The current European men's football champions. A brief history of the European Football Championships. All European football champions by year

World Cup, World Cup. European Football Championship. Football on Olympic Games. Best Footballer of the Year

World Cup, World Cup

Modern football originated in the mid-19th century in England.
The winners of the FIFA World Cup (FIFA World Cup) were:
World Cup 1930 - Uruguay(The Golden Ball, the prize for the best player of the first World Cup, went to the defender of the Uruguay national team Jose Nasassi). Organizing country - Uruguay;
World Cup 1934 - Italy(The Golden Ball was awarded to the scorer of the Italian team Giuseppe Meazza). Organizing country - Italy;
World Cup 1938 - Italy(The Brazilian national team striker won the Golden Ball Leonidas da Silva, "Black brilliant");
World Cup 1950 - Uruguay(The best player of the 1950 World Cup is a striker for the Brazilian national team Zizinho);
World Cup 1954 - Germany(The Hungarian football player, forward, won the Golden Ball Ferenc Puskás, nickname "Galloping Major");
World Cup 1958 - Brazil(The Golden Ball went to the holding midfielder of the Brazilian national team Didi);
World Cup 1962 - Brazil(The best football player of the 1962 World Cup is the right winger of the Brazilian national team Garrincha, “Bow-legged Angel”);
World Cup 1966 - England(The Golden Ball went to the England attacking midfielder Bobby Charlton);
World Cup 1970 - Brazil. In the final, defeating the Italian team with a score of 4:1, Brazil won the title for the first time in football history. championship title for the third time and received a gold cup - “ Golden goddess Niku" in eternal storage (Golden Ball from the striker of the Brazilian national team, the legendary Pele);
World Cup 1974 - Germany(The best football player of the 1974 World Cup is a Dutch striker Johan Cruyff, "Flying Dutchman");
World Cup 1978 - Argentina(The best football player of the 1978 World Cup is an Argentine striker Mario Alberto Kempes);
World Cup 1982 - Italy(Italian forward wins FIFA Ballon d'Or Paolo Rossi);
World Cup 1986 - Argentina(The best player of the 1986 World Cup is Argentinean Diego Armando Maradona, nickname “Ten”, “Fluff”);
World Cup 1990 - Germany(The FIFA Golden Ball went to the Italian national team striker Salvatore Squillac and, "Toto");
World Cup 1994 - Brazil(Best Footballer of the 1994 World Cup - Romario, “Shorty”, Brazil);
World Cup 1998 - France(Best footballer of the 1998 World Cup - Ronaldo, “Nibbler”, Brazil);
World Cup 2002 - Brazil(The FIFA Golden Ball went to the goalkeeper of the German national team Oliver Kanu, nickname "King Kahn");
World Cup 2006 - Italy(Frenchman wins Ballon d'Or Zinedine Zidane, "Zizou");
World Cup 2010 - Spain(The FIFA Ballon d'Or went to the Uruguayan national team striker Diego Martin Forlan, nickname "Cachavacha");
World Cup 2014 - Germany. The 20th anniversary FIFA World Cup was held from June 12 to July 13, 2014 in Brazil. The opening match (Brazil-Croatia) took place in Sao Paulo at the Itakeran Arena. The Germany-Argentina final took place in Rio de Janeiro at the Maracanã stadium - 1:0 (in extra time) - for the first time in the history of football, a European team took the World Cup in South America. Still got the Golden Ball Lionel MESSI Argentina (nickname "Baby")
This championship saw the introduction of automatic goal detection (GLT) for the first time and the introduction of breaks in matches when playing in the heat, and referees began using cans of disappearing white spray to mark the field when taking free kicks and penalty kicks.
The biggest sensation of the tournament: Brazil's loss to Germany in the semi-finals with a phenomenal score of 1:7.
World Cup 2018 - The 21st FIFA World Cup will be held in Russia. The World Cup will be held at stadiums in thirteen Russian cities, which are divided into 4 clusters (separately, Yekaterinburg): Moscow, Kaliningrad, St. Petersburg, Volgograd, Kazan, Nizhny Novgorod, Samara, Saransk, Yaroslavl, Krasnodar, Rostov-on-Don, Sochi, Yekaterinburg. 3 stadiums are being prepared in Moscow. The Luzhniki Stadium is subject to reconstruction; construction of two other stadiums is underway: Spartak (a project of the American construction company AECOM) and VTB Arena central Stadium Dynamo".
The KROST company is one of the largest diversified construction companies. The company has several areas of business - construction and industrial complexes, development of commercial and residential real estate, rental of commercial real estate in Moscow, the fitness and wellness industry "ELSE-club", a chain of folk restaurants.
The 2022 World Cup will be held in the Arabian emirate of Qatar. 12 stadiums from seven cities in Qatar will host matches of the 22nd World Cup.
In January 2017, the Council of the International Football Federation approved an increase in the number of participants in the final part of the World Cup from 32 to 48 teams. The changes come into force in 2026.

