Europe's governing football body UEFA is facing a dilemma.
Nobody is questioning that the Euro 2012 preparations in the Ukraine and Poland are in trouble, but the million dollar question is: What to do about it.
For the first time in the history of the organization, the right to host the showpiece of European football could be taken away or Germany could be used to find some sort of compromise.
There are also those who are, even in the face of ever-growing evidence to the contrary, saying that everything will be fine.
The UEFA executive committee, that started its meeting in the five-star Grand Hotel in Bordeaux earlier on Thursday, is not only trying to save its own reputation, probably more importantly, it is trying to find a solution.
Shortly before the start of the two-day meeting the 13-member committee was presented with another possible alternative by the president of the Polish football federation.
Michal Listkiewicz suggested on the website of a German newspaper that it might make sense to host the Euro finals in Ukraine and Poland four years later and give the 2012 finals to another country.
"If the finals are held in 2016, we would have no problems. If it is not that good at the moment and UEFA has another suggestion, then that would be fine with us," he told Zeit Online.
The German member of the executive committee, Gerhard Mayer- Vorfelder said that he could not speculate what decision they would reach. "It is completely open. I do not want to say which way it will go."
German football icon Franz Beckenbauer, who is an observer at the meeting for the world body FIFA, said that one would have to await the report on the preparations.
The only thing that seems certain is that the number of Euro finalists will be increased from 16 to 24. "I am sceptical, but the president wants it. It will happen," Mayer-Vorfelder said.
An increase, most likely only from 2016, would take the Euro competition close to the World Cup, where 32 teams participate. It would also allow close to half of the 53-member states to qualify for the finals.
But it is the issue of the 2012 finals, that will probably be the most controversial.
Already it seems certain that the unexpected decision taken 17 months ago by the UEFA executive in Cardiff to give the 2012 Euro finals to Ukraine and Poland was - at best - premature.
Inadequate stadiums, problems with the transport system and not enough hotel beds has given rise to serious concerns and pushed UEFA into a corner.
Mayer-Vorfelder admits that the decision in April 2007 was not only positive. "It was a unique situation. We had the wish to include east Europe and there was only one other country bidding, Italy. They had their own problems and could not really be rewarded."
There was some bitterness on the part of Italy, that lost the vote 8-4. And the four-time world champions are not considered as a real alternative.
Spain seems to have the best chance in replacing Ukraine and Poland, while a possible Germany-Poland scenario, with games in Berlin and Leipzig, seems little more than a rumour.
It could well be that the executive decides in Bordeaux to wait a bit longer - after all, in 2011 there will be UEFA presidential elections and the French president of the organization, Michel Platini, will need east European votes to be re-elected.
