UEFA European Championship

• 1. Introduction

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  The UEFA European Championship drew a worldwide audience of around 600 million for its 2016 final. That figure places the tournament, nicknamed the Euro, second only to the FIFA World Cup among football events. The Union of European Football Associations organises it for the senior men's national teams of its members, and the winner becomes champion of Europe.

  The event now fills stadiums across a continent, yet it did not begin that way. Who first imagined a European championship, and why did the idea take so long to arrive? How did a competition that began small grow to cover an entire continent? And which moments on the pitch gave the tournament its folklore?

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• 2. A Frenchman's Proposal

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  In 1927, Henri Delaunay, secretary-general of the French Football Federation, suggested a football tournament for the whole of Europe. Nothing came of it for decades. The competition finally got going in 1958, three years after Delaunay had died.

  Europe was not short of international football in the meantime. The British Home Championship had run every year since 1883, pitting England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland against one another. Until those four sides joined the FIFA World Cup in 1950, it was the most important contest they played.

  A second regional event, the Central European International Cup, was staged six times between 1927 and 1960. It brought together Austria, Hungary, Italy, Czechoslovakia, Switzerland and Yugoslavia.

  The European Nations' Cup was the pan-European tournament's first name, and it lasted until 1968. From 1996, each edition has carried a label built from the words UEFA Euro and the year. The event sits in the even-numbered years that fall between World Cups.

  Delaunay's own name would survive in another form, on the trophy handed to every champion.

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• 3. Coin Tosses and Boycotts

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  Seventeen teams entered the qualifying tournament for the 1960 finals in France, and only four reached the finals. England, the Netherlands, West Germany and Italy were among the notable absentees. In a tense final in Paris, the Soviet Union beat Yugoslavia 2-1. Earlier, Spain had pulled out of its quarter-final against the Soviets over two political protests.

  Spain hosted in 1964, and entries to qualifying rose to 29. West Germany stayed away again. Greece withdrew after the draw paired it with Albania, a country it was still at war with. At the Santiago Bernabéu Stadium in Madrid, the Spanish hosts defeated the title holders, the Soviet Union, by the same 2-1 scoreline.

  Italy hosted and won in 1968, with 31 teams entering qualifying. The semi-final between Italy and the Soviet Union was settled by a coin toss, the only time a match has been decided that way. The final against Yugoslavia ended 1-1 and went to a replay, which Italy won 2-0.

  The rules until 1968 called for a coin toss to break any draw except in the final, and after that edition the practice vanished.

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• 4. Goals Remembered

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  Gerd Müller scored twice and Herbert Wimmer once as West Germany beat the Soviet Union 3-0 in the 1972 final at the Heysel Stadium in Brussels. Belgium was the host. The German squad contained many of the players who would win the 1974 World Cup.

  Yugoslavia hosted in 1976, the last time only four teams played in the finals and the last time the hosts came from the qualified four. The final between Czechoslovakia and West Germany was decided by the newly introduced penalty shootout. After seven successful kicks, Uli Hoeneß missed. That left Antonín Panenka of Czechoslovakia with the chance to win the title. He answered with an audacious chipped shot, which UEFA describes as perhaps the most famous spot kick of all time. Czechoslovakia won the shootout 5-3.

  Horst Hrubesch scored both goals as West Germany beat Belgium 2-1 at the Stadio Olimpico in Rome in 1980, a second European title for the Germans. He struck early in the first half. René Vandereycken equalised for Belgium with a second-half penalty, and with two minutes left Hrubesch headed in a corner from Karl-Heinz Rummenigge.

  Michel Platini scored nine goals in just five games for France in 1984, including the opener in a 2-0 final win over Spain. It was France's first major title on home soil.

  In 1988, Marco van Basten struck a volley over the goalkeeper from the right wing in Munich's Olympiastadion. It was the second goal in a 2-0 Dutch win over the Soviet Union, and many rank it among the best ever scored. The Netherlands had already knocked out hosts West Germany, their traditional rivals, 2-1 in the semi-final, which set off vigorous celebrations at home.

