EURO 1960: Politics Came into Sport

European Championship History

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. The tournament is considered the second-most important competition among national teams, based on European and worldwide fame, after the FIFA World Cup. Specific championships are often referred to in the form "Euro 2008" or whichever year is appropriate.

Before 1980, only four teams qualified for the final tournament. From 1980 eight teams competed and in 1996 the tournament expanded again to the current number of teams, 16. The competing teams are chosen by a series of qualifying games: in 1960 and 1964 through home and away play-offs; from 1968 through a combination of both qualifying groups and play-off games. The host country was selected from the four finalists after they were determined through qualifying. Since the expansion of the final tournament starting from 1980, the host country, or countries, have been chosen beforehand and qualify automatically.

Sixteen teams progressed into the final of the tournament as the winners and runners up of the seven qualifying groups and joint hosts Austria and Switzerland. These sixteen teams were then divided equally into four groups, A, B, C and D, each consisting of four teams. The groups were drawn up by the UEFA administration, again using seeding. The seeded teams being the host nations, the reigning champions, subject to qualification, and those with the best points per game over the qualifying phase of the tournament.

The four groups are again played in a league format, where a team plays its opponents once each. The same points system is used (three points for a win, one point for a draw, no points for a defeat). A schedule for the group matches will be drawn up, but the last two matches in a group must kick off simultaneously. The winner and runner-up of each group progresses to the quarter-finals, where a knockout system is used, this is used in all subsequent rounds as well. The winners of the quarter-finals matches progress to the semi-finals, where the winners play in the final. If in any of the knockout rounds after normal playing time, the scores are still equal, extra time and penalties are employed to separate the two teams.

The Two Invisible Group

Legendary Goalkeeper Lev Yashin

Like the World Cup and the European Champion Clubs’ Cup before it, the European Nations’ Cup (as it was then known) was the brainchild of a Frenchman, in this case Henri Delaunay, the secretary of the French Football Federation. The tournament was almost stillborn as it struggled to gain the required sixteen entrants, with all the British countries along with Italy and West Germany sitting it out.Whereas today the Host Country is nominated years before the tournament, in 1960 the final four teams would move on to the final tournament, whose host was selected after the teams became known. From 1958 onwards the teams would play home-and-away matches until the semi-finals. France qualified as the only non-Eastern Bloc country among the four final teams, along with the Soviet Union, Czechoslovakia and Yugoslavia. The UEFA European Football Championship, then called the European Nations Cup, was the first European Football Championship, held every four years and endorsed by UEFA. The final tournament was held in France. It was won by the Soviet Union 2-1 who beat Yugoslavia in Paris after playing the full 90 minutes and then extra time. The tournament was a knockout competition; just 17 teams entered with some notable absences (West Germany and Italy among them). The teams would play home-and-away matches until the semi-finals; the final four teams would move on to the final tournament, whose host was selected after the teams became known.

The Founder Henri Delaunay

The 1960 European Nations Cup format was very different from the tournament we know today. Just 17 teams took part in the competition and only 4 of those travelled to the finals in France. As has happened so often, politics came into sport when Spain refused to travel to the USSR (on the orders of General Franco) and the Soviets were given a bye to semi final. Politics didn't stop 3 Eastern Bloc countries travelling to France for the finals which saw the USSR win the inaugural tournament in front of 18,000 people in the Parc de Princes in Paris. Spain refused to travel to the Soviet Union and withdrew from the tournament, so the final four had three Eastern Bloc countries: USSR, Czechoslovakia, and Yugoslavia, to go with hosts.

France. In the semi-finals, the Soviets made easy work of Czechoslovaks in Marseille, beating them 3-0. The other match saw a nine-goal thriller as Yugoslavia came on top 5-4, coming back from two-goal lead twice. Czechoslovakia beat the demoralized French 2-0 for third place. In the final, Yugoslavia scored first, but the Soviet Union, led by legendary goalkeeper Lev Yashin, equalized in the 49th minute. After 90 minutes the score was 1-1, and Viktor Ponedelnik scored with seven minutes left in extra time to give the Soviets the inaugural European Championship.