Italy emerged as a strong favourite to stage the finals of the 2-012 UEFA European Championship yesterday.

They polled the largest number of votes – 11 – from a possible 12 eligible votes as the UEFA Executive Committee put Italy, Croatia/Hungary and Poland/Ukraine on the shortlist for the second phase of the bidding procedure next year.

The bids from Greece and Turkey were not selected although UEFA thanked them both for producing professional submissions.

A final decision on the hosts of the 14th staging of the UEFA European Championship will be taken in December 2006.

The result of the voting, from the 12 members eligible to vote, was: Italy (11), Croatia/Hungary (9), Poland/Ukraine (7), Turkey (6) and Greece (2).

In the second phase of the bidding process, the three final bidders will have to submit even more detailed dossiers by 31 May next year, followed by site visits to the shortlisted countries in September.

“We made a presentation of the technical evaluation to the Executive Committee, who added the political dimension in taking the decision,” said UEFA Chief Executive Lars-Christer Olsson. “We reached a decision in the first ballot. A new dossier should be submitted by the candidates to UEFA at the end of May 2006, and now all the site visits will take place. There will be a final decision to appoint the hosts for 2012 in December 2006.”

Mr Olsson said the choice of the joint Poland/Ukraine bid sent a message from the Executive Committee that the possibility of organising the final round in the eastern part of Europe should be assessed. “They are now catching up with the western part, so it makes it possible to organise this kind of big event,” said the CEO.

Asked whether Italy could be considered already in pole position after the ballots in Malta, Mr Olsson said the evaluation of the bid was made by studying a variety of criteria, including infrastructure, stadiums, security and commercial and financial issues. “The political aspect is that, in the Executive Committee’s view, it will be possible for all three candidates to reach the same level of excellence for the tournament as in Portugal in 2004 and for Austria and Switzerland in 2008,” added Mr Olsson.

The UEFA CEO also said that Italy had a security problem at present. “Football is still not properly organised there and this problem has to be seen to seriously by the Italian Federation and the authorities before a final decision is taken next year. Experience alone will not be enough to convince those eligible to vote,” he added.

Each of the bids, as they stand at present, had their strengths and weaknesses, according to Mr Olsson: “This is now an open competition. We and the three bidders have a huge job ahead of us. It’s a totally open race.”

Mr Olsson also confirmed that the Executive Committee had approved the new format for the European Under 21 championship.

A coefficient ranking system for future championships has now been approved. The principle of the system shall take into account the performance of the last two European Under 21 qualifying competitions. With the first one now scheduled for 2006-2007, the coefficients will be made up of 50 per cent from the qualifying performances from the 2002-04 and from the 2004-06 qualifying competitions.

Also, the silver goal rule as per the existing regulations is no longer applicable and should the teams be level after 180 minutes, there will be extra time in accordance with the revised rules of the Games and with the away goals rule.

The Executive Committee meeting also approved the principles for allocating vacant places in the UEFA Intertoto Cup. Any vacancies will be allocated to the associations in coefficient ranking order per respective entry group (either first, second or third round).

A new format for the women’s championship was also approved yesterday. As from the 2007/2009 edition, there will be just one division with a host automatically appointed and a qualifying round followed by a group phase of 30 teams (six groups of five teams). The final tournament is being enlarged – from eight to 12 teams.

Mifsud insists: Italy cannot be considered favourites

Malta FA president Dr Joe Mifsud said this UEFA Executive Committee meeting had been positive with some important decisions being taken.

He explained that UEFA’s Executive had agreed to hold such meetings outside Nyon, Switzerland on certain occasions. “They had accepted Malta’s proposal to hold a meeting here and I think we did our best to have a successful event from all aspects,” he added.

The MFA president said he thought no one can consider Italy as being favourites to stage the 2012 World Cup finals, despite finishing first with 11 of the eligible 12 votes yesterday ahead of the remaining two final bidders. “There is still the second phase and the eastern European countries still have an equal chance to give their respective countries and football a big boost,” he added.

Dr Mifsud also confirmed that he will again contest the UEFA Executive Committee election in 2007.