UEFA today announced the complicated decision-making process they will use to award the 2008 European Championships.
Following a meeting in Nyon, Switzerland today UEFA said the seven bids, which include a joint Irish and Scottish bid, will be reduced to a shortlist of two or three before a final vote on the host is taken in December by members of the executive committee.
To be successful, the Scotland and Ireland proposal will first have to survive a visit by an evaluation team who will recommend which countries should be eliminated.
Those bids which survive will go before the UEFA executive committee at a meeting on December 12th and 13th, where members will take a final vote.
The issue has been made more difficult by the fact that of the 14 members of the executive committee, six come from countries involved with a bid and are ineligible to vote.
The remaining eight members will decide on the shortlist on the basis of recommendations from the evaluation team and the national teams committee.
Those members from the countries which are then eliminated will be able to take part in the final vote.
UEFA communications director Mike Lee said: "This method is viewed as the fairest way of deciding which bid should win, and will involve as many members of the executive committee as possible."
Scotland's David Will, a FIFA vice-president who attends UEFA's executive committee meetings as an observer, predicted a scenario where some bidders will drop out even before the shortlist is decided.
He said: "It would not surprise me if a couple of the candidates, or even three, withdrew following the visits by the evaluation team."
Only two countries are bidding as single hosts for 2008, Russia and Hungary. Joint bids have been made by Scotland and Ireland; Austria and Switzerland; Greece and Turkey; Bosnia and Croatia; a Nordic bid (Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Finland with organisational involvement from Iceland).
The eight UEFA executive committee members not involved with bids are: Geoff Thompson (England), Angel Villar Llona (Spain), Mathieu Sprengers (Holland), Gerhard Mayer-Vorfelder (Germany), Joseph Mifsud (Malta), Michel Platini (France), Henri Roemer (Luxembourg) and Mario Lefkaritis (Cyprus). Those from countries involved with bids are: Lennart Johansson (Sweden), Senes Erzik (Turkey), Per Ravn Omdal (Norway), Viacheslav Koloskov (Russia), Giangiorgio Spiess (Switzerland) and Eggert Magnusson (Iceland).