Regional tournaments for national teams existed before the advent of a truly
pan-European competition. Starting in 1883, the British Home Championship was an
annual competition contested between the United Kingdom’s four national
teams, England, Scotland, Wales, and Ireland.
Until these national teams
entered the FIFA World Cup in 1950, it was the most important international
tournament these nations competed in. Similarly, from 1927 until 1960 the
Central European International Cup was held six times. It brought together the
national teams of Austria, Hungary, Italy, Czechoslovakia, Switzerland, and
Yugoslavia. The idea for a pan-European football tournament was first proposed
by the French Football Federation’s secretary-general Henri Delaunay in
1927, but it was not until 1958 that the tournament was started, three years
after Delaunay’s death.[6]
In honour of Delaunay, the trophy
awarded to the champions is named after him.[7] The 1960 tournament, held in
France, had four teams competing in the finals out of 17 that entered the
competition.[8] It was won by the Soviet Union, beating Yugoslavia 2–1 in a
tense final in Paris.[9] Spain withdrew from its quarter-final match against the
Soviet Union because of two political protests.[10] Of the 17 teams that entered
the qualifying tournament, notable absentees were England, the Netherlands, West
Germany and Italy. (資料來源 )
The UEFA European Football Championship,[1] less formally the European
Championship and informally the Euro, is the primary association football
tournament organised by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA). 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, changing
to the current name in 1968. Since 1996, the individual events have been branded
as “UEFA Euro [year]”. (資料來源 )