The announcement seriously compromises the Scandinavian neighbours’ hopes of hosting the four-yearly tournament.

“During a meeting in Oslo on Wednesday with the participation of the Ministries of Culture of Norway and Sweden, as well as the Norwegian and Swedish football federations, the two governments announced that they intend to say no to the public money requested by municipalities to finance infrastructure work linked to the candidature for the organizations of Euro 2016,” said the SvFF in a press release.

“The Swedish Football Federation will now await the government’s formal decision before deciding how the process should continue. But the decision made today makes the candidature impossible.”

The deadline for the submission of bids to host the 2016 European Championship is February 15 next year.

Lars-Åke Lagrell, the head of the Swedish federation, was frustrated by the developments.

“It’s a big disappointment,” he told the Dagens Nyheter (DN) newspaper.

“If you’re going to have a huge European championship, then everyone needs to help, we constantly got the impression that the political will isn’t there. The message was very clear.”