Football internationals

Qualification

 * 1) Host
 * 2) 15 Europe
 * 3) 8 Americans
 * 4) 8 Asia
 * 5) 8 Africa

In the Americans, the 8 teams that reached the Copa America knockout stage (by finishing top 2 of the group stage) qualifiers for the World Cup

For the rest of the world, qualification for the World Cup also acted as qualifiers for the continental cup (e.g. UEFA Nations League uses the last group stage round for UEFA European Nations' Cup qualification and FIFA World Cup qualification combined), this is done to save time and cut scheduling down.

Format
40 teams will be be put into 10 pots of 4, the host and defending champion are automatically assigned to Pot 1 with the rest determined by the FIFA World Elo Rating, using the pots 40 teams will be drawn into 10 groups of 4 teams. The top 2 teams advances to the knockout stage, the group winners and the 2 best runners up (in terms of group performance) advance automatically to Round of 16, 8 teams will play in the preliminary knockout round. Teams are seeded according to their performance in the group stage, top 4 will be play the winners of the preliminary knockout round + 8v9, 5v12, 7v10 and 6v11.

Venue for final

 * 1930: Estadio Centenario, Montevideo
 * 1934: Stadio Nazionale PNF, Rome
 * 1938: Stade de Colombes, Paris
 * 1950: Maracanã, Rio de Janeiro
 * 1954: Stade de Suisse, Bern
 * 1958: Råsundastadion, Solna
 * 1962: Estadio Nacional, Santiago
 * 1966: Wembley Stadium, London, England
 * 1970: Estadio Azteca, Mexico City
 * 1974: Olympiastadion, Munich, Bavaria
 * 1978: Monumental de Núñez, Buenos Aires
 * 1982: Santiago Bernabéu, Madrid, Community of Madrid
 * 1986: Estadio Azteca, Mexico City
 * 1990: Stadio Olimpico, Rome
 * 1994: Rose Bowl, Pasadena, California
 * 1998: Stade de France, Saint-Denis
 * 2002: International Stadium, Yokohama
 * 2006: Olympiastadion, Berlin
 * 2010: FNB Stadium, Johannesburg, Gauteng
 * 2014: Maracanã, Rio de Janeiro
 * 2018: Stade Olympique, Montreal, Quebec
 * 2022: Stadium Australia, Sydney, New South Wales
 * 2026: Fußball Arena München, Munich, Germany

2018 Canada

 * 1) Olympic Stadium, Montreal, Quebec (capacity: 80,000; temporarily)
 * 2) Commonwealth Stadium, Edmonton, Alberta (capacity: 60,081)
 * 3) National Soccer Stadium (BMO Field), Toronto (capacity: 45,500)
 * 4) Lansdowne Stadium (TD Place Stadium), Ottawa, Ontario (capacity: 51,242)
 * 5) New Ivor Wynne Stadium (Tim Hortons Field), Hamilton, Ontario (capacity: 40,000)
 * 6) Whitecaps Waterfront Stadium, Vancouver, British Columbia (capacity: 40,000)
 * 7) IG Field, Winnipeg, Manitoba (capacity: 40,000)
 * 8) Croix-Bleue Medavie Stadium, Moncton, New Brunswick (capacity: 40,000 (28,000); temporarily)

2022 Australia

 * 1) Stadium Australia, Sydney, New South Wales (capacity: 83,500)
 * 2) Sydney Football Stadium, Sydney, New South Wales (capacity: 45,500)
 * 3) McDonald Jones Stadium, Newcastle, New South Wales (capacity: 33,000)
 * 4) Suncorp Stadium, Brisbane, Queensland (capacity: 52,500)
 * 5) 1300SMILES Stadium, Townsville, Queensland (capacity: 40,000)
 * 6) Olympic Park Stadium, Melbourne, Victoria (capacity: 40,000)
 * 7) GIO Stadium, Canberra, Federal Capital Territory (capacity: 40,000)
 * 8) HBF Park, Perth, Western Australia (capacity 40,000)

2026 Germany

 * 1) Fußball Arena München (Allianz Arena), Munich (capacity: 75,024)
 * 2) Westfalenstadion, Dortmund (capacity: 81,365)
 * 3) Arena AufSchalke, Gelsenkirchen (capacity: 62,271)
 * 4) Gottlieb-Daimler-Stadion, Stuttgart (capacity: 60,441)
 * 5) Volksparkstadion, Hamburg (capacity: 57,000)
 * 6) Olympiastadion, Berlin (capacity: 55,000)
 * 7) Waldstadion, Frankfurt (capacity: 51,500)
 * 8) Max-Morlock-Stadion, Nuremberg (capacity: 50,000)
 * 9) Fritz-Walter-Stadion, Kaiserslautern (capacity: 49,850)
 * 10) Borussia-Park, Mönchengladbach (capacity: 46,249)

Trophy
The Henri Delaunay Trophy, which is awarded to the winner of the European Championship, is named in honour of Henri Delaunay, the first General Secretary of UEFA, who came up with the idea of a European championship but died five years prior to the first tournament in 1960. His son, Pierre, was in charge of creating the trophy. Since the first tournament it has been awarded to the winning team for them to keep for four years, until the next tournament. This trophy bore the words "Coupe d'Europe", "Coupe Henri Delaunay", and "Championnat d'Europe" on the front and a juggling boy on the back.

