Competitions

UEFA European Championship

Citation Formats

General Reference

Sport and Games Atlas. "UEFA European Championship." Accessed August 30, 2026. https://sport.interactiveatlas.org/competitions/uefa-european-championship.

APA Style

Sport and Games Atlas. (n.d.). UEFA European Championship. Retrieved August 30, 2026, from https://sport.interactiveatlas.org/competitions/uefa-european-championship

BibTeX

@misc{sportandgamesatlas-uefa-european-championship,
  author = {Sport and Games Atlas},
  title = {UEFA European Championship},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://sport.interactiveatlas.org/competitions/uefa-european-championship},
  note = {Accessed August 30, 2026}
}

The UEFA European Championship, commonly called the Euros, is European football's championship for national teams, organized by UEFA and first played in 1960 under the name European Nations' Cup; the Soviet Union won that inaugural tournament, beating Yugoslavia 2 to 1 in the final. Held every four years, in the even-numbered year between FIFA World Cup tournaments, the competition expanded from four finalists in its earliest editions to eight from 1980, sixteen from 1996, and twenty four teams in its current format. It was renamed the European Championship in 1968, and Spain is its most successful side with four titles, including back-to-back wins in 2008 and 2012, the only team to have won consecutive tournaments.

Facts

Founding Year

1960 1

Founding Date

1960-07-10 1

Date of the final of the inaugural 1960 European Nations Cup at the Parc des Princes in Paris, the Soviet Union defeating Yugoslavia 2 to 1 after extra time; qualifying for that first edition had begun in 1958.

Frequency

Every four years, in the even-numbered year between FIFA World Cup tournaments. 1

Host History

First tournament: France, 1960; won by the Soviet Union, beating Yugoslavia 2 to 1. Originally contested as the European Nations' Cup. 1

Learn More

A Cup Renamed

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.

Back to Back: Spain's Unmatched Run

This article records tradition as it has been passed down and reported. Its sources are not yet part of the atlas's verified catalogue.

Spain holds the UEFA European Championship record with four titles, the most of any nation, but the number that actually separates Spain from the rest of the field is smaller and more specific: Spain is the only team ever to have won the tournament in consecutive editions, doing it in 2008 and again in 2012. Every other multiple champion in the competition's history has had its titles spaced apart by at least one tournament somebody else won in between. In a competition held only every four years, with a field that has grown from four finalists at its 1960 founding as the European Nations' Cup to twenty four teams today, winning once is already difficult; winning twice with no gap at all is a record nobody else in the tournament's history has matched.

Cross-Tradition Connections