European Championship

Known by its full title of the UEFA European Football Championship, and more commonly referred to as "Euro xx", where xx is the year. It has been held every 4 years since 1960. This is the other primary football competition for Europe's national teams. It fills the void between World Cups by being held 2 years out of phase from each World Cup, and within Europe is nearly as highly regarded.

It follows the same basic format as its worldwide cousin. Teams are first required to qualify for the tournament itself through qualifying groups although the hosts are granted automatic entry into the tournament proper. Each group results in two teams qualifying for the finals and 16 clubs are currently allowed to participate. The competition will expand to 24 teams in 2016. In the finals themselves there is another group stage which will result in eight teams going through into the knockout stage. The winners are crowned European champions.

So far the winners have been:

Germany (Also as West Germany) - 1972, 1980, 1996
Spain - 1964, 2008
France - 1984, 2000
USSR - 1960
Italy - 1968
Czechoslovakia - 1976
Netherlands - 1988
Denmark - 1992
Greece - 2004

The tournament gave rise to the English anthem "Three Lions". This quickly caught on before England hosted the tournament in 1996. Despite England going out in the semi-finals, the song has become a very popular football anthem. Like in The World Cup the English fans expect great things each time it rolls around but the closest England have come is the semi finals in 1996.

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