Italy are confident of beating off competition from Croatia/Hungary and Poland/Ukraine to land the right to host soccer's Euro 2012 championships in Cardiff Wednesday.
"We have all the necessary credentials to host this event," said Luca Pancalli, the former Italian Soccer Federation (FIGC) chief who heads the committee promoting the Italian bid.
"We have presented an extremely serious, credible bid dossier and so we hope to return from Cardiff victorious".
The Italian bid is the favourite to win Wednesday's UEFA Executive Committee vote.
Italy's organizational track record, as seen at the 2006 Turin Winter Olympics and at non-sporting events like Pope John Paul II's funeral, is expected to weigh in their favour.
And while many Serie A soccer stadiums badly need renovating, Italy's sports facilities are still superior to those offered by the two joint Eastern European bids, experts say.
"We trust in the fact that Italy's experience and tradition will prevail over countries that have never organized a major sporting event," said FIGC President Giancarlo Abete.
"We have a great deal of respect for those countries, but it has to be said that the European championships really take some organizing".
The Eastern Europeans are expected to counter that they will never gain experience of organizing major events if they are not given the chance to do so.
Indeed, Hungary are seeking to land the tournament for the third consecutive time. They staged an individual bid for Euro 2008 and a joint bid with Austria for Euro 2004.
The Poland/Ukraine bid is weakened by doubts about transport infrastructure and by the political instability Ukraine is experiencing at the moment.
But passion for the game is intense in both countries and they have more existing stadiums fit for the championships than Croatia and Hungary.
Abete will give the final presentation of the Italian bid on Tuesday afternoon together with Pancalli, Sports Minister Giovanna Melandri and Italy's World Cup-winning coach Marcello Lippi.
The FIGC chief rejected speculation that Italian soccer's recent troubles may cause problems.
The game here is still trying to recover from the Calciopoli referee-rigging scandal and the death of a police officer during rioting at a top-flight match in Catania in February.
Crowd trouble and the Italian police's alleged use of heavy-handed tactics at the recent Champions League quarter-final between Manchester United and AS Roma further dented Italian football's image.
"Let's hope the negative things are balanced out by Italy's strong desire to turn things around, because this country remains a point of reference for world soccer, as Germany 2006 showed", Abete said.
Melandri said Italy would adopt a different approach from the one used to organize the Italia 90 World Cup, if the bid is successful.
"The government intends to make very different choices and, above all, it does not want to invest in the event directly," she said. "The aim is to have almost all the costs covered by private funding".
The minister also expressed optimism for Wednesday's vote.
"Our bid is robust and strong and it is supported by both the government and the opposition parties," Melandri concluded.
