History UsefulNotes / EuropeanChampionship

--> First itinerant tournament, organised to celebrate the 60th anniversary of UEFA (or probably because no one wanted to host the tournament due to the expensive costs and the economic crisis[[note]]Turkey were considered the only serious bidder, and they were more interested in the Olympic Games (which were eventually awarded to Tokyo)[[/note]]). The Belgian capital Brussels was intended to be amongst the host cities, but political delays relating to the stadium caused the city to lose their matches in December 2017, with their games being reallocated to London. None of the countries hosting games automatically qualify, but a qualifying host will automatically be placed in the group in their country and host at least two of their group games (for example, Italy were placed into Group A and will play all three of their group games in Rome) - if both countries hosting a group qualify, an additional draw will be held to determine which country hosts the match between them.[[note]]This only applied if both hosts qualify either automatically or via the play-offs; if one host qualified automatically and one via the play-offs, the automatic qualifier hosted the match between the two (this was only needed for Group B; all the other groups had one of the hosts qualifying automatically and the other host - except Group A, where one of the hosts failed to even make the play-offs - having to qualify via the play-offs)[[/note]] First to have the Nations League as a pre-qualifier fall-back. This was the first tournament to feature Finland, due to the goals of Norwich forward Teemu Pukki, whose name is allegedly an obscenity in Malaysia, and North Macedonia. It also marked the return of Scotland to major tournaments, having been absent from either this or the World Cup since 1998. Russia hosted and competed despite being banned from being represented in the Olympics and 2022 World Cup due to doping allegations. On 17 March 2020, the tournament was pushed back to 2021 due to the European coronavirus pandemic causing most leagues to be suspended - postponing it frees up space for those leagues to be able to be finished. Despite it being postponed to 2021, it's still referred to as Euro 2020; changing it to Euro 2021 would have caused a lot of branded items to be destroyed, which would go against UEFA's aims of making Euro 2020 a sustainable event. In April 2021, due to a lack of guarantees that spectators would be able to attend matches, Dublin was stripped of its matches (its three group games were moved to St. Petersburg and the last 16 match was switched to London) and Spain's stadium was switched to Seville. After a dramatic tournament, for reasons both footballing and otherwise (Danish captain Christian Eriksen going into cardiac arrest in the middle of the Denmark-Finland match, being saved by the sterling efforts of the stadium's medical team), Italy finally edged out England's 'Young Lions' in a penalty shoot-out at Wembley, after a tense final had ended 1-1.

--> After Euro 2020 was delayed to 2021, the tournament returns to its normal schedule of taking part in a leap year. It also returns to being held in one country, which returns to Germany for the first time since reunification (although Munich held some games in 2021). The Nations League qualification method lost a spot from this edition, though one of its 3 winners were Georgia, the sole outright debutant, who beat Greece on penalties in the finals of the playoff level C repechage (Poland and Ukraine beat Wales and Iceland respectively in the other 2 finals). However, Serbia made a first Euros since 2000, when they were FR Yugoslavia - FR Yugoslavia made the 2006 World Cup as Serbia-Montenegro just as the 2 countries split, and Serbia subsequently made 3 world cups without having qualified for a Euros until 2024, when ironically, they did so at the expense of the nation that was their constituent prior to 2006 (after avoiding defeat whilst Montenegro lost their last qualifier). Serbia were drawn in the same group as Ex-constituent Slovenia, also in their first Euros since that year, having also been in 2 World Cups since (and who also memorably fought FR Yugoslavia that year as well), England and Denmark, the latter representing Nordic nations alone after Iceland's playoff loss, and Finland having lost to Wales in the tournament's semi finals, and Sweden and Norway having not done well enough in the Nations League for it to provide a fall back option for failing to make the top 2 of their qualifying groups.

--> After Euro 2020 was delayed to 2021, the tournament returns to its normal schedule of taking part in a leap year. It also returns to being held in one country, which returns to Germany for the first time since reunification (although Munich held some games in 2021). The Nations League qualification method lost a spot from this edition, though one of its 3 winners were Georgia, the sole outright debutant, who beat Greece on penalties in the finals of the playoff level C repechage (Poland and Ukraine beat Wales and Iceland respectively in the other 2 finals). However, Serbia made a first Euros since 2000, when they were FR Yugoslavia - FR Yugoslavia made the 2006 World Cup as Serbia-Montenegro just as the 2 countries split, and Serbia subsequently made 3 world cups without having qualified for a Euros until 2024, when ironically, they did so at the expense of the nation that was their constituent prior to 2006 (after avoiding defeat whilst Montenegro lost their last qualifier).

--> After Euro 2020 was delayed to 2021, the tournament returns to its normal schedule of taking part in a leap year. It also returns to being held in one country, which returns to Germany for the first time since reunification (although Munich held some games in 2021). The Nations League qualification method loses a spot from this edition.

--> A joint-bid from the four Home Nations, plus the Republic of Ireland. The tournament returns to England for the first time since 1996 (although London had games in 2021, including the Final), and sees the other four hosts holding a football competition for the first time (albeit with Glasgow being one of the host cities in 2021). It is currently unclear if all five nations will qualify automatically or have to enter the qualifying tournament (with two spots held back for the two best performing non-qualifying hosts if needed).