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The UEFA European Championship is the main national football competition of the UEFA nations. Held every four years, in the even-numbered year between World Cup tournaments, since 1960, it was originally called the European Nations Cup, changing to the name European Football Championship in 1968.
There is an Under-21 equivalent of this tournament, taking place every two years.
The Competition
The Henri Delaunay Trophy is awarded to the winner of the European Football Championship as Delaunay, the first General Secretary of UEFA, came up with the idea of a European championship.
Until 1976 only four teams entered the final tournament. From 1980 eight teams competed and from 1996 sixteen teams played in the tournament. The competing teams are chosen by a series of qualifying games: in 1960 and 1964 through home and away play-offs; from 1968 through qualifying leagues and also play-off games. Until 1976, the host country was selected from the four finalists after they were determined through qualifying. Since the expansion of the final tournament starting from 1980, the host country/countries have been chosen beforehand and qualify automatically. Note that the defending champions have never been granted an automatic place in the finals.
History
In 1956 the groundwork a European national team competition was laid. Two years subsequent to this in 1958 the first European Nations Cup began. The original format of the competition saw the early rounds played in home and away matches between the countries on a knockout basis, this continued until the semi-finals, where the remainder of the competition was played in the host country, chosen from the four semi-finalists.
The French Football Federation’s Henri Delaunay came up with the idea of a European championship in 1927. Given the immense efforts that Delaunay had put into setting up a European national teams competition, UEFA deemed it appropriate that the inaugural competition be hosted by France. The trophy presented to the competition winner still bears his name.
The first final was held in Paris and saw the Soviet Union defeat Yugoslavia, after extra time, and be first to have their name etched onto the trophy.
In 1964 the competition was the first European Nations Cup to be affected by politics as it saw Greece refusing to play Albania as they were technically (though not officially) at war. The finals were hosted by Spain, and they saw the hosts run out 2-1 winners over the Soviet Union in Madrid.
The European Nations Cup changed its name to the UEFA European Football Championship for 1968 and also a new format was introduced. Eight groups of seeded teams played each other twice and the top side of each group proceeded to two-legged quarter finals. The semi-finals and final were played in the host country of Italy who won the competition after a 2-0 replay of the final, having drawn 1-1 in the first against Yugoslavia.
In the 1972 tournament, the same structure was retained, with Belgium being the hosts of the finals. West Germany won the competition, beating the Soviet Union 2-0 in the final. The 1976 final round was hosted by Yugoslavia. In the final, Czechoslovakia squandered a two-goal lead before penalties were needed. When Uli Hoeness missed, it allowed Antonín Panenka to chip into the space vacated by Sepp Maier's anticipatory dive for a Czechslovakian victory.
In 1980 UEFA introduced a new format, which saw eight teams got to the finals instead of four, and then playing each other in two groups of four teams; the winner of each group then proceeded to the final. West Germany faced Belgium in the final, which they one 2-0 after two goals from Horst Hrubesch. However the newer format was not retained in 1984, and a different format was used, again employing groups stages, but this time in place of only the quarter finals. The top two teams from each of the two groups progressed to the semi-finals. The competition was held in France for the second time. The hosts won 2-0 in Paris against Spain courtesy of goals from Michel Platini and Bruno Bellone.
The 1988 competition was held in West Germany, the format from the 1984 competition was retained. Marco Van Basten led the Netherlands scoring himself what was the best goal ever in the competition [1]. The 1992 competition was held in Sweden during a time of European political change, a united Germany was represented and as a result of the break up of the Soviet Union, a commonwealth of independent states of the former Soviet Union. Yugoslavia made it to the finals but were excluded as a result of hostilities in their country, Denmark replaced them. Incredibly the Danes went on to win the competition after a 2-0 victory over world champions Germany in the final.
With the break up of the Soviet Union all of the former Soviet Block countries suddenly were required to enter separately, despite the Soviet Union already being broken up for the 1992 tournament, the former Soviet countries entered as a single team, the CIS. Now that there were more teams, a format that accommodated this was required. With now 48 teams entering the competition, 16 travelled to the finals in England. The teams were put into 4 groups , the winner and runner up of each group progressed to a new round of quarter finals. The semi-finals and finals remained the same. The Germans won in the final over underdogs Czech Republic on golden goal.
Belgium and the Netherlands became the first counties to joint host the event in 2000. France won, again the final was decided by golden goal, David Trezeguet the scorer. In 2004 the event was held in portugal, with the silver goal rule being used for the first time. The rule saw Greece passed the Czech republic in the semi finals. Colossal underdogs Greece went on to win the competition when they had been put at pre-tournament odds of 100 to 1.
Though the Soviet Union won the inaugural competition; Germany triumphed three times, twice as West Germany. France is the only other team to have won the tournament more than once.
Future
A recent innovation has allowed more than one country to act as joint hosts. Belgium and the Netherlands were the first pair of countries to co-host the competition in 2000. In the 2008 edition Austria and Switzerland will co-host the event, held from 7 to 29 of June.
Selection of the host country or countries for the 2012 competition is currently in progress. The host will be chosen in December 2006 from a shortlist including Italy and joint bids from Poland/Ukraine and Croatia/Hungary.
Results
Total Wins
Semi-finals appearances
Notes
- ↑ "UEFA Euro 2004 Final Match Day Publication", UEFA, July 4th 2006, pp. 59.
The content of this page is retrieved from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_Football_Championship under GFDL
