History of European Championships

Known as the European Cup or Euro Cup as the name implies is a tournament that was held on the continent of Europe and only by European countries. The initial idea arcing European cup tournament comes from the French Football Federation secretary or FFF, Henri Delauney at the end of the 1920s.

When it debuted in South America and the world football stage can not be matched by European countries. Uruguay as one of the South American country successfully won Olympic gold medals in 1924 and 1928. Top achievement, Uruguay was given the honor to host the World Cup for the first time in 1930.
Delauney convey the idea that Europe makes the competition that can increase the match between European countries, the road makes a tournament between European countries. But unfortunately Delauney idea was ignored by UEFA (European Football Federation) at the time. UEFA even make the tournament between European clubs embryo Champions League, European leagues and cup winners in the future.
This makes Delauney disappointed and fell ill, he finally died in 1955. Cash it shocked officials UEFA, the UEFA congress in 1957, finally accepted the idea of ​​opponent Delauney and UEFA decided to hold its first European Cup tournament in France in 1960 as a tribute to the services Delauney.
Soviet Union or Russia is known today came out to win the European Cup the first time, the Soviet Union came out as champions after a 2-1 win over Yugoslavia in the final.
Since then, every 4 years UEFA staged event 'Mini World Cup' this. The development of the grand event that continues to happen. For example, the number of participants second European Cup that took place in Spain, 1964, swelled from 17 countries to 29 countries. Swelling, among others marked the entry of Britain and Italy in the arena of European grand event as this. But the final round of the same format as the first, which is 4 teams qualify for the finals. This time, the host Spain in the final overthrow of the Soviet Union defending champion with a score of 2-1.
As the number of participants grows, the format of the game was changed. Each participant must be a winner and runner up group advance to qualify for the finals. This format is the standard format adopted for each event European trophy.