Uefa European Championship History
The Uefa European Championship is one of the world's biggest
sporting events, although the competition's genesis was more difficult
than might be expected.
Championships for national associations had already begun in
other continents by the time the idea of a European competition for
national teams began to reach fruition in the 1950s. At the time that
Uefa was born, in 1954, the impetus for a European championship was
coming from the distinguished French sports newspaper L'Equipe, which
proposed a competition with home-and-away matches to be played in
midweek in the evening.
Adding to the French drive for such a tournament was Henri
Delaunay, first Uefa General Secretary and former French national
association general secretary. In 1927, Delaunay had already submitted
a proposal to Fifa, in conjunction with the great Austrian official
Hugo Meisl, for the creation of a European cup, to run concurrently
with the World Cup, which would involve a qualifying competition every
two years.
Delaunay wrote after Uefa's inaugural Basel assembly in 1954
that the idea was for a competition open to all of the European
associations. A three-member committee, he said, had been entrusted
with examining this difficult problem. Delaunay insisted that this
competition should not lead to an infinite number of matches. Nor
should it harm the World Cup, and participants should not always be
forced to meet the same opponents in the same group.
Following Delaunay's death in 1955, his son Pierre joined the
French journalists in the drive towards initiating the European
Nations' Cup. Pierre Delaunay was subsequently appointed secretary of
the European Nations' Cup Organising Committee, and was therefore able
to observe at close quarters the blossoming of the competition that his
father had wanted.
After agreement had been reached that the championship would
be founded, the new competition was named the Henri Delaunay Cup in
recognition of his outstanding services in the cause of European
football.
The inaugural tournament was entered by around half of Uefa's
member associations, 17 in total, and one more than the minimum
required. The Republic of Ireland were eliminated by Czechoslovakia in
a qualifying play-off (the two teams met after the drawing of lots).
The first championship match proper was held on 28 September
1958 in Moscow's Central Stadium – the USSR beating Hungary 3-1, with
the home side's Anatoli Ilyin scoring the first goal after four minutes
– and the inaugural competition took place over 22 months between 1958
and 1960. From small acorns do great oaks rise.
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