 Facts
and figures on UEFA
The following is a list of
ten facts about the European Championship Football,
focusing more on the tournaments history.
- The modern UEFA European Championship
has two parts: a series of qualifying groups
played in the two years preceding its second
part, a finals tournament. The finals are
staged every four years in a different country.
- The competition began in 1960
as the European Nations' Cup, the brainchild
of Henri Delaunay. Then the final tournament
consisted of four teams who survived a knockout
competition played over the previous 2 years.
- The 1960 competition was almost
cancelled for lack of support after many countries
left it late to apply.
- The name 'UEFA European Championship'
was adopted in 1968, the same year as knock-out
preliminaries were replaced by the modern
qualifying round.
- There have been ten winners:
Soviet Union (1960), Spain (1964), Italy (1968),
Germany (as the Federal Republic of Germany/West
Germany in 1972, 1980 and as Germany in 1996),
Czechoslovakia (1976), France (1984, 2000),
Netherlands (1988), Denmark (1992) and Greece
(2004).
- The finals tournament has
been played in 11 countries: France (1960,
1984), Spain (1964), Italy (1968, 1980), Belgium
(1972), Yugoslavia (1976), Germany (1988),
Sweden (1992), England (1996), Belgium and
the Netherlands (joint hosts 2000), Portugal
(2004).
- Denmark initially failed to
qualify for the 1992 finals, but were invited
to play when Yugoslavia were thrown out because
of their civil war; Denmark won.
- The four-team final tournament
was expanded to eight teams in 1980 and sixteen
in 1996, with 48 taking part in qualifiers.
- The largest attendance in
competition history was a qualifier between
England and Scotland at Hampden Park for the
1968 competition. 130,711 were there.
- In 1960 the Spanish
team were withdrawn by their right-wing government
rather than play the impressive, and communist,
Russians.
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