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History


The UEFA European Football Championship has been running every four years since 1960 and is the main competition for Europe’s football teams (outside of the World Cup). The European Championships and World Cup alternate every two years.

The competition was formerly known as the European Nations Cup with UEFA changing the name to the European Football Championship in 1968. 52 teams go through the qualifying process at present with 16 teams qualifying for the final tournament. There have been discussions as to whether or not UEFA should open the tournament up to 24 teams, a process which would have started at the 2012 championships to be held between Poland and Ukraine though thus far this has been vetoed by the organising body.

As regards Euro 2008 directly, qualification began in August 2006 with hosts Austria and Switzerland automatically qualifying, Austria making their first appearance in the tournament. Outside of the hosts, the other 14 teams that made it through to the Euro 2008 finals were Italy, France, Germany, Netherlands, Russia, Romania, Poland, Portugal, Sweden, Turkey, Czech Republic, Croatia, Greece and Spain.

Previous European Champions

  • 1960 - USSR, beating Yugoslavia 2-1 after extra time.
  • 1964 - Spain, beating USSR 2-1.
  • 1968 - Italy, beaing Yugoslavia 2-0 in a replay after the first game finished 1-1 after extra time.
  • 1972 - Germany (as West Germany), beating USSR comprehensively 3-0 in the final.
  • 1976 - Czechoslovakia, beating West Germany 5-3 on penalties after tying 2-2 in extra time.
  • 1980 - West Germany, beating Belgium 2-1 in the final.
  • 1984 - France, beating Spain 2-0 in the final.
  • 1988 - Netherlands, beating the USSR 2-0.
  • 1992 - Denmark, beating Germany 2-0 in the final in Sweden.
  • 1996 - Germany, winning their third title beating the Czech Republic in England in sudden death.
  • 2000 - France, taking a 2-1 sudden death win against Italy.
  • 2004 - Greece, beating hosts Portugal 1-0 in the final.

Trivia

  • Trix and Flix are the names of the names of the two mascots chosen to represent Euro 2008

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