1982 FIFA World Cup. The final. Italy - Germany

Women's World Cup

The first FIFA Women's World Cup was held in 1991 in China.
Women's World Cup winners:
1991 World Cup in China - USA(final USA - Norway 2:1). Golden Ball - Karin Jennings Carin JENNINGS, USA.
World Cup 1995 in Sweden - Norway(final Norway - Germany 2:0). Golden Ball - Hege Riise Hege RIISE, Norway.
1999 World Cup in USA - USA(USA final - China 0:0 pen. 5:4). Golden Ball - Song Wen SUN Wen, China.
World Cup 2003 in USA - Germany(final Germany - Sweden 1:0). Golden Ball - Birgit Prinz Birgit PRINZ, Germany.
World Cup 2007 in China - Germany(final Germany - Brazil 2:0). Golden Ball - Martha MARTA, Brazil.
World Cup 2011 in Germany- Japan(final Japan - USA 2:2 pen. 3:1). Golden Ball - Homare Sawa Homare SAWA, Japan.
World Cup 2015 in Canada from June 6 to July 5 - USA(final USA - Japan 5:2). The USA became 3-time world champions in women's football. American's Golden Ball Carli Lloyd Carli Lloyd.

European Football Championship

In 1960, at the proposal of the President of the French Football Federation, Henri Delaunay (1883-1955), the first European Cup was held among national teams, subsequently the European Championship (UEFA European Championship).
Winners of the European Football Championships:
EURO 1960 - USSR(best player of the first European Championship – legendary goalkeeper Lev Yashin);
EURO 1964 - Spain(best player of Euro 1964 - Spanish midfielder Luis Suarez);
EURO 1968 - Italy(best player of Euro 1968 - goalkeeper of the "Squadra Azzurra" Dino Zoff);
EURO 1972 - Germany(best player of Euro 1972 - German striker Gerd Müller);
EURO 1976 - Czechoslovakia(best player of Euro 1976 - German striker Dieter Müller);
EURO 1980 - Germany(best player of Euro 1980 - German striker Karl-Heinz Rummenigge, "Calle"); At this European Championship, for the first time, 8 national teams took part in the final part (previously 4), and the host country received a place in the final part automatically.
EURO 1984 - France(best player of Euro 1984 - French midfielder Michelle Platini);
EURO 1988 - Netherlands(Euro 1988 best player - Dutch striker Marco van Basten, "Utrecht Swan");
EURO 1992 - Denmark(best player of Euro 1992 – Danish goalkeeper Peter Schmeichel, "The Great Dane");
EURO 1996 - Germany(best player of Euro 1996 - German midfielder Matthias Sammer, "Red-haired meteor"); At the 1996 European Championships, for the first time, 16 teams participated in the finals, which were divided into 4 groups.
EC 2000 - France(Euro 2000 best player - French attacking midfielder Zinedine Zidane);
EURO 2004 - Greece(Euro 2004 best player - Greek defensive midfielder Theodoros Zagorakis);
EURO 2008 - Spain(best player of Euro 2008 - Spanish midfielder Javi);
EURO 2012 - Spain. For the first time in the history of modern football, this is the third victory in a row for one team in the top finals of the World Cup and European Championship (the Red Fury midfielder was recognized as the best player in the final match and Euro 2012 championship) Andres Iniesta).
European Football Championship 2012. Final. Spain - Italy. All goals
EURO 2016 - Portugal. The 15th European Championship was held in France (for the 3rd time) in a month - from June 10 to July 10, 2016. By decision of the UEFA Executive Committee, for the first time 24 teams took part in the final round of the championship instead of 16 (the same number of 24 at the World Cup).
The opening match of Euro 2016 France - Romania 2:1. Author of the winning goal for the French Dimitri Payet- “closest to God.”
The final is on July 10 at the Stade de France in the suburbs of Paris, France - Portugal. Dimitri Gebek Payet vs Cristiano Ronaldo. But the confrontation did not work out. At the beginning of the first half, the injured Ronaldo was taken off the field (by the way, an injury from a collision with Payet). And at the beginning of the 2nd half, Payet was also replaced. Regular time ended in a 0:0 draw.
In extra time, the goal was scored by Portuguese striker Eder (he moved from Guinea-Bissau to Portugal as a child). France - Portugal 0:1
French striker Antoine Griezmann was named the best player of Euro 2016. Team of the tournament: Rui Patricio (Portugal), Pepe (Portugal), Jerome Boateng (Germany), Raphael Guerreiro (Portugal), Joshua Kimmich (Germany), Toni Kroos (Germany), Joe Allen (Wales), Aaron Ramsey (Wales) , Antoine Griezmann (France), Dimitri Payet (France), Cristiano Ronaldo (Portugal).
European Football Championship 2016. Final. Eder's goal

