Nervous Italy Awaits Uefa 2012 Decision
Italy’s bid to host the 2012 European Championships will depend upon whether UEFA is prepared to look beyond the dire state of the domestic game.
The World champions are strong favourites to host Euro 2012, but any slip ups will surely be down to a recent track record of fan trouble and corruption that has rocked Italian football. Their rivals in today’s vote in Cardiff consist of joints bids from Croatia-Hungary and Poland-Ukraine.
World Cup-winning coach Marcello Lippi, who was part of the bid team in Cardiff, said: “Winning the World Cup showed very clearly that football has the strength and the passions to overcome all the problems – our passion for the game prevailed, and will do so again if we are given the opportunity to organise the European Championships.”
The biggest factor aiding Italy is that UEFA are falling out of love with the concept of joint hosts despite Euro 2000 being in Holland and Belgium and next year’s championships being hosted by Austria and Switzerland.
One senior UEFA source said: “There is no getting away from the fact that there are extra problems to deal with when there are joint hosts – two FAs, two governments and two sets of security forces.”
The 2012 hosts will not have to expand the tournament from 16 teams to 24 however. UEFA are continuing to explore such a possibility but have made it clear that any changes would only come into effect from 2016 onwards.
