The organization of the event was initially contested for by five bids representing seven countries: Poland/Ukraine (joint bid), Croatia/Hungary (joint bid), Italy, Greece, and Turkey.
On November 8, 2005, UEFA's Executive Committee voted the candidates down to this three:
Italy 11 votes
Croatia/Hungary 9 votes
Poland/Ukraine 7 votes
Turkey and Greece were eliminated with 6 and 2 votes .
On May 31, 2006 all three bids completed the second phase by submitting more detailed dossiers.
In September 2006, UEFA executives conducted visits to candidate countries. Shortly after iit decided to postpone the actual decision making.
The host is set to be chosen on April 18, 2007 in Cardiff.
The candidates:
Italy 11 votes:
The following cities have been proposed by the Italian Football Federation:
Rome, Milan, Turin, Bari, Florence, Naples, Palermo, and Udine
Cagliari, Bologna, Genoa and Verona in addition, should the tournament be extended to 24 teams
The stadiums are the same as for Italia 90. Naples, Palermo, and Turin will have new stadia built while the rest will have their current stadia renovated.
Italy has already hosted the European Football Championship finals in 1968 and 1980, and also hosted the FIFA World Cup in 1934 and 1990 .
The Italian bid appears to be the most solid of the three due to Italy's generally excellent transportation infrastructure, the wide availability of lodging for visiting fans, and the Italian football association's past experience in organizing final rounds. None of the other short-list candidates has ever hosted the finals of a major football tournament independently or as part of a joint bid, with the partial exception of Croatia. Also, the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin demonstrated the Italian ability to host a sporting event comparable to the Euro in magnitude. Italy's current status of World Cup holder may also prove a positive factor.
However, the recent scandal in Italy's first division and the football-related violence in Catania, which led to the death of police officer Filippo Raciti and revealed safety deficiencies in many stadia, have damaged the overall standing of Italian football. Yet the Italian government's resolve to assist football authorities in solving the problem—e.g., by introducing anti-hooliganism laws (yet to be approved) and allocating funds to immediate safety improvement measures in stadia—mitigates the risk to Italy's Euro bid. Another minor risk is potential apathy of domestic fans after repeatedly re-using the same host nation, though 22 years will have elapsed since the last major tournament at home if Italy is selected to host Euro 2012.
Hungary and Croatia 9 votes:
The following cities have been proposed by the Hungarian and Croatian Football Federation:
Croatia: Zagreb, Split, Rijeka, Osijek
Hungary: Budapest, Székesfehérvár, Győr, Debrecen
Hungary is bidding for the third time consecutively after failing to win either the Euro 2004 or the Euro 2008 bid. It teamed up with Croatia after its previous partner, Austria, opted to associate with Switzerland to (successfully) bid to host Euro 2008.
Some elements of a successful bid are already in place, though gaps remain when compared to Italy. The two capital cities Budapest and Zagreb as well as the popular tourist destinations of Rijeka and Split already have decent transportation and lodging infrastructure. The favorable economic conditions of the two countries are likely to keep funds available to improve road, rail, or air networks and make the necessary infrastructure improvements in the other host cities. Popular interest and support is virtually guaranteed in Croatia, in the wake of the national team's strong performance in the 1990s and early 2000s, and is very likely in Hungary despite the current poor state of football there.
In addition to the gaps mentioned above, several factors are hampering the bid. Road and rail transportation for visiting fans is likely to remain an issue, as infrastructure improvements take a long time to complete and only five years are left. The logistics of border crossing (visas, waiting times, etc.) by large numbers of visitors between a European Union member state (Hungary) and a non-member (Croatia) cannot be ignored. Recent outbursts of hooliganism by some Croatian football fans have been a problem, as have the 2006 protests in Hungary and the protest of a group of Hungarian fans during the UEFA delegation's visit to Budapest (claiming that Hungary should focus on improving its own football instead of hosting Euro 2012).
Neither of the two countries ever hosted similar major tournaments, although Croatia's capital Zagreb did host one semifinal and the third-place match of Euro 1976 when the country was part of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia.
If the Croatian/Hungarian bid were to succeed, the final would be held in Budapest at the Ferenc Puskas Stadium, while the opening ceremony and opening match would be played at Zagreb's Maksimir Stadium.
Poland and Ukraine 7 votes:
The following cities have been proposed by the Polish Football Association and the Football Federation of Ukraine:
Poland: Warsaw, Chorzów, Gdańsk, Kraków, Poznań, Wrocław
Ukraine: Kiev, Dnipropetrovsk, Donetsk, Lviv
The joint Polish-Ukrainian bid is considered to be interesting by many, as a way of shifting the focus towards the areas of Europe that have numerous football fans but are less developed than those in western Europe, both regarding the game development and in general.
This bid is hampered by numerous infrastructural deficiencies, however. Apart from Warsaw, Kyiv, and possibly Krakow, none of the proposed host cities has experience accommodating large numbers of visitors for extended stays. The transportation infrastructure is fair at best and sometimes poor; after their visit, the UEFA delegates themselves complained publicly about the bad state of the road between Gdańsk and Lviv. The logistical border-crossing issues noted in the Hungary-Croatia bid are present in this one as well. More recently, government interference has emerged as a problem in Poland. On January 19, 2007, Polish Minister of Sport Tomasz Lipiec suspended the Polish Football Association (PZPN) management and appointed a temporary administrator, on grounds that the PZPN board could not continue in place in the wake of a corruption scandal. FIFA, the world football body, takes a very poor view of political interference in football affairs and has threatened PZPN with expulsion of the Polish national team and clubs from international matches unless the suspension is reversed. UEFA will follow FIFA's lead as a matter of course.
Neither country has ever organized a sporting event comparable in magnitude to a 16-team Euro, let alone a 24-team tournament.