European Championship

The UEFA European Championship is the main contest of the national teams under the UEFA aegis. Starting 1960, it is held every four years. Originally, the tournament was called the European Cup. In 1968 its name was changed into European Football Championship. Raed news

To qualify for the tournament, the national team supposed to take part in the European Championship is to take either the first or the second place in one of the seven groups, with eight teams fighting in each group. Following this, the team moves to the final, which is held in one or two countries. The host country (countries) gets into final automatically.  Raed news

Sixteen national teams, which got into the European Championship, make up the final tournament. These are winners and teams which took the second place in qualifying groups as well as host teams of the tournament (in 2012 these will be the teams of Poland and Ukraine). The sixteen teams will be divided into four groups. Thus, each group will consist of four teams. The drawing is held by the UEFA administration. It also applies the method of seeding of teams, which achieved the best results.  Raed news

1960, France . USSR - Yugoslavia 2:0 (0:1, 1:0, extra time – 1:0) . Paris, 10 July. Parc de Prince stadium, number of spectators: 17,966 .Referee: A.E. Ellis (England) Raed news

If we compile a rating of teams, which took the first, second, third, and fourth places at all European Championships starting 1960, we’ll see the following. 
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For the first time ever, the idea to hold tournaments for the national teams of European countries was put forward by French Football Federation Secretary General Henri Delaunay at one of the FIFA meetings. Yet the idea fell on deaf ears since there were a spat of problems related to arranging of World Championships. The main reason of refusal however laid in non-availability of European regional confederation. 
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