European Women's Football Championship

The European Women's Football Championship under the auspices of UEFA has been held since 1980 (from 1987 to 1997 it was held every 2 years, then the cycle was increased to four years).
Winners women's championship European Football:
EURO 1984 - Sweden(UEFA Golden Player - Pia Sundhage, Sweden)
EURO 1987 - Norway(UEFA Golden Player - Heidi Stere, Norway)
EURO 1989 - Germany(UEFA Golden Player - Doris Fitschen, Germany)
EURO 1991 - Germany(UEFA Golden Player - Sylvia Naid, Germany)
EURO 1993 - Norway(UEFA Golden Player - Hege Riise, Norway)
EURO 1995 - Germany(UEFA Golden Player - Birgit Prinz, Germany)
EURO 1997 - Germany(UEFA Golden Player - Carolina Morace, Italy)
EURO 2001 - Germany(UEFA Golden Player - Hannah Ljungberg, Sweden)
EURO 2005 - Germany(UEFA Golden Player - Anne Mäkinen, Finland)
EURO 2009 - Germany(UEFA Golden Player - Inka Grings, Germany)
EURO 2013 - Germany(UEFA Golden Player - Lotta Shelin, Sweden)
Beautiful women's football

Football at the Olympic Games

Olympic event

The winners of the Olympic football tournaments (1908-2012) were:
In 1908 and 1912 - Great Britain; 1920 - Belgium; 1924 and 1928 - Uruguay; 1936 - Italy I; 1948 - Sweden; 1952, 1964 and 1968 - Hungary; 1956 and 1988 - USSR; 1960 - Yugoslavia; 1972 - Poland; 1976 - GDR; 1980 - Czechoslovakia; 1984 - France; 1992 - Spain; 1996 - Nigeria; 2000 -Cameroon, 2004 and 2008 - Argentina, 2012 - Mexico.
The winners of the women's football competition at the Olympic Games (1996-2012) were:
In 1996, 2004, 2008 and 2012 - USA, in 2000 - Norway.
At the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, 16 teams participated in the men's football tournament (August 4-20). Portugal: Germany, Nigeria: Denmark, South Korea: Honduras, Brazil: Colombia.
Brazil: Honduras, Nigeria: Germany reached the semi-finals.
Finalists Brazil and Germany. Brazilians, led by their captain Neymar, still snatched victory from the Germans (regular time 1:1, penalties 5:4) and became Olympic champions for the first time.
In women's football tournament Rio 2016 (August 3-19) was attended by 12 teams. Brazil: Australia, USA: Sweden, China: Germany, France: Canada qualified for the Playoffs.
Brazil: Sweden and Canada: Germany reached the semi-finals.
The finalists are Sweden and Germany. Germany- champion of Olympic Games-16 (for the first time in women's football), Brazil is third.

