European Football Championship
From Free net encyclopedia
The UEFA European Championship is the main football competition of the men's national football teams governed by the UEFA. Held every four years since 1960, in the even-numbered year between World Cup tournaments, it was originally called the European Nations Cup, changing to the name European Football Championship in 1968.
There is a UEFA Women's Championship inaugurated in 1984 and from 1997 held every four years, as well as a Men's Under-21 equivalent of the UEFA European Championship tournament, taking place every two years.
Contents |
The competition
Until 1976, only four teams qualified for the final tournament. From 1980 eight teams competed and from 1996 sixteen teams have played in each edition of 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 a combination of both qualifying groups and 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, or countries, have been chosen beforehand and qualify automatically. The defending champions have never been granted an automatic place in the finals.
Trophy
The Henri Delaunay Trophy, which is awarded to the winner of the European Football Championship, is named in honor of Henri Delaunay, the first General Secretary of UEFA. Henri came up with the idea of a European championship but died five years prior to the first tournament in 1960, and his son Pierre Delaunay was the person in charge of making the trophy.<ref>Michael Harold, 'You won't find a superior trophy', UEFA.com, January 27, 2006</ref> Since the first tournament it has been awarded for the winning team to keep for four years, until the next tournament. For the 2008 tournament, the trophy was slightly remodelled making the trophy larger, in order to enhance its signal value of importance, as well as minor cosmetic changes. The trophy was made 18 centimetres higher and two kilograms heavier<ref>New trophy for UEFA EURO 2008, UEFA.com, January 23, 2006</ref>
History
In 1956, the groundwork a European national team competition was laid. Two years later, 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.
1960s
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 Template:Nft defeat Template:Nft, after extra time, and be first to have their name engraved onto the trophy.
The 1964 competition was the first European Nations Cup to be affected by politics as it saw Template:Nft refusing to play Template:Nft as they were technically (though not officially) at war. The finals were hosted by Template:Nft, and they saw the hosts beat the Soviet Union 2-1 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 Template:Nft who won the competition after a 2-0 replay of the final, having drawn 1-1 in the first against Yugoslavia.
1970s
In the 1972 tournament, the same structure was retained, with Template:Nft being the host of the finals. Template:Nft won the competition, beating the Soviet Union 2-0 in the final. The 1976 final round was hosted by Yugoslavia. In the final, Template:Nft 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.
1980s
In 1980 UEFA introduced a new format, which saw eight teams go to the finals instead of four, and then play each other in two groups of four teams; the winner of each group then proceeded to the final. West Germany faced Template:Nft in the final, which they won 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 group 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 with goals from Michel Platini and Bruno Bellone.
The 1988 competition was held in West Germany, while the format from the 1984 competition was retained. Marco Van Basten led the Template:Nft, scoring what was later voted the best goal ever in the competition <ref name="UEFAEuro2004Final_MatchDayPublication">Template:Cite news</ref>.
1990s
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, Template:Nft replaced them. Surprisingly, the Danes went on to win the competition after a 2-0 victory over world champions Template:Nft in the final.
With the break up of the Soviet Union all of the former Soviet bloc countries were required to enter separately. Now that there were more teams, a format that accommodated this was required. With 48 teams entering the competition, and after the enlargement of the World Cup which had more European sides qualifying for it than the European Championships themselves, 16 teams 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 final remained the same. The Germans won in the final over underdogs Template:Nft with a golden goal.
2000s
Belgium and the Netherlands became the first countries to jointly host the event in 2000. France won, again the final was decided by golden goal, David Trezeguet was the scorer. In 2004 the event was held in Portugal, with the silver goal rule being used for the first time. The rule saw Template:Nft beat the Czech republic in the semi-finals. Underdogs Greece went on to win the competition, when they had been put at pre-tournament odds of 100 to 1. The next tournament will be co-hosted by Switzerland and Austria in 2008.
Future
A recent innovation has allowed countries to act as joint hosts. Belgium and the Netherlands were the first countries to co-host the competition in 2000. In the 2008 tournament Austria and Switzerland will co-host the event, held from 7 to 29 of June, 2008.
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
- Key:
- aet - after extra time
- asdet - after sudden death extra time
- ps - after penalty shootout
Total wins
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.
| Champions | Nation | Year(s) |
|---|---|---|
| 3 Wins | Template:GERf | 1972, 1980, 1996 |
| 2 Wins | Template:FRAf | 1984, 2000 |
| 1 Win | Template:URSf | 1960 |
| Template:ESPf | 1964 | |
| Template:ITAf | 1968 | |
| Template:TCHf | 1976 | |
| Template:NEDf | 1988 | |
| Template:DENf | 1992 | |
| Template:GREf | 2004 |
Final tournament appearances
- Template:Note Including five appearances as West Germany.
- Template:Note Including one appearance as Commonwealth of Independent States in 1992.
- Template:Note The country was named Yugoslavia in 2000.
See also
Notes
<references/>
External links
- UEFA European Championship at uefa.com.
|- !colspan="12" style="background:#BFD7FF;"|International football |- |colspan="12" style="text-align:left;"| FIFA | World Cup | Women's World Cup | Confederations Cup | World Rankings | Player of the Year Image:World Map FIFA2.png
|- !colspan="12" style="background:#BFD7FF;"|European Football Championship |- |colspan="12" style="text-align:center;"| France 1960 | Spain 1964 | Italy 1968 | Belgium 1972 | Yugoslavia 1976 | Italy 1980 | France 1984 | West Germany 1988 | Sweden 1992 | England 1996 | Belgium/Netherlands 2000 | Portugal 2004 | Austria/Switzerland 2008 | 2012 Template:European Football Championship qualification Template:European Football Championship squads Template:Fb endbg:Европейско първенство по футбол ca:Eurocopa de Futbol cs:Mistrovství Evropy ve fotbale da:Europamesterskab (fodbold) de:Fußball-Europameisterschaft et:Jalgpalli Euroopa meistrivõistlused el:Ευρωπαϊκό πρωτάθλημα ποδοσφαίρου es:Eurocopa fo:EM fótbóltur fr:Championnat d'Europe de football fy:Europeesk kampioenskip fuotbal hr:Europska nogometna prvenstva id:Kejuaraan Sepakbola Eropa it:Campionato europeo di calcio he:אליפות אירופה בכדורגל lv:Eiropas čempionāts futbolā lt:Europos futbolo čempionatas nl:Europees kampioenschap voetbal ja:サッカー欧州選手権 no:Europamesterskapet i fotball pl:Mistrzostwa Europy w piłce nożnej pt:Campeonato Europeu de Futebol ro:Campionatul European de Fotbal ru:Чемпионат Европы (футбол) fi:Jalkapallon euroopanmestaruuskilpailut sv:EM i fotboll th:การแข่งขันฟุตบอลชิงแชมป์แห่งชาติยุโรป vi:Giải vô địch bóng đá châu Âu uk:Чемпіонат Європи з футболу zh:欧洲足球锦标赛