Ukraine and Poland will host the 2012 European Championships following a vote by UEFA's executive committee in Cardiff. They beat Italy and a joint bid from Hungary and Croatia.

Both have strong footballing traditions with Ukraine having reached the quarter-finals of the last World Cup in their first appearance since seceding from the Soviet Union.

Poland were eliminated at the group stage but finished third in the 1974 and 1982 World Cups as well as winning the 1972 Olympic title.

HOST CITIES.

Four Ukrainian cities and six Polish venues are being proposed.

The four Ukrainian venues are Dnipropetrovsk, Donetsk, Kiev and Lviv while Gdansk, Krakow, Poznan, Warsaw, Wroclaw, Chorzow have been earmarked for games in Poland.

PROS.

There have been signs of a move against the powerful western nations in UEFA politics recently and the victory of Michel Platini, while a Frenchman, in the presidential elections was seen as a sign that less powerful national federations are challenging the established order.

Choosing two former members of the Communist bloc to stage the continent's biggest football tournament would be seen as a victory for many other of the former member states of the Warsaw Pact.

UEFA have shown in the past that they like to rotate tournaments and for Euro 2004 chose Portugal even though Spain was generally accepted to have the best bid.

CONS.

The infrastructure of both countries will need to be upgraded and the economies of both former Communist-ruled countries remains fragile with many young people having left the country to work elsewhere, usually in Western Europe.

The political situation in the Ukraine has been unstable since the Orange Revolution of 2004-5.

FOOTBALLING ICONS.

Andriy Shevchenko may be the most famous Ukrainian footballing face in the west but national team coach Oleg Blokhin, who won the Ballon d'Or as a player in 1975 during the Soviet era, is perhaps still the all-time symbol of Ukrainian football.

Poland has contributed many outstanding players over the decades including the late Kazimierz Deyna.

Grzegorz Lato was top scorer of the 1974 World Cup with seven goals but perhaps Zbigniew Boniek remains the most famous Polish footballing name.

Goalkeeper Jan Tomaszewski is still remembered in England for the brilliant display at Wembley which prevented Sir Alf Ramsey's side from qualifying for the 1974 World Cup.