England are on the verge of winning their bid to host the semi-finals and final of Euro 2020 but one of Scotland, Wales and Ireland are poised to miss out on staging matches at the tournament.
The Football Association's bid for Wembley to stage the climax of the event, which is being held in 13 cities across Europe, will be decided at UEFA's executive committee meeting in Geneva on Friday.
Only Munich stands in Wembley's way, but the German FA (DFB) has effectively agreed to stand aside in return for support for its bid for Euro 2024.
The bids for Glasgow's Hampden Park, Cardiff's Millennium Stadium and Dublin's Aviva Stadium to host three group games and a knockout match each appears less clear-cut.
Scottish FA chief executive Stewart Regan acknowledged it was "highly unlikely" that all four British and Irish bids would be successful. Scotland have the most to fear after the commercial side of their bid was described as "inadequate" in UEFA's technical reports.
Regan said: "There are four bids from the UK and Ireland and I think it is highly unlikely all four are going to be hosts.
"It's a difficult one to call. We have gone from over 30 countries down to 19 and we have read all the technical reports and there are pluses and minuses in most of them.
"It is out of our hands, but in our favour we have the history and heritage of Glasgow including some of the most famous European club and international games. Because it is the 60th anniversary of the European Championship we think history will feature very heavily in its branding.
"We believe our bid is technically strong. There were a number of concerns raised about the bid but there were concerns raised about almost all of them."
Wales' bid was given a boost by the UEFA technical report, which rated the Millennium Stadium third overall and in terms of income generation to UEFA.
Jonathan Ford, chief executive of the Football Association of Wales, said: "We know that we've got a very strong bid. We also know that the Millennium Stadium was third ranked as far as the income generation to UEFA, based, of course, across the capacity and hospitality offering that we have in the city.
"We've done all we can.
"I've gone about our political campaign in a very professional manner. We've met with every single executive committee member and we've presented our case to all of them. I've written now, probably, three times to them.
"The English bid, the Welsh bid, the Scottish bid, the Irish bid - they're all strong bids.
"The issue now is about the politics behind it and it's whether or not the British are perceived, with Scotland, England and Wales all bidding, as having too many in what some still regard as one country."
UEFA's 17 executive members will vote on the 13 host cities, but if their countries are involved they will not be allowed to take part. It means 15 members can vote for the host city for the final, but only eight members initially in the vote for the group stage hosts.
It is expected that votes will be done on a 'ranking' basis, with members ranking their top four venues in terms of preference.
Source: PA
