Post by gw on Apr 18, 2007 9:14:08 GMT -1
Poland and Ukraine have been chosen to host the 2012 European Championships.
Italy were widely expected to win the Uefa vote in Cardiff, with another joint bid from Croatia and Hungary also in the running.
However, Italy's bid was overshadowed by last season's referee corruption scandal and their on-going problems with football-related crowd trouble.
It will be the first time that either Poland or Ukraine have hosted a major football championship.
"Finally, the big event is going to the countries which have had no opportunities to improve football," said Polish Football Association chairman Michal Listkiewicz.
"This big tournament will be a milestone in the common history of two Slavic nations."
Poland and Ukraine's bid team staged an impressive presentation on Tuesday, featuring Chelsea striker Andriy Shevchenko, Liverpool keeper Jerzy Dudek as well as boxer Vitali Klitschko, former Olympic champion Sergei Bubka and Ukraine president Victor Yushchenko.
Nonetheless, the bid was still considered the outsider of the three, partly because of a recent match-fixing scandal in Poland.
The Polish government has also been warned by Uefa and Fifa about political interference in the country's football governing body.
But Uefa chief executive Michael Platini is known to be keen to redress the balance of power in football throughout Europe and following a vote by Uefa's 14-man executive committee, Platini named Poland and Ukraine as Euro 2012 co-hosts.
It will be first time the former eastern bloc has hosted the tournament since Yugoslavia in 1976.
Games will be played in four Ukrainian cities (Dnipropetrovsk, Donetsk, Kiev and Lviv) and six Polish venues (Gdansk, Krakow, Poznan, Warsaw, Wroclaw and Chorzow).
Italy were widely expected to win the Uefa vote in Cardiff, with another joint bid from Croatia and Hungary also in the running.
However, Italy's bid was overshadowed by last season's referee corruption scandal and their on-going problems with football-related crowd trouble.
It will be the first time that either Poland or Ukraine have hosted a major football championship.
"Finally, the big event is going to the countries which have had no opportunities to improve football," said Polish Football Association chairman Michal Listkiewicz.
"This big tournament will be a milestone in the common history of two Slavic nations."
Poland and Ukraine's bid team staged an impressive presentation on Tuesday, featuring Chelsea striker Andriy Shevchenko, Liverpool keeper Jerzy Dudek as well as boxer Vitali Klitschko, former Olympic champion Sergei Bubka and Ukraine president Victor Yushchenko.
Nonetheless, the bid was still considered the outsider of the three, partly because of a recent match-fixing scandal in Poland.
The Polish government has also been warned by Uefa and Fifa about political interference in the country's football governing body.
But Uefa chief executive Michael Platini is known to be keen to redress the balance of power in football throughout Europe and following a vote by Uefa's 14-man executive committee, Platini named Poland and Ukraine as Euro 2012 co-hosts.
It will be first time the former eastern bloc has hosted the tournament since Yugoslavia in 1976.
Games will be played in four Ukrainian cities (Dnipropetrovsk, Donetsk, Kiev and Lviv) and six Polish venues (Gdansk, Krakow, Poznan, Warsaw, Wroclaw and Chorzow).