Short-list for European championships to be reduced

THE seven bids to stage the 2008 European Championships 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 UEFA executive committee.

Ireland and Scotland are among the hopefuls - as a joint bid - but 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 12 and 13, where members will take a final vote.