For the 2008 tournament, the Henri Delaunay Trophy was remodelled to make it larger, as the old trophy was overshadowed by UEFA's other trophies such as the new European Champion Clubs' Cup. The new trophy, which is made of sterling silver, now weighs 8 kilograms (18 lb) and is 60 centimetres (24 in) tall, being 2 kilograms (4.4 lb) heavier and 18 centimetres (7.1 in) longer than the old one. The marble plinth that was serving as base was removed. The new silver base of the trophy had to be enlarged to make it stable. The names of the winning countries that had appeared on the plaques glued to the plinth are now engraved on the back of the trophy, under the word "Coupe Henri Delaunay" and are written in English rather than French its predecessor had. Oddly, the 1972 and 1980 winning country, West Germany, is written as its successor state, "Germany". Since 2016, the juggling boy was returned on the trophy's back.

The players and coaches of the winning team and the runner-up team are awarded gold and silver medals, respectively. Each association that competes in the final tournament receives a commemorative plaque. Each losing semi-finalist, as well as each finalist, receive a dedicated plaque. Though there is no longer a third place play-off, UEFA decided in the 2008 edition to award the semi-final losers (Turkey and Russia) bronze medals for the first time, and did the same in the 2012 edition when Germany and Portugal received bronze medals. However, UEFA decided that losing semi-finalists would no longer receive medals from the 2016 edition onwards. Bronze medals were previously awarded for winners of the third place play-off, the last of which was held in 1980.

Format
20 teams are split into 5 groups of 4 teams with each team playing each other in their group once. The 5 group winners qualified automatically to the quarter-finals. 5 pool runners-up and the best 3rd-placed side qualified for the quarter-final play-offs. The winner of the quarter-final play-offs advance to the quarter-finals.

Results
a No third place play-off has been played since 1980; losing semi-finalists are listed in alphabetical order.

1Postponed by 12 months due to COVID-19 pandemic, originally suppose to take place in 2020

2FA and British Government refusing to exempt 2,500 VIP officials (sponsors and broadcasters included) from isolating and quarantine restrictions allowing them to attend games, training session and govt meetings, however all 3 British FA's and British Government all threatened to pull out and British Government said they will tax UEFA heavily if they made the decision to move the Euros away from England as promised. UEFA reversed their decision and kept the Euros in England with VIP officials not skipping quietening and instead staying at home to watch the matches (except for the UEFA Executive board who were doing the medal and trophy ceremony).

Pan Europe tournament will instead be used in 2024, if successful UEFA have suggested it may become permanent

Key

 * a.e.t. - after extra time
 * p - penalties

2000 Euros Netherlands & Belgium

2004 Euros Portugal


 * 1) Estádio da Luz, Lisbon (capacity: 65,647)
 * 2) Estádio José Alvalade, Lisbon (capacity: 50,095)
 * 3) Estádio do Dragão, Porto (capacity: 50,033)
 * 4) Estádio Municipal de Aveiro, Aveiro (capacity: 32,830)
 * 5) Estádio Algarve, Faro/Loulé
 * 6) Estádio Municipal de Braga, Braga
 * 7) Estádio D. Afonso Henriques, Guimarães
 * 8) Estádio Cidade de Coimbra, Coimbra

2008 Euros Austria & Switzerland

2012 Euros Ukraine and Poland

2016 Euros France


 * 1) Stade de France, Saint-Denis (capacity: 81,338)
 * 2) Stade Vélodrome, Marseille (capacity: 67,394)
 * 3) Parc Olympique Lyonnais, Décines-Charpieu, Lyon (capacity: 59,286)
 * 4) Parc des Princes, Paris (capacity: 48,712)
 * 5) Nouveau Stade de Bordeaux, Bordeaux (capacity: 42,115)
 * 6) Stade Geoffroy-Guichard, Saint Etienne (capacity: 41,965)
 * 7) Stade Bollaert-Delelis, Lens (capacity: 41,300)
 * 8) Stade de la Beaujoire, Nantes (capacity: 39,500)
 * 9) Stade de la Mosson, Montpellier (capacity: 32,900)
 * 10) Stadium Municipal, Toulouse (capacity: 33,150)

Stade André Moga is home to Union Bordeaux Bègles

2021 Euros England


 * 1) Old Trafford, Manchester (capacity: 76,875)
 * 2) New White Hart Lane, London (capacity: 62,850)
 * 3) St. James' Park, Newcastle (capacity: 60,000)
 * 4) Anfield, Liverpool (capacity: 58,000)
 * 5) Ashton Lower Ground, Birmingham (capacity: 50,000)

