Euro - history of the competition

Picture of the Henri Delaunay Cup, named after its inventor, the general secretary of the French Football Federation (FFF) in the late 20's. This trophy is given to the captain of the winning team of the European Nations soccer championship final. This competition, created in 1960, two years after Henri Delaunay's death, takes place every four years.

The finals of the 12th European championships will be held in Portugal between June 12 and July 4, but the original concept, as with the World Cup, was a French innovation.

The European championships were conceived by one of football's administrators, Henri Delaunay, a one time secretary general of the French Football Federation (FFF).

After an initial attempt in 1927 - his project would be adopted by FIFA, whose "own" World Cup tournament made its debut in 1930 - the man in charge of French football returned to the fore 25 years later with the support of several European countries, while the various South American federations had already made progress in national/continental competition with the conception of the Copa America.

The role of Artemio Franchi

It would take a lively battle - Germany, England and Italy were all against the plan - for his plans to even reach the conference stage, at the 1958 congress in Stockholm. In the meantime, Henri Delaunay died, though the European championships remained his legacy, setting in motion the wheels that would allow competition between Europe's top national teams to take place.

Despite positive manoeuvres the argument still largely fell on deaf ears. Between 1960 and 1976 the competition failed to really grab anyone's attention.

Indeed, the final stages of the brand new European championships resembled nothing more than four teams playing in a country that was chosen at the last minute. The four matches (semi-finals, third place decider and the final) were played over the course of a week.

(FILES) - Recent picture of Italian Artemio Franchi, vice-president of the International Football Federation Association (FIFA) and Honorary president of the Italian soccer federation, who died 12 August 1983 in a car accident near Siena, south of Florence, after his car collided with a truck.

A step in the right direction was next taken by Italy's Artemio Franchi, president of the European Union of Football Associations (UEFA), who stamped his approval on the competition by deciding to increase involvement at the final phase to eight as of 1980.

Although improving the essence of the competition, this was widely regarded as a political decision, made to affirm the influence of football's "Old Continent" in the face of a FIFA hegemony and a World Cup tournament in full flight.

The bigger tournament (32 finalists as of 1998) which, under the rule of then Brazilian president, Joao Havelange, was seen to largely favour the emergence of Africa and Asia.

1996 : a sizeable innovation

After a somewhat disappointing tournament in Italy (1980) the competition still failed to find favour, until France four years later under the organisational skills of the future co-president of France's World Cup (1998) organising committee, Fernand Sastre.

The final phase of what would subsequently be called the European nations championships proved a marked improvement on the previous competition, characterised mainly by changes in the format (crossed semi-finals following the end of the first round).

Continuing to progress, the "Euro", as it came to be known, reached full maturity in 1996 with UEFA's decision to double the number of teams in the final phase to 16 instead of eight.

Practically a "mini" European World Cup, the prestige of the competition has grown over the years to finally sit comfortably alongside its global counterpart.