In 1996 the tournament expanded to 16 teams, since it was easier for European nations to qualify for the World Cup than their own continental championship; 14 of the 24 teams at the 1982, 1986 and 1990 World Cups had been European, whereas the European Championship finals still involved only eight teams. This competition, for national knockout cup winners and high-placed league teams, was launched by UEFA in 1971 as a successor of both the former UEFA Cup and the Inter-Cities Fairs Cup (also began in 1955). A third competition, the UEFA Cup Winners' Cup, which started in 1960, was absorbed into the UEFA Cup (now UEFA Europa League) in 1999. National teams represented by UEFA are known for being successful throughout the history of the FIFA World Cup. Italy and Germany have four titles each, followed by France with two titles and England and Spain, winning once each. The national associations of these countries also are responsible for organizing the so-called "Big Five European Leagues", consisting of Spain's La Liga, England's Premier League, Germany's Bundesliga, Italy's Serie A and France's Ligue 1.
The 1972 and 1980 winning country, West Germany, is written as just Germany.[citation needed] Since 2016, the juggling boy was returned on the trophy's back. Thibaut Courtois has ruled out returning to international duty in time for Euro 2024 as he recovers from injury, criticising Belgium coach Domenico Tedesco's handling of the row which saw the goalkeeper walk out on the national team. This means that, at best, a club can earn €85,140,000 of prize money under this structure, not counting shares of the qualifying rounds, play-off round or the market pool. Liverpool regained it in 1983–84 before losing to Juventus (1984–85); Steaua București (1985–86); Porto (1986–87); PSV Eindhoven (1987–88); Milan (2); Red Star Belgrade; and Barcelona became champions before the competition was re-formulated as the UEFA Champions League.
There are currently eight teams throughout Europe that have won two of the three trophies; all but one have won the Cup Winners' Cup, four require a win in the Champions League and four require a UEFA Europa League win. In most tournaments, the tournament consists of a round-robin group stage followed by a single-elimination knockout stage. The stage is almost set for Euro 2024, which begins on June 14 through to the final on July 14.
It is the most watched club competition in the world and the third-most watched football competition overall, behind only the UEFA European Championship and the FIFA World Cup. It is one of the most prestigious football tournaments in the world and the most prestigious club competition in European football, played by the national league champions (and, for some nations, one or more runners-up) of their national associations. The groups are again played in a league format, where a team plays its opponents once each.
The 16 top-ranked teams spread across the biggest domestic leagues qualified directly for the tournament group stage. Prior to this, three preliminary knockout qualifying rounds whittled down the remaining teams, with teams starting in different rounds. Four of the remaining six qualifying places are granted to the winners of a six-round qualifying tournament between the remaining 43 or 44 national champions, within which those champions from associations with higher coefficients receive byes to later rounds. The other two are granted to the winners of a three-round qualifying tournament between 10 and 11 clubs from the associations ranked 5–6 through 15, which have qualified based upon finishing second or third in their respective national league. https://sbotopbet.net/blog/uefa-europa-league-2023-2024/ runs official international competitions in Europe and some countries of Northern, Southwestern and Central Asia for national teams and professional clubs, known as UEFA competitions, some of which are regarded as the world's most prestigious tournaments. In 1954 the club entered professional football, playing its home matches in the Olympic Stadium in Amsterdam.
- Ukraine's fairy-tale run to Euro 2024 fell short vs. Italy on Monday night, pushing them into March's playoffs for next summer's tournament.
- The losers of the semi-finals and final were transferred to the Europa Conference League Champions Path second qualifying round.
- International and club beach soccer competitions for UEFA members are organised externally by Beach Soccer Worldwide.
- They were joint hosts Poland and Ukraine, the winners and the highest ranked second-placed team from the nine qualifying groups as well as the winners of four play-off matches between the runners-up of the other groups.
- The competition is contested by UEFA members' senior men's national teams, determining the continental champion of Europe.
- This trophy bore the words Coupe d'Europe ("European Cup"), Coupe Henri Delaunay ("Henri Delaunay Cup"), and Championnat d'Europe ("European Championship") on the front and a juggling boy on the back.
Other finalists were assigned to by means of a draw, using coefficients as a basis. Spain were the highest scoring team with 12 goals scored and David Villa finished as the top scorer with four goals. Xavi was awarded the player of the tournament, and nine Spanish players were picked for the team of the tournament.
This event, despite enjoying a long and well-established tradition in the European futsal community, dating back to 1984, was never recognised as official by UEFA. Some UEFA members are transcontinental states (Azerbaijan, Georgia, Kazakhstan and Turkey) and others are considered part of Europe both culturally and politically (Cyprus and Armenia). Countries which had been members of the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) were also admitted to the European football association, such as Israel (because it had been banned from the AFC group in 1974) and Kazakhstan. UEFA was officially inaugurated on 15 June 1954 in Basel, Switzerland after consultation between the Italian, French, and Belgian associations.[6] At the founding meeting, 25 members were present.
The winners of the quarter-finals matches progress to the semi-finals, where the winners play in the final. If in any of the knockout rounds, the scores are still equal after normal playing time, extra time and penalties are employed to separate the two teams. Unlike the FIFA World Cup, this tournament no longer has a third place playoff.
The competition is contested by UEFA members' senior men's national teams, determining the continental champion of Europe. It is the second-most watched football tournament in the world after the FIFA World Cup. The Euro 2012 final was watched by a global audience of around 300 million.[2] The competition has been held every four years since 1960, except for 2020, when it was postponed until 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic in Europe, but kept the name Euro 2020. Scheduled to be in the even-numbered year between FIFA World Cup tournaments, it was originally called the European Nations' Cup before changing to its current name in 1968. Spanish clubs have the highest number of victories (19 wins), followed by England (15 wins) and Italy (12 wins). England has the largest number of winning teams, with six clubs having won the title.
Up to 1968 draws were to be broken via a coin toss in all matches but the final, draw in final match was resolved via a replay. Since the expansion of the final tournament starting from 1980, the host country, or countries, have been chosen beforehand and qualify automatically. Barcelona midfielder Gavi is unlikely to play again this season after the Catalan club confirmed he has torn his anterior cruciate ligament while playing for Spain on Sunday. The jury is composed of the coaches of the clubs that participated in the group stage of the competition, as well as 55 journalists selected by the European Sports Media (ESM) group, one from each UEFA member association. Only five teams[27][28] (Juventus, Ajax, Manchester United, Bayern Munich and Chelsea[s]) have won each of the three main competitions (European Cup/UEFA Champions League, European Cup Winners' Cup/UEFA Cup Winners' Cup and UEFA Cup/UEFA Europa League),[29] a feat that is no longer possible for any team that did not win the Cup Winners' Cup.
Changes will be made to the access list above if the Champions League or Europa League title holders qualify for the tournament via their domestic leagues. The UEFA Intertoto Cup was a summer competition, previously operated by several Central European football associations, which was relaunched and recognised as official UEFA club competition by UEFA in 1995.[25] The last Intertoto Cup took place in 2008. The Italian, German, Spanish, French and Russian[r] men's national teams are the only teams to have won the European football championship in all categories. The Henri Delaunay Trophy, which is awarded to the winner of the European Championship, is named in honour of Henri Delaunay, the first General Secretary of UEFA, who came up with the idea of a European championship but died five years before the first tournament in 1960.
