UEFA Euro Championship

Region: World
Teams: 16
Founded: 1960

The Euro Championship is the premier national football event of Europe and, like the FIFA World Cup, is contested every four years. Interspersed on even numbered years between World Cups, it was the brainchild of Frenchman, and the maiden general secretary of UEFA, Henri Delaunay.

Governed by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA), all competing teams have to go through a qualifying process, with the top 16 teams progressing to the finals, hosted by a different nation or nations selected by UEFA. The champions secure the right to participate in the FIFA Confederations Cup, an added incentive for any team.

Qualifying phase
Participating teams are selected via qualifying groups and play offs with only the host nation/s qualifying automatically.

The qualifiers begin in the autumn following the World Cup and continue for two years before the finals action begins. This phase typically consists of 7 groups, consisting of 8 teams in one and seven teams in all the others. The composition of the groups is decided by UEFA in a draw but each group will be allocated a seeded team. Seeds are determined as follows:

The defending champions
Teams who have performed well at the preceding World Cup and during the most recent European Football Championship qualifiers

Each team is ranked according to points per game and if two teams share the spoils, UEFA will look at a number of factors to determine which team will progress further, including average goal differences, number of goals scored, number of away goals scored and, if all else fails, by drawing lots.

Each group is effectively a mini-league, with all teams playing each other both home and away. The winner and runner-up of each group, according to points standings, progress to the tournament proper. Points allocated are as follows – 3 for a win, 1 for a draw and zero for a loss.

The Finals
The 16 teams that go through to the finals are divided into four groups of four teams each.
Again, draws and seedings determine the composition of each group.

The finals are contested in a round robin format with each team playing their group opponents once. The top two on points will progress further to the quarter finals, semi finals and the finals, where the typical knock-out system is employed.

Unlike the World Cup, there is no third place play-off and if the finals are not decided in the 90 minutes, it all boils down to extra time and then penalty shoot-outs. As of 2016 the total number of teams competing in the finals will increase from 16 to 24.