UEFA sues Marangos over Euro 2012 claims

UEFA on Saturday started legal action against former Cyprus Football Association (CFA) official Spyros Marangos, who has claimed the bidding process to host Euro 2012 was corrupt.

“UEFA confirms that it has officially started legal proceedings in Switzerland against Spyros Marangos following the damaging and unjustifiable allegations in the media concerning the bidding process for Euro 2012,” European football’s governing body said.

UEFA, which has also started legal proceedings in Cyprus, explained that it had taken this action to determine if there was any basis to the allegations made by Marangos and “to protect the integrity and name of UEFA”.

Marangos has alleged UEFA officials took bribes of more than 10 million euros through a Cyprus-based company “representing Ukrainian interests” to fix the vote in favour of the joint bid by Poland and Ukraine.

The CFA has distanced itself from the allegations this week. It said Marangos had made similar corruption claims over CFA elections when he failed to be voted back into office three years ago.

The CFA said it wanted to take disciplinary action against Marangos but cannot do so unless he joins a sporting organisation.

The Euro 2012 finals were awarded to the joint Poland-Ukraine bid in April 2007, ahead of Italy by eight votes to four.

This latest allegation emerges as world football’s governing body FIFA is investigating allegations of vote selling and collusion in the race to host the World Cup in 2018 and 2022.