard.

Italy topped the ballot with 11 votes followed by Croatia/Hungary (9), Poland/ Ukraine (7), Turkey (6) and Greece (2).

Addressing a news conference at the end of the meeting yesterday afternoon, Lars-Christer Olsson, Chief Executive Officer of UEFA, said the members of the executive committee watched a presentation of the technical evaluation of the five bids before the matter was put to vote.

"The first ballot was sufficient to determine the shortlist as the top three received an absolute majority of the votes," Olsson said.

The second phase of the bidding process will entail the submission of more detailed dossiers by May 31, 2006, followed by site visits in September.

A final decision on the hosts of the 16-team tournament will be taken in December 2006.

Greece's omission took many by surprise in the light of their national team's sensational triumph in last year's European Championship in Portugal and the successful staging of the 2004 Olympic Games.

"Although the bids from Greece and Turkey were not selected, both were given warm praise by the UEFA executive committee for the content and professionalism of their submissions," UEFA said in a statement.

Olsson added: "The exercise of choosing three bids involved a comparison of all the five representations.

"I cannot comment on the individual views of the executive committee members but the bids were close."

Initial support for two joint bids, Croatia/Hungary and Poland/Ukraine, highlights UEFA's willingness to give eastern European countries the possibility of organising a major soccer tournament, Olsson said.

"They are now catching up with the western part, so we want to give them the possibility to host this kind of big tournaments," the UEFA CEO remarked.

Going by the outcome of the vote yesterday, Italy look to be the favourites to win the race to stage the European Championship in seven years' time but Olsson does not see it that way.

"I don't think Italy are favourites to win the 2012 bid," he said.

"They are in pole position but as we know from Formula One, having an early advantage does not guarantee victory in the actual race.

"This is now an open competition. We and the three bidders have a huge job ahead of us. It's a totally open contest."

Security issue

Security, or rather the lack of it, is clearly an issue Italy must tackle urgently if they are to strengthen their prospects of staging the event for the third time.

"Italy lack strategies and ideas how to address the security problem," Olsson said.

"Italian clubs are so successful but Italian football is not properly organised. We believe there should be more co-operation between clubs, association and the authorities to implement new legislation on safety in stadia.

"The security situation in Italy is not satisfactory."

Italy is the only country among the bidding candidates to have staged a version of the finals in the past, hosting a four-team tournament in 1968 and an eight-team event in 1980. The World Cup was last played in Italy in 1990.

When it was put to Olsson that Italy's position as the leading bid at this stage may be down to lobbying, Olsson replied: "There wasn't much lobbying before the vote.

"Italy may have been favoured because they already have the infrastructure in place and also the experience in organising top sporting events.

"The stadiums are there but most of them are not up to standard. Italy certainly need to invest to improve facilities.

"Support from the government is also a key aspect of any bid and in this regard, the other two joint bids have strong backing from their governments."

Austria and Switzerland will jointly host the European Championship in 2008.

Under-21 co-efficient ranking system

During its meeting in Malta, UEFA also approved a new co-efficient ranking system for future UEFA U-21 competitions. The principle will take into consideration the performances of the last two U-21 qualifying competitions.

New criteria for allocating vacant berths for the UEFA Intertoto Cup as of 2006 have also been agreed.

The main access list will be reduced in accordance with the number of associations who declare their intent to participate.

UEFA has also scrapped the two-division format for its Women's Championship 2007-09 in favour of an open qualifying competition. The final tournament is being expanded from eight to 12 teams.

Also approved is a new format for the UEFA/CAF Meridian Cup, one that puts more emphasis on the educational aspect.