Welcome to Euro Cup 2008

The UEFA European Championship has turned into a massive success story as it enjoys the status of one of the world's major sporting events - although the championship's creation five decades ago was more difficult than might be expected.

Championships for national associations had already begun in other continents by the time the idea of a European competition for national teams began to reach fruition in the 1950s. There were various reasons for the comparatively late emergence of a championship on the European continent. For example, in addition to differing opinions and interest circles throughout Europe, there were fears in some quarters that such a competition might threaten the status of the FIFA World Cup.

At the time that UEFA was born, in 1954, the impetus for a European championship was coming from the distinguished French sports newspaper L'Equipe, which proposed a competition with home-and-away matches to be played in midweek in the evening. Adding to the French drive for such a tournament was Henry Delaunay, first UEFA General Secretary and former French national association general secretary. In 1927, Delaunay had already submitted a proposal to FIFA, in conjunction with the great Austrian official Hugo Meisl, for the creation of a European cup, to run concurrently with the World Cup, which would involve a qualifying competition every two years.

The UEFA European Football Championship is the main football competition of the men's national football teams governed by the UEFA. Held every four years since 1960, in the even-numbered year between World Cup tournaments, it was originally called the European Nations Cup, changing to the name European Football Championship in 1968.

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