Best Footballer of the Year. FIFA Ballon d'Or

UEFA European Footballer of the Year

2011 G. Lionel Messi forward, Argentina (Barcelona)
2012 G. Andres Iniesta midfielder, Spain (Barcelona)
2013 G. Frank Ribery midfielder, France (Bayern)
Nadine Angerer recognized as the best European football player of the 2012/2013 season.
2014 G. Cristiano Ronaldo forward, Portugal (Real Madrid)
Nadine Kessler- best European football player of the 2013/2014 season
2015 G. The best football player Barcelona striker became European champion at the end of the 2014/15 season Lionel Messi, who beat out Cristiano Ronaldo and Uruguayan teammate Luis Suarez in the voting.
Recognized as the best female footballer by UEFA Celia Sasic, German football player of Cameroonian origin. Forward. She beat the Frenchwoman Amandine Henry and the German Jennifer Marozhan.
2016 d. The best football player in Europe for the 2015/2016 season, as expected, was Cristiano Ronaldo- European champion 2016 (as part of the Portuguese national team) and League winner European champions 2016 (as part of Real Madrid). The Portuguese was ahead of Gareth Bale (Wales) and Antoine Griezmann (France).
Norwegian Ada Hegerberg from Lyon was recognized as the Best Female Footballer in Europe in 2015/16. She was ahead of Amandine Henry (France) and Jennifer Marozhan (Germany).

Player of the Century

best player

1. Diego Maradona. Argentina - 53.60%
2. Pele. Brazil - 18.53%
3. Eusebio. Portugal - 6.21%

Years

Coach: Joachim Loew.

One of the strongest teams in European football. The Germans (from 1945 to 1990 - the German national team) won the world championship four times (1954, 1974, 1990 and 2014), became the strongest in Europe three times (1972, 1980, 1996) and won silver medals at the European Championship the same number of times - in 1976, 1992 and 2008. In the final tournaments they won 23 matches out of 43. The German national team only once failed to make it to the final stage European tournament, missing out on the 1968 European Championships.

The German national team took second place at the world championship four times (1966, 1982, 1986, 2002) and third on four occasions (1934, 1970, 2006, 2010). In the history of the World Cup, no other team has played more matches (106) than the German national team.

At the World Championships, the German national team never found itself left out of the playoffs, while the European Championship ended three times for it in the group stage - in 1984 and 2004, the Germans finished third, and in 2000 they took last place in their quartet.

Spain

European champion 1964, 2008, 2012.

Coach: Vicente del Bosque.

The European Championship was first won by the Spaniards in 1964. The USSR team was defeated with a score of 2:1 at the Santiago Bernabeu stadium in Madrid. After that and until 2008, the best result of the Spaniards was reaching the final of the 1984 European Championship. In 2008, Germany was defeated in the final match with a score of 1:0. At the 2010 World Cup in South Africa, the Spanish team became the first European team to win the World Cup on a foreign continent.

In the Euro 2012 final, the Spaniards defeated Italy with a score of 4:0 in Kyiv (Ukraine) and also became the first to defend the title of European champions. They failed to defend the title of world champions in 2014.

France

European champions 1984, 2000

Coach: Didier Deschamps.

Coach: Danny Blind.

At their debut European Championship in 1976, the Dutch won bronze, losing to the Yugoslavs in the semi-finals in extra time.

The Orange's finest hour was the 1988 European Championship in Germany. Having defeated the USSR team in the final, the Dutch became European champions.

Since then, the Dutch team has been a regular participant in the European Championship finals, reaching the semi-finals in 1992, 2000 and 2004. In 2008, the Dutch team lost to Russia in the quarterfinals in extra time, and did not make it out of the group at Euro 2012. In 2016, the Dutch team did not make it to the finals of the European Championship.

Coach: Aage Hareide.

The Danish national team has extensive experience in participating in European championships. The Danes qualified from the group at their debut final tournament in 1964, when they took fourth place, and again reached the semi-finals in 1984. Since then, the Danish national team has not played in only one continental championship - in 2008. The team's finest hour was the 1992 tournament. The triumph in Sweden was notable for the fact that the Danes entered the championship at the very last moment instead of the canceled Yugoslavia. England and France were defeated in the group stage, and the defending champions, the Dutch, were defeated on penalties in the semi-finals. In the championship final, the Danes defeated the Germans with a score of 2:0.

