Austria and Switzerland will jointly host the Uefa 2008 European Championship.

Uefa's executive committee voted in favour of the Austrian-Swiss bid ahead of six other contenders, including Scotland and Ireland.

The team behind the joint Celtic bid had been hopeful of winning the vote on the eve of the announcement.

But their bid, which had been rated as second favourite, finally trailed in fourth out of seven.

Uefa's national team committee put forward Austria/Switzerland, Greece/Turkey, Hungary and the four-country Nordic bid as their recommendations ahead of the final vote.

Bids from Russia and Croatia/Bosnia-Herzegovina had earlier been rejected.

We are very disappointed but we did our best Simon Lyons, Scotland-Ireland bid team

Hungary created a surprise by coming second in the race.

But the final vote went to Austria and Switzerland, who had been the favourites all along.

Delighted Austrian Football Association president Friedrich Stickler said: "I am deeply touched.

"What I have realised is that the contacts with the other bidders have been fair and born from friendship and for me it is something I will never forget."

Austria had previously failed in a joint bid with Hungary for the 2004 tournament.

But the bid from Austria and Switzerland impressed Uefa because of the high standard of hotels, communications, rail links and police facilities.

Their "Close To You" campaign had stressed that a central European location would make the tournament accessible to all fans.

Scottish Football Association chief executive David Taylor said: "We didn't have the piper with us today but if we did he would be playing a bit of a lament.

"We are clearly disappointed with the outcome but we would like to extend our congratulations to our friends in Austria and Switzerland.

"We put forward the best possible bid and we will now be looking to qualify in 2008 and bring many Scottish and Irish fans to what I'm sure will be a memorable event."