The first ever Euro competition took place in 1960 under the name of European Nations' Cup and included four teams that won a qualifying phase held over 2 years.
The tournament took the name of UEFA European Championship in 1968, also the year when the actual qualifying format was adopted. Uefa European Championship also named the Euro is held every 4 years, two years from the World cup.
From an obscure football tournament, the euro became a very important competition, the most important national team tournament in Europe.
The Euro has a very challenging qualifying round that stretches over two years and in witch 50 national teams are divided in seven groups (2008 two host countries Austria and Switzerland are directly qualified), six of them consisting of seven countries and one of eight. The end of the qualifying round see the winners of the groups go straight to the tournament and the runner's up have to participate in a knock out.
The Euro 2008 will take place in Austria and Switzerland and will start on 7 June 2008 and will last until the final on 29 June. The two winning countries faced stiff competition for hosting the event but they managed to go past Greece-Turkey, Scotland-Ireland, Russia, Hungary and Croatia-Bosnia-Herzegovina.
Ten countries have clinched Europe's most voluble football trophies: Soviet Union 1960, Spain 1964, Italy 1968, Germany 1972&1980&1996 , Czechoslovakia 1976, France 1984&2000, Netherlands 1988, Denmark 1992 and Greece 2004. The competition being held in the following countries: France 1960 & 1984, Spain 1964, Italy 1968 & 1980, Belgium 1972, Yugoslavia 1976, Germany 1988, Sweden 1992, England 1996, Belgium and the Netherlands 2000, Portugal 2004.