France will host the 2016 European Championship after UEFA opted to play it safe on Friday, choosing the French over Turkey in a knife-edge vote after outsiders Italy had been eliminated in the first round.
France, who staged the tournament in 1960 and 1984 and have also hosted two World Cups, won the vote 7-6 at the expense of Turkey, who had been bidding for their first major soccer championship.
"Right now I'm overwhelmed just thinking that France will welcome the Europe of football," French Football Federation President Jean-Pierre Escalettes said at the televised ceremony.
"What matters to us is to have the trust of UEFA and that trust will not be betrayed."
France President Nicolas Sarkozy appeared at the ceremony to support his country's bid, sitting alongside the French president of UEFA, Michel Platini — the man who led his country to victory as an inspirational player in 1984.
Problems and delays in Poland and Ukraine, who will jointly host Euro 2012, may have persuaded UEFA's executive committee to avoid choosing Turkey, especially as 2016 will be the first tournament to feature 24 teams, expanded from the current 16.
The Turkish government had promised to invest one billion euros ($1.23 billion) all in public money, in stadiums for the event. It would also need to spend an estimated 20 billion euros on national transport infrastructure, including high speed trains.
The French budget for stadiums was 1.7 billion euros, of which 39 percent will come from public investment. UEFA's review of the bids said around half of the required private funding had been secured already.
Sarkozy had told UEFA that France wanted to host the event because of, rather in spite of, the worldwide economic problems.
"When I spoke to the French Football Federation, we asked ourselves whether we wanted to be candidates in the middle of a crisis," he told the ceremony during the French presentation.
"But sport is an answer to the crisis. It is because we are in a crisis that we need sport. Nothing is more powerful than sport and, within sport, nothing is more powerful than football."
Italy's chances had been written off after a critical review of their bid following UEFA's inspection visits and it was no surprise to see them eliminated in the first round of voting.
