European Championships
Europe has its own major football tournament. A whole host of nations from around Europe compete to qualify for the European Championships. It is a tournament that nations and football fans alike can enjoy. The European Championships take place every four years and each country has to go through a qualifying group before they can take part in the Championships.
The group stages of the tournament are made up of four teams; there are four groups in total, 16 countries competing. Each team in each group will play each other once, with the top two teams qualify to go through to the quarter finals. The groups work just like any league system. A winner of a match gets three points, 1 point for a draw, 0 for a loss. Just like in any other tournament the winners of the quarter final matches will progress to the semi finals, with the winners of the semi finals going through to the final.
The winners of the final are crowned champions of Europe and will hold that crown for the next four years. The winners of the 2004 European Championships were Greece and they, along with hosts Austria and Switzerland automatically qualified for this years 2008 tournament. This happens every tournament; the previous winners along with the hosts qualify for the next tournament.
The tournament has been hosted the most by Belgium, France and Italy, who have all hosted it twice. Germany have won the tournament the most times, winning it three times in the European Championships history. France are behind them having won it twice. Major nations Portugal, Sweden and England have never won the tournament.
The top goal scorers of all time in this competition are Michel Platini of France with 9 goals, Alan Shearer of England with 7 goals and Holland striker Patrick Kluivert with 6 goals.
This years tournament promises to be entrhalling and you can keep up to date with all the scores, stats and matches on our live football scores page. Or you can watch live football matches from our site so you’ll not miss a kick from this major tournament.
