This article records tradition as it has been passed down and reported. Its sources are not yet part of the atlas's verified catalogue.
The tournament now called the UEFA European Championship did not start under that name. When it was first played in 1960, in France, it was called the European Nations' Cup, and it stayed that way for its first two editions before UEFA renamed it the European Championship in 1968. The Soviet Union won that first, differently named tournament, beating Yugoslavia 2 to 1 in the final, in a competition that fielded just four finalists, a fraction of the twenty four that qualify for the modern tournament. The field grew in stages rather than all at once: eight teams from 1980, doubling again to sixteen from 1996, and growing by half again to the current twenty four in the most recent expansion.