  Four years later, the champions would be a team that had not expected to be there at all.

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• 5. Growing the Field

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  From 1980, eight teams contested the finals, and the hosts, chosen in advance, qualified automatically. Italy hosted that edition, which used two groups of four, with the group winners going straight to the final. The runners-up played a third place play-off, and the 1980 match was the last one ever staged. In 1984 the top two teams in each group advanced to semi-finals instead.

  The match count tells the story of expansion. Early editions needed four matches, 1980 needed 14, and the editions from 1984 to 1992 needed 15. Sixteen-team tournaments from 1996 to 2012 needed 31, and the 24-team format since 2016 needs 51.

  Sixteen teams arrived in 1996 for a practical reason. Qualifying for the World Cup had become easier for European nations than qualifying for their own championship. Fourteen of the 24 teams at the 1982-1986 and 1990 World Cups were European, yet the Euro finals held only eight.

  The push for 24 teams began in 2007, when the Football Association of Ireland and the Scottish Football Association proposed it. Europe had more football associations after the break-ups of Czechoslovakia, Yugoslavia and the Soviet Union, and Israel and Kazakhstan had joined. UEFA's new president, Michel Platini, was reported to favour expansion. On the 17th of April 2007 the executive committee formally decided against expansion for 2012. In June 2008, however, Platini signalled that 24 teams would play from 2016.

  Franz Beckenbauer announced on the 25th of September that an agreement had been reached, and UEFA's Executive Committee confirmed the expansion in September 2008. Only three of the 54 member associations opposed it, among them England and Germany. Six groups of four now feed a round of 16, with the four best third-placed teams joining the group winners and runners-up.

  Qualifying has its own rules. For Euro 2020, the qualifying phase had ten groups, some of six teams and some of five, with each group played home and away. The top two in each group qualified, and the remaining places went to playoffs based on UEFA Nations League rankings.

  Until 2016, the champions could play in the next year's FIFA Confederations Cup but were not obliged to. From the 2020 edition, the winner meets South America's champion in the CONMEBOL-UEFA Cup of Champions.

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• 6. Upsets and Sudden Death

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  Yugoslavia was meant to play in Sweden in 1992, but UN sanctions kept it out because some of the states that made up the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia were at war with each other. Denmark received the invitation. The Danes beat holders the Netherlands on penalties in the semi-final, then defeated world champions Germany 2-0 in the final. It was the first tournament for a unified Germany, and the first major event with players' names printed on their shirt backs.

  England hosted in 1996 and was knocked out on penalties by Germany, in a replay of the 1990 World Cup semi-final. The surprise of the tournament was the newly formed Czech Republic, making its first appearance in international competition after the dissolution of Czechoslovakia. It reached the final by beating Portugal and France in the knockout rounds. Germany won 2-1 through the first golden goal in a major tournament, scored by Oliver Bierhoff five minutes into extra time. It was Germany's first title as a unified nation.

  The Netherlands and Belgium shared the hosting in 2000, the first time two countries did so. France, the reigning World Cup champions, trailed Italy 1-0 in the final until Sylvain Wiltord equalised in the last minute of regular time. David Trezeguet then scored a golden goal in extra time to win 2-1.

  Greece had qualified for only one World Cup, in 1994, and one European Championship, in 1980, before Euro 2004. Even so, it beat the hosts Portugal 1-0 in the final, with Angelos Charisteas scoring in the 57th minute. Greece had also beaten Portugal in the opening game. On the way, it eliminated holders France and, with a silver goal, the Czech Republic. The silver goal had replaced the golden goal in 2003, and it was abolished shortly after this tournament.

  On the 28th of May 2010, UEFA announced that France would host Euro 2016. France had beaten bids from Turkey, by 7-6 in the second round of voting, and from Italy, which had the fewest votes in the first round. Portugal went through to the knockout phase despite finishing third in its group. It then beat the heavily favoured French 1-0 in the final, thanks to a goal from Eder in the 109th minute. Cristiano Ronaldo had left the pitch injured by the 25th minute, so Portugal's first major title came without its famous striker.

