The 15th edition of UEFA European Championship will take place this year in France. The 24 teams from Europe have been already qualified for the final competition beginning from 10 June, 2016. But do you know how EURO Cup was started? Don’t worry in this post we will share everything you need to know about EURO Cup and its history.

What is EURO Cup?

It is a quadrennial international men’s football championship of Europe organize by UEFA. The competition has been started in 1960 an since then it has been played every four years.

How EURO Cup started?

The idea for a pan-European football tournament was first proposed by the French Football Federation’s secretary-general Henri Delaunay. The 1960 the tournament held in France, had four teams competing in the finals out of 17 that entered the competition.
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Since then every time more teams started to participate in the competition. Until 1976 only 4 teams are competing in final rounds.

Since 1980 it expanded to 8 teams with group rounds. After huge interest of other teams from Europe it increased to 16 teams. Since then 16 teams are playing in final rounds until 2016. This year EURO Cup will be the first EURO Cup to have 24 teams which are divided in 6 groups.

Also Read: Euro 2016 Groups and Teams

Team records in EURO Cup.

Current champion Spain and Germany are the teams with the highest number of EURO cups. Both the countries have won it 3 times. Spain is the only country to win it consecutive in 2008 and 2012. 2016 EURO Cup host France has won it 2 times. Other than them Soviet Union, Italy, Czech Republic, Netherlands, Denmark and Greece have won this title 1 time each.

After winning EURO Cup for 3 times, Germany has also played the most number of matches in EURO Cup History. Here we have prepared the complete list of records in EURO Cup history.

• Most matches played - Germany (43)

• Most wins - Germany (23)

• Most losses - Denmark (14)

• Most Draws - Italy (15)

• Most goals scored - Germany (65)

• Most goals conceded - Germany (45)

Individual records in EURO Cup history.

French player Michel Platini is unarguably the most successful player of EURO Cup history. Michel Platini holds the record of most number of goals in final tournament. However, Cristiano Ronaldo is the highest number of goals scorer including qualifying rounds. Check complete list below:

• Most goals scored in Finals competition - Michel Platini (9)

• Most goals scored including qualifying - Cristiano Ronaldo (26)

• Most hat-tricks - Michel Platini (2)

• Fastest hat-trick - Michel Platini (in 18 minutes)

• Most clean sheets - Edwin van der Sar and Iker Casillas (9)

• Most goals conceded - Peter Schmeichel (20)

Also Read : UEFA Euro 2016 Schedule, Fixtures and Time Table

Interesting facts about the EURO Cup  :

1. Portugal (in 2004) was the only team to lose the final as hosts.
2. Michel Platini is the only player to score hat-tricks twice in the same tournament.
3. Initially, the first two tournaments in 1960 and 1964 were known as UEFA European Nations Cup before being changed to the current name since 1968.
4. Germany participated as West Germany from EURO 1972 till EURO 1988
5. Rainer Bonhof twice picked up a winners’ medal with West Germany (1972, 1980) but did not play in either tournament.
6. Spain’s 4-0 win over Italy in 2012 is the largest margin of victory in a EURO Cup final.

Hope you have enjoyed this article. Stay tuned for more.