Paddy Agnewon the disappointment in Italian football circles at their failure to secure the Euro 2012 finals
There was indeed one clear loser in this contest, namely the reigning world champions. Yesterday's Uefa executive vote featured three bids - Italy; Hungary and Croatia; Ukraine and Poland.
Italy had gone into the vote as the hot favourites, partly because of their huge football tradition and following and also because none of the Eastern European countries have staged a football tournament of this importance.
Italy, of course, played host to the 1990 World Cup finals and the 1968 and 1980 European Championship finals.
In the end, two factors would seem to have worked against Italy: Uefa's desire to redress the balance of power in football throughout Europe, allied to the negative publicity generated by Italian football throughout the last 12 months.
Even though Italy won last summer's World Cup, the country's image was severely tarnished by the Calciopoli match-fixing and corruption scandal which saw Italy's most famous and successful club, Juventus, relegated to the second division and stripped of the 2005 and 2006 Serie A titles.
The image of Italian football suffered further damage when a police inspector, Filippo Raciti, was killed during fan riots prior to a Catania v Palermo Serie A Sicilian derby in February, while TV footage of police using strong-arm tactics with Manchester United supporters during an AS Roma v Manchester United Champions League tie in Rome two weeks ago hardly helped the Italian cause.
Reflecting on yesterday's result, Luca Pancalli, head of the committee that promoted the Italian bid and a former commissioner of the Italian Football Federation, commented: "You'd have to ask yourself if the executive members, when they voted, were thinking of the scandals that have afflicted our football, Calciopoli second time round and recent violent episodes.
"In the end, though, I don't think Italy was penalised by its scandals and violence problems as much as by the will to give Eastern European countries an important opportunity.
"After all, Polish football is currently struggling with a match-fixing scandal similar to ours."
Italian Football Federation president Giancarlo Abete did not mince his words in arguing the Italian bid was scuppered by what he termed sporting politics:
"It is a choice of sporting politics that leaves us very bitter," he said. "The three bids met all the requirements, but then the decision is made by people based on European sporting politics that rewards Eastern countries."
Despite losing out, Abete nevertheless believes their plans to upgrade the old stadia in Italy should be carried out. "Once we digest our disappointment we must make the effort to restructure our stadia," he said.
Italian sports minister Giovanna Melandri had high hopes of seeing her nation host the European Championships for the third time. And there was optimism Italy's World Cup win would further boost their bid.
"I am very disappointed," Melandri said. "Now we must think about winning the European competition on the pitch."
If the Italians were despondent, the Poles and Ukrainians were understandably elated. Polish FA chairman Michael Listkiewicz said that Euro 2012 will be an "important milestone in the history of our two Slavic nations", while Ukrainian football federation president Hryhory Surkis said he expected Euro 2012 to "provide new opportunities for our country as it strives to integrate with Europe".
Poland and Ukraine on Tuesday had given their best shot to the presentation of their bid with a team that included Chelsea's Ukrainian striker Andriy Shevchenko, Liverpool's Polish goalkeeper Jerzy Dudek, Ukrainian Olympic pole vault legend Sergei Bubka and the Ukrainian president, Victor Yushchenko.
Poland's national coach, Dutchman Leo Beenhakker, was another to express his delight yesterday, pointing out that the decision was vitally important for football in Eastern Europe.
"Eastern Europe has a great history in sport and in football and they still have great players, but what they have been missing has been good infrastructure, stadiums and training facilities.
"Now the governments and football federations are obliged to realise all their promises within the next five years and make these improvements."
Despite speculation to the contrary, Uefa have opted not to increase the number of finalists for 2012, which will feature 16 teams, as in Portugal 2004 and at next year's European finals in Austria and Switzerland.
