Bid Process
The hosting of the event was initially contested by five bids representing seven countries: Croatia–Hungary, Greece, Italy, Poland–Ukraine, and Turkey. After an initial consideration of the bid data in 2005 by UEFA both the Greek and Turkish bids were eliminated from the process to leave three candidates. This was followed by a second round of the selection process which among other included visits by UEFA to all candidates. On 18 April 2007, the Poland–Ukraine bid was chosen by a vote of the UEFA Executive Committee at a meeting in Cardiff.
Poland–Ukraine became the third successful joint bid for the European Championship, after those of Belgium–Netherlands (2000) and Austria–Switzerland (2008). Their bid received an absolute majority of votes, and was therefore announced the winner, without requiring a second round. Italy, which received the remaining votes, had been considered favourites to win the hosting, but incidents of fan violence and a match fixing scandal were widely cited as factors behind their failure.
There were some later alterations from the initial bid plan, regarding the venues, before UEFA confirmed the eight host cities in 2009. During the preparation process in Poland and Ukraine, UEFA repeatedly expressed concern about their preparation to host the event, with different candidates reported as being alternative hosts if they did not improve; however, in the end, UEFA affirmed their selection.
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