UEFA has launched legal proceedings against a former Cypriot Football Association official who alleges the 2012 European Championship was corruptly awarded to Poland and Ukraine.
UEFA said Saturday it filed legal complaints in Switzerland and Cyprus on Friday against Spyros Marangos.
Marangos claimed that four UEFA officials took bribes of more than ?10 million ($13.8 million) to sell their votes for the tournament rights in 2007.
Poland and Ukraine defeated pre-poll favorite Italy 8-4 in a vote of UEFA executive committee members.
UEFA says it took action in a Swiss court because of the ''damaging, and as yet unsubstantiated allegations'' made by Marangos.
A parallel complaint has also been lodged in Cyprus ''at the very highest level'' with the attorney general.
''UEFA has been obliged to take legal action firstly in order to establish whether any of the claims made by Mr. Marangos have any substance to them, and therefore to make available any tangible elements in order to substantiate these claims,'' European football's governing body said in a statement.
The Nyon-based organization said it also wants to ''protect the integrity and the good name of UEFA and European football in general, which have been seriously damaged by these allegations.''
Marangos said the alleged payoffs to the four unnamed UEFA officials were made through a law office based in the southern Cypriot coastal town of Limassol that ''represents Ukrainian interests.''
Officials in Poland and Ukraine have denied Marangos' claims, while football officials in Cyprus and Italy also dismissed the allegations.
Marangos, a former CFA treasurer, left the association in 2007 after failing to win re-election to its board. He said he expects legal proceedings against him to begin in a month's time.
