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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.

Specific championships are often referred to in the form "Euro 2008" or whichever year is appropriate.

The 1980 UEFA European Football Championship (Euro 80) final tournament was held in Italy. This was the sixth European Football Championship, which is held every four years and endorsed by UEFA. The final tournament took place between June 11 and June 22, 1980.

This was the first European Championship in which eight teams, rather than four, contested the final tournament. Seven of these countries had to qualify for the final stage. Also for the first time, the hosts, in this case Italy, qualified automatically for the finals.

Because of the expanded format, the final tournament went through some changes as well. Two groups of four teams each were created; each team would play all others within their group. The winners of the groups would go straight to the final (there were no semi-finals), while the runners-up disputed the third place match.

The 1984 UEFA European Football Championship (Euro 84) final tournament was held in France. It was the seventh European Football Championship, held every four years and endorsed by UEFA. The final tournament took place from 12 June to 27 June 1984. It is considered as one of the finest European Championships of all time.

At the time, only eight countries took part in the final stage of the tournament, seven of which had to come through the qualifying stage. France qualified automatically as hosts of the event; led by Michel Platini, who scored nine goals in France's five matches, Les Bleus won the tournament - their first major international title.

The 1988 UEFA European Football Championship (Euro 88) final tournament was held in West Germany. It was the eighth European Football Championship, which is held every four years and supported by UEFA. The final tournament took place between 10 June and 25 June 1988.

At the time, only eight countries could dispute the final tournament. Seven countries had to qualify for the final stage. West Germany qualified automatically as hosts of the event. The holders, France, failed to qualify. The tournament eventually crowned Netherlands as European champions for the first, and so far only time.

Euro 88 was a rare incidence of a major football tournament being completed without a single player being sent off.

The 1992 UEFA European Football Championship (Euro 92) final tournament was hosted by Sweden. It was the ninth European Football Championship, which is held every four years and supported by UEFA. The final tournament took place between 10 June and 26 June 1992.

Eight countries contested the final tournament. Seven countries had to qualify for the final stage as Sweden qualified automatically as hosts of the event. The USSR qualified for the finals shortly before the break-up of the country, and took part in the tournament under the banner of the CIS before the former Soviet republics formed their own national teams after the competition. The CIS team consisted of the following Soviet republics: Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Kyrgyzstan, Armenia, Moldova and Tajikistan. Five out of 15 ex-republics were not members of CIS, and therefore did not send their players: Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania.

Originally, Yugoslavia qualified for the final stage, but due to the Yugoslav wars, the team was disqualified and their qualifying group's runner-up Denmark took part in the championship. They shocked the continent by defeating the reigning world champions Germany for the title.

The official anthem of the tournament was More Than a Game performed by Towe Jaarnek and Peter Jöback. It was also the first major football competition in which the players had their names printed on their backs.

The 1996 UEFA European Football Championship (Euro 96) was hosted by England. It was the tenth European Football Championship, which is held every four years and endorsed by UEFA. The tournament's final stages took place between 8 June and 30 June 1996. The slogan of the tournament was "Football Comes Home", as it was the first time the tournament had taken place in England, the land where the game was born. English football and popular culture has since referenced the competition fondly even though the team did not reach the final. the title.

This was the first European Championship to introduce the current format of 16 countries competing in the final tournament.

Although not all the games were sold out, the tournament had the highest aggregate attendance in championship history (1,276,000) and the highest average per game of 41,158 for the revised 16 team format with 31 games. Only Germany had had a higher average attendance in championship history with an average of 56,656 in 1988 but only staged 15 games in an 8 team championship.

The 2000 UEFA European Football Championship, or Euro 2000, was the 11th UEFA European Football Championship, which is held every four years and organized by UEFA, football's governing body in Europe.

The finals of Euro 2000 were co-hosted (the first time this happened) by Belgium and the Netherlands between 10 June and 2 July 2000. The final tournament was contested by 16 nations. With the exception of the national teams of the hosts, Belgium and the Netherlands, the finalists had to go through a qualifying round to reach the final stage. France won the tournament, by defeating Italy 2-1 in the final, via a golden goal.

The UEFA Euro 2004 (or just Euro 2004) was the twelfth edition of UEFA's quadriennial Europea Football Championship and was held in Portugal, for the first time, between 12 June and 4 July 2004. Like in the previous two editions, in England and Netherlands/Belgium, sixteen teams contested the final tournament after going through a qualification round which began in 2002. The tournament took place in ten venues located in eight cities — Aveiro, Braga, Coimbra, Guimarães, Faro/Loulé, Leiria, Porto and Lisbon.

During the tournament there were several surprises: the German, Italian and Spanish national football teams were knocked out during the group stage; the title-holders France were eliminated in the quarter-finals by unfancied Greece, and the Portuguese hosts managed a winning streak towards the final, following their opening defeat, by beating Spain, England and Netherlands along the way. For the first time, the final featured the same teams as the opening match, with the hosts losing both of them also for the first time. Portugal was beaten by Greece on both occasions. Greece's triumph was even more outstanding considering that in their only other appearance, back in 1980, they did not win a single game.