THE UEFA EURO CHAMPIONSHIP 17th Edition

17th Edition of the UEFA EURO CHAMPIONSHIP

By Kasujja Shafic. 13,Oct,2023

The 2024 UEFA European football championship will be the 17th edition of the competition since its inception in 1958(65 years ago).

Joint record champions Germany will host the competition for the second time having hosted in 1988 as West Germany.

Now that club football has paaused for International break and nations will be rubbing shoulders for the slots in next year's final taurnament,ugleader runs the rule over the past EURO champions.

The Pan European football tournament was started in 1958,three years after the death of the French International Henri Delauney who developed the idea of the competition in 1927.

The first recognized and major tournament was hosted by France in 1960.Of the 17 teams which entered qualifications, only four were needed for the final tournament. Soviet Union and Yugoslavia contested in that year's final with the former being crowned champions thanks to a 2-1 victory in Paris.

The tournament was held again in 1964,this time hosted by Spain. The number of teams which entered the qualification stage increased to 29.The host nation won the title after a 2-1 win over the defending champions Soviet union at the Estadio Barnabeu in Madrid.

Italy hosted the 1968 tournament. Four teams qualified for the final tournament. For the first and only time, a coin toss was used to decide semi final between Italy and Soviet union.Italy defeated Yugoslavia in the final by 3-1 on Aggregate after a replay. The first leg ended in a one all draw before Italy winning the second leg by 2-0.(The only major final played into two legs).

The 1972 tournament was hosted by Beligium.West Germany and Soviet union reached  the final, a brace from Gerhd Muller and the other by Herbert Wimer gave West Germany a 3-0 win.

The 1976 competition was hosted by Yugoslavia. This was the last tournament to have 4 teams. The final was contested between Chechoslavakia and West Germany. The game ended in the newly introduced penalties which saw Chechoslavaki win 5-3 with Antonin Panenker's penalty the most remarkable of all the kicks.

Hosts West Germany won their second trophy after beating Beligium by 2-1 at Estadio Olympico in 1980.It was the first tournament to group 8 teams in the finals with top two playing semi finals and group runners up played third place play off.

Mitchel Hidalgo guided France to their first major title after winning the 1984 tournament which they hosted.Led by Mitchel Platini,France defeated Spain 2-0 in the final.Platini scored a record of 9 goals in the competition an achievement that also contributed to his ballondor that year.

The red hot Netherlands side under the stewardship of Rinus Michel won the 1988 tournament which was hosted by West Germany. The Oranges defeated their rivals West Germany on semi finals before outwitting Soviet union on the final with Marco Van Basten scoring an audacious volley from the right.This was the first and only major trophy won by Netherlands.