European Championships History
The first European Championships were held in 1960 with France playing host to the tournament. Only four teams participated in the first European Championships after 17 teams entered a knock out tournament to determine the finalists. Russia were the eventual winners with Yugoslavia, Czechoslovakia and France making up the order.
The four team European Championship format remained for the formative years of the competition until the number of teams playing in the finals was increased to eight in 1980 which was held in Italy and West Germany won the trophy.
The eight team format version of the European Championship remain up until Euro96, held in England, which for the first time; saw the introduction of the sixteen team format which involved four groups of four teams in the preliminary rounds before eight teams progressed to the Quarter Final knock out stages. This format has remained since and is still used for the current European Championships.
