The verdict, which took place in Cardiff (Wales), gave the Eastern European duo the nod by a majority of 8 from 12 votes for the three proposed bids.

Platini insisted that Poland and Ukraine deserved to host the second largest tournament in the world.

"Poland/Ukraine has been chosen by the UEFA Executive Committee to host UEFA EURO 2012 and they are a worthy winner," the former France legend said.

Other bids involved a joint proposal from Croatia and Hungary, and a sole bid from world champions Italy.

The co-hosts will split 8 venues among them for the matches, as Poland assigned Gdansk, Poznan, Warsaw and Wroclaw as locations for the finals, while Ukraine assigned Dnipropetrovsk, Donetsk, Kiev and Lvov are the proposed host cities.

The Italians were not helped much with the series of shameful events rocking their football world this year including match-fixing scandals and supporters' riots.