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• 7. Silver and Marble

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  Pierre Delaunay, son of Henri, was put in charge of creating the trophy named for his father. Henri Delaunay was UEFA's first General Secretary and had died five years before the first tournament in 1960. Each winner kept the cup for four years, until the next tournament. The front carried the words Coupe d'Europe, Coupe Henri Delaunay and Championnat d'Europe, and the back showed a juggling boy.

  Ahead of 2008, the trophy was remodelled because it looked small beside UEFA's other cups, such as the new European Champion Clubs' Cup. The new version is made of sterling silver, weighs 8 kg and stands 60 cm tall. That is 2 kg heavier and 18 cm longer than the old one. The marble plinth was removed, and the silver base was enlarged so the trophy would stand steadily.

  The names of winning countries had once sat on plaques glued to the plinth. They are now engraved on the back, beneath the words Coupe Henri Delaunay, and they appear in English rather than French. The juggling boy returned to the back of the trophy in 2016.

  The winning team's players and coaches receive gold medals, and the runners-up receive silver. Every association in the final tournament gets a commemorative plaque. Bronze medals once went to the winners of the third place play-off. In 2008 UEFA gave bronze medals to the losing semi-finalists, Turkey and Russia, for the first time. Germany and Portugal received them in 2012. From 2016, semi-final losers get a dedicated plaque instead of medals.

  The makeover arrived just before one country began collecting the new silver trophy in earnest.

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• 8. Spain and a Postponed Summer

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  Austria and Switzerland co-hosted the 2008 tournament, running from the 7th of June to the 29th of June. At the Ernst Happel Stadion in Vienna, Fernando Torres scored in the 33rd minute to give Spain a 1-0 win over Germany. It was Spain's first title since 1964, and it sparked celebration across the country. Spain scored 12 goals, the most of any team, and David Villa finished as top scorer with four. Xavi was named player of the tournament, and nine Spanish players made the team of the tournament.

  Poland and Ukraine co-hosted Euro 2012, where Spain beat Italy 4-0 in the final. That made Spain the first nation to defend a European title and the first European team to win three consecutive major tournaments. Torres scored the third goal and became the first player to score in two European Championship finals. He finished level with Mario Balotelli, Alan Dzagoev, Mario Gómez, Mario Mandžukić and Cristiano Ronaldo on three goals, despite appearing only as a substitute.

  That tournament also produced 26 headed goals out of 76 in total, the most of any Euro. A disallowed goal in England against Ukraine, which replays showed had crossed the line, pushed FIFA president Sepp Blatter to change his mind about technology. He tweeted, "GLT (Goal-line technology) is no longer an alternative but a necessity." There was also some crowd violence in group games.

  For 2020, three bids were put forward: Turkey, a joint bid from the Republic of Ireland, Scotland and Wales, and one from Georgia and Azerbaijan. In December 2012, UEFA chose instead to stage the tournament in several cities across Europe, with the semi-finals and final in London. It selected the venues on the 19th of September 2014. Brussels was dropped on the 7th of December 2017 because the Eurostadium was delayed.

  On the 17th of March 2020, UEFA postponed the event by a year because of the COVID-19 pandemic, proposing the 11th of June to the 11th of July 2021. The delay eased pressure on public services and left room in the calendar for suspended domestic leagues to finish. The tournament kept the name Euro 2020. Dublin was removed because it could not guarantee spectators at the stadium, and Seville replaced Bilbao for the same reason. In the final, Italy beat first-time finalists England 3-2 on penalties after a 1-1 draw, taking a second European title.

  The 2024 tournament returned to the four-year cycle. Germany won the hosting rights over Turkey, the third time the event was held on German territory. Spain beat England 2-1 in the final at the Olympiastadion in Berlin to take a record fourth title. Ten national teams have now won the seventeen tournaments. Germany has three titles, Italy and France have two each, and the Soviet Union, Czechoslovakia, the Netherlands, Denmark, Greece and Portugal have one apiece.

  The tournament schedule already lists editions for 2028 and 2032, each with 24 teams.

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