In 2004, the Danish team reached the quarter finals, but conceded three goals early in the second half and recognized the superiority of the Czech Republic. The Danes did not qualify for the 2008 European Championship, and did not make it out of the group at Euro 2012, although they beat the Netherlands in the first round.

Since then, the Danes have competed at the World Cup three more times (1998, 2002, 2010), reaching the quarterfinals in France in 1998.

Coach: Michael Skibbe.

The Greek national team first played at the European Championships in 1980 and scored only one point in three matches. The next time the Greeks played in the final tournament was 24 years later. Under the leadership of German coach Otto Rehhagel, the Greeks exceeded their wildest expectations and won gold at Euro 2004. As champions at Euro 2008, the Greeks lost all three group stage matches, and at Euro 2012 they lost to the Germans in the quarterfinals.

In 2016, the Greek team did not make it to the finals of the continental championship.

The Greeks made it to the FIFA World Cup three times - in 1994, 2010 and 2014.

Prepared based on open source materials

(English: UEFA European Championship) is the main competition of national teams, held under the auspices of UEFA. The competition has been held every 4 years since 1960.

For the first time, the idea of holding a tournament for European national teams was put forward by the former Secretary General of the French Football Federation, Henri Delaunay, at one of the meetings of the International Football Federation (FIFA). But the idea did not find support due to problems in organizing the World Championships and the lack of a European regional federation.

The turning point in the history of the creation of the European Championship occurred on May 27, 1952. At a meeting in Zurich, the heads of the football federations of France, Italy and Belgium discussed the creation of the European Football Union. A year later in Paris, at a meeting of 20 representatives of football federations, a committee was formed to prepare the founding conference of the European Football Union, which took place on June 15, 1954 in Basel. It was attended by representatives of Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Great Britain, Hungary, East Germany, Denmark, Ireland, Spain, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Northern Ireland, USSR, Finland, France, Germany, Czechoslovakia, Switzerland, Sweden and Yugoslavia. This council decided to create the European Union of Football Associations (UEFA). The first president of UEFA was the chairman of the Danish Football Association, Ebbe Schwartz.

At a meeting of the UEFA Executive Committee on March 27, 1957 in Cologne, a project called the “European Nations Cup” was put forward. On June 6, 1958, the draw for the first round of the Cup took place in the Travelers Club hall of the Forest Hotel in Stockholm.

In 2016, the European Championship, which will be played from June 10 to July 10, will be held in France for a record third time. Before this, only Belgium and Italy hosted the final stage of the European Championship more than once. The fifteenth European Championship will be the first tournament in which 24 teams will play in the final stage. 53 teams will play in the qualifying stage. The Euro 2016 final matches will be held at 10 stadiums: Bordeaux, Lens, Lille, Lyon, Marseille, Nice, Paris, Saint-Denis, Saint-Etienne and Toulouse.

Tournament format

The qualifying round begins after the end of the World Championship and lasts two years until the final part of the European Championship. The groups are formed by a draw by the UEFA committee using the seeding of the teams. Seeding is based on the qualifying round for the World Championship and the previous European Championship.

53 teams will play in the Euro 2016 qualification, which is a tournament record. They will be divided into groups of five or six teams, which will play each other a home and away match. The nine group winners, nine second place winners and the best third place winner will advance directly to the final stage. Eight other third place holders will decide the fate of the remaining four spots in the play-offs.

Participants in the final tournament will be divided into groups of four teams; The six winners, the six second-place teams, and the four best third-place teams will advance to the 1/8 finals.
Cup

The main symbol of the European Championship is the Henri Delaunay Cup. The original Cup was created in 1960 by Arthus Bertrand and named after the former president of the French Football Federation, Henri Delaunay, who served as UEFA's first general secretary since the creation of the union. The cup was a stylized silver amphora with a bas-relief depicting a young man playing ball.

