This was the first European Championship in which eight teams, rather than four, contested the final tournament. On October 17, 1977 UEFA announced that England, Greece, Italy, Netherlands, Switzerland and West Germany had expressed interest in hosting this event. On October 19 UEFA's Organizing Committee decided to assign the hosting to England or Italy (expressing its favour to the latter, the former having already hosted the FIFA World Cup just 11 years earlier), and on November 12 the Organizing Committee and the Executive Committee announced that Italy had been chosen unanimously. Seven countries had to qualify for the final tournament, and the draw for the qualifying round took place in Rome on November 30, 1977. Also for the first time, the hosts, in this case Italy, qualified autom