For the 2008 European Championship a new cup was created. Pierre Delaunay, the son of Henri Delaunay, was responsible for the creation of the new prize. The cup weighs eight kilograms and its height is 60 centimeters. It is 18 centimeters taller and two kilograms heavier than the original.

The trophy is almost identical to the original Henri Delaunay Cup, but there are a number of differences. For example, the silver base has undergone changes, becoming larger to make the cup more stable. The names of the European Championship winners, which were previously inscribed on the plinth, are now on the back of the trophy. The original was made by Chobillon goldsmith and later bought by Yann Arthus-Bertrand in Paris, and the new cup was made by Asprey London.

The material was prepared based on information from RIA Novosti and open sources

European Football Championship, abbreviated Euro(English) UEFA European Championship, UEFA Euro listen)) is the main competition of national teams, held under the leadership of UEFA. The competition has been held every 4 years since 1960, and takes place between World Championships. The tournament was originally called European Nations Cup, and in 1968 the name was changed to European Football Championship, and the tournament received official status.

The final tournaments of the European Championships are held every 4 years, but together with the qualifying tournament it lasts 2 years. IN qualifying competitions 50 teams participated in the 2008 European Championship. In the final tournament, which takes place once every 4 years for a month in a pre-selected host country of the championship, 24 teams take part: 23 teams that received this right based on the results of the qualifying tournament, and the team of the host country (in , and years the hosts of the championship were two countries, when the tournament format was still limited to 16 teams). The first winner of the European Cup was the USSR national team.

Until 1980, only four teams took part in the final part of the tournament, from 1980 to 1992 - eight teams, since 1996 - 16 teams, and in 2016, for the first time, 24 teams took part in the final part of the championship. Teams participating in the final part of the tournament are determined through a series of qualifying games: until 1968, teams were determined by home and away games against each other; starting in 1968, teams qualified first in qualifying groups, then in the playoffs (group winners played each other; stage 1 ⁄ 4 finals) before getting into the final part. Until 1980, the location of the tournament was chosen among the countries that passed the qualifying tournament and made it to the final part of the championship. After the expansion of participants (1980) in the final part of the championship, the host team automatically qualified for the final part. Throughout history, 14 countries have hosted the European Championship, with Italy and Belgium twice, and France three times.

The Henri Delaunay Cup, which is awarded to the European champion, is named after Henri Delaunay, the first Secretary General of UEFA, who first proposed the European Championship, but died in 1955, 5 years before the first European Championship, held in 1960. His son, Pierre Delaunay, was responsible for creating the trophy. The cup was created by Parisian jeweler Michel Chobillon (French: Michel Chobillon). Starting from the first tournament in history, the champion was awarded the Henri Delaunay Cup and kept it for 4 years, until next championship Europe.

In Vienna, after the speech of Jose Kraaj, who introduced the congress to the ideas of holding a European championship, it became clear that the European championship should become a qualifying stage for world championships. But this idea did not find support among congress participants. Ottorino Barassi and Mikhailo Andreevich argued their disagreement with this project by the fact that it jeopardizes the implementation of regional competitions in Europe and deprives many national teams opportunity to compete in two tournaments. After completion of the discussions, the congress invited the executive committee to prepare new project and present it in a year.

At the UEFA Congress in June 1956, held in Lisbon, a new composition of the commission for the development of the project was approved, it included: Pierre Delaunay, Gustav Shebesh, Alfred Frey, Agustin Pujol, Konstantin Konstantaras and Leszek-Juliusz Rylski. The commission chose the cup version of the tournament and developed a time plan. The qualifying matches were to be played from August 1958 to March 1959, the 1/8 finals from April to October 1959, the quarter finals from November 1959 to May 1960, and the final four best teams organize between June 15 and July 15, 1960 in one country. The commission completed its work in 1957.

At a meeting of the UEFA executive committee on March 27, 1957 in Cologne, a project called the “European Champions Cup” was put forward. After discussing the project, UEFA President Ebbe Schwarz published his favorable review of the project in the first official UEFA bulletin. But at the congress on June 28, 1957 in Copenhagen, not everything went so smoothly. Of the 27 participants in the congress, 15 voted in favor of holding the European Championship. Belgium, Italy, the Netherlands, Germany and all British delegations opposed the holding.

On June 4, 1958, another attempt was made to prevent the 1960 European Nations Cup from being held; it was made by the delegations of Great Britain and Germany. The delegations again started discussions about the feasibility of holding the tournament, but after voting (the result of which was 15 in favor of the European Championship, 7 against), it was decided to hold the championship.

On June 6, 1958, the draw for the first round of the European Nations Cup took place in the Travelers Club hall of the Forest Hotel in Stockholm.

Qualifying or qualifying competitions are held in order to reduce the number of participants and select the strongest to participate in the final tournament. The qualifying round begins after the end of the World Championship and lasts 2 years until the final part of the championship. Groups are formed by drawing lots by the UEFA committee, using team seeding. Seeding is based on the qualifying round for the World Championship and the previous European Championship. The team's rank is formed according to the following principle: the number of points received for the team's games is divided by the number of games, the average number of points per game is calculated, and if the team has hosted one or two previous tournaments, the results of the last qualifying competition are used. If two teams have the same average points per game, then the committee will determine their ranking positions based on the following principles:

The qualification stage is carried out according to a group format, the composition of the groups is determined through a draw of teams from the seeding boxes. The draw takes place after the qualifying stage for the World Cup. In the qualifying round for the 2012 European Championship, the competition was held in 9 groups (6 groups of 6 teams and 3 groups of 5 teams).

A qualifying group is a kind of league where there are one or two highly ranked teams. Each team plays each other home and away, fighting to reach the finals. Points are distributed according to the following principle: 3 for a win, 1 for a draw and 0 for a loss. After all games played, the group winner is determined. The group winners advance to the finals. If two or more teams have the same number of points, then the following criterion is applied to determine the best:

Second place was interpreted differently during different qualifying tournaments. Thus, in the selection for the 2008 championship, everyone who took second place automatically qualified for the final part.

Below are the results of the final and third place matches at each championship:

19 teams played in the semi-finals, 12 teams reached the final match.

The most titled team is Germany, it won the championship 3 times and was a finalist 3 more times; Spain comes in second place, it won the championship 3 times and was a finalist 1 time. France closes the top three, having become champion twice and finalist once. In terms of the total number of medals at the European Championship, the German team is in the lead with 9 medals. Second place in this parameter is occupied by the teams of the Netherlands and Portugal, which won 5 medals of varying denominations.

3 out of ten teams that won the European Championship did so as hosts of the tournament. Teams from among those who won the European Championship, but did not achieve success in their own native land, - this is Germany, - 1/2 finals, England in - 1/2 finals).

In total, 36 teams took part in the final part of the European Championships (as of July 10, 2016).

At least one competed at every European Championship new team. Of these, seven teams were the hosts of the championship

The European Football Championship (until 1968 called the European Nations Cup) is the main tournament among national teams of the old world, which has been held under the auspices of UEFA since 1960. The competition was founded by Henri Delaunay, and the first European champion was the USSR team.

European Football Championship: The Winners' Path

Like the World Championship, the European Championship is held every 4 years. Throughout its history, the rules of the final part of the tournament have been changed several times. To a greater extent, this concerned the number of participating teams. UEFA is trying to make the competition more interesting and popular, and last championship Europe 2016, the organization decided to increase the number of national teams to 24 teams.

To get to the final part of the tournament, European teams undergo qualification. The choice of the country in which the cup will be held is determined by lot. In 2000, 2008 and 2012, the championship was hosted by two countries, but then there were only 16 participating teams.

The last European Championship was held in France, and in 2020 the tournament is planned to be held in 13 European countries, since in 2020 the championship will celebrate its 60th anniversary.

All European football champions by year

1960 - USSR

1964 - Spain

1968 - Italy

1972 - Germany

1976 - Czechoslovakia

1980 - Germany

1984 - France

1988 - Netherlands

1992 - Denmark

1996 - Germany

2000 - France

2004 - Greece

2008 - Spain

2012 - Spain

2016 - Portugal

Germany and Spain won the title of European champions the greatest number of times (3 times each). In addition, the “red fury” managed to become the first team in history to win the tournament twice in a row (in 2008 and 2012).