2024 Euros Europe


 * 1) Fußball Arena München (Allianz Arena), Munich (capacity: 75,024) - Semi-final and Final
 * 2) Krestovsky Stadium, Saint Petersburg, Russia
 * 3) San Siro, Milan, Italy
 * 4) Eurostadium, Brussels, Belgium (capacity: 62,613)
 * 5) Råsunda Stadium, Stockholm (capacity: 36,608)
 * 6) Puskas Arena, Budapest, Hungary
 * 7) Johan Cruyff Arena, Amsterdam, Netherlands
 * 8) Dublin Arena (Aviva Stadium), Dublin, Ireland
 * 9) San Mames, Bilbao, Basque County, Spain
 * 10) Murrayfield Stadium, Edinburgh, Scotland
 * 1) Murrayfield Stadium, Edinburgh, Scotland

2028 Euros

Millennium Stadium, Cardiff, Wales (capacity: 80,000)

Pan Europe
There was no automatic qualifying berth, and all 54 UEFA national teams, including the 10 national teams whose countries were selected to stage matches, had to compete in the qualifiers for 20 places at the finals tournament. As the host cities were appointed by UEFA before the qualifiers, it was possible for the national teams from the host cities to fail to qualify for the finals tournament.

Stadiums must meet UEFA's requirements and must contain specific criteria relating to the respect of human rights, based on the United Nations "Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights".

Bidding venues

 * 9 cities will host 4 matches (the "Standard Package"), consisting of 3 group stage matches and 1 preliminary knockout round/quarter-final match. A 10th city will host the semi-finals and final (the "Finals Package"). Each city will use 1 venue only. Each association may bid for either or both of the above packages (same city or two different cities). However, a maximum of 1 city per country will be chosen.
 * The minimum stadium capacities should be 70,000 for semi-finals/final, 60,000 for quarter-finals, and 50,000 for round of 16 and group matches. Up to two exceptions would be allowed for stadiums of a minimum capacity of 30,000, limited to group matches and a round of 16 match. Any projected stadiums must start construction 4 years before the tournament begins (3 for 2024 edition).
 * For the group stage, a maximum of 2 host teams will be drawn into each group, with each qualified host team guaranteed to play 2 home matches in the group stage. However, there is no guarantee that a host team will play any knockout matches at home. The composition of teams in the group stage will still be subject to seeding and draw, but the allocation of host teams to each group will take into account of travel distances (flights between host cities in the same group should not exceed two hours).
 * Each host city must have 2 airports, or 2 separate airport terminals at a single airport. This is to segregate rival fans

Each team chooses a "team base camp" for its stay between the matches. The teams will train and reside in these locations throughout the tournament, travelling to games staged away from their bases. Each team which qualifies for the finals can set up their base camp anywhere, without any obligation of staying in any of the host countries.

Voting

 * In the 1st voting phase, the winner of the Finals Package will be selected.
 * In the 2nd voting phase, the winners of the four Standard Packages which will host the quarter-finals will be selected.
 * In the 3rd and 4th voting phases, the winners of the eight Standard Packages which will host the round of 16 matches will be selected. This selection will be based on "regional zones" which will be finalized by the end of August 2014 by UEFA Executive Committee members whose associations are not bidding.
 * In the 3rd phase, for each zone that has not been selected in the first two phases, a winner of the Standard Package will be selected.
 * In the 4th phase, the winners of the remaining Standard Packages will be selected.

The voting will be done by secret ballot and Executive Committee members which are associated with the bidding associations will not be allowed to vote.

Group stage hosts
The host cities were divided into 6 pairings, established on the basis of sporting strength (assuming all host teams qualify), geographical considerations and security/political constraints. The pairings were allocated to groups by means of a random draw on 7 December 2017. Each qualified host country will play 2 matches at home (no more or less) for fairness and integrity of the competition. If both host teams qualified directly, a draw would determine which team would host the head-to-head match.

Draw
The draw for the tournament is held in November 18:00 CET (19:00 local time, EET) at UEFA's Headquarters in Nyon, Switzerland. The 16 teams were drawn into 4 groups of 4. The teams were seeded in accordance with the European Qualifiers overall ranking based on their results in the UEFA Nations League qualification. The following was the standard composition of the draw pots: Pot 1: Group winners ranked 1–4. Pot 2: Group winners ranked 5–8. Pot 3: group runners-up ranked 1–4 (9–12 overall). Pot 4: Group runners-up ranked 5–8 (13–16 overall)

As 2 host teams from the same group could not be in the same seeding pot, the UEFA Emergency Panel would have either switched 1 host team with the lowest-ranked team of the higher pot, or switched 1 host team with the highest-ranked team of the lower pot (based on the principle that the move would have minimal impact on the original seeding).


 * Automatic group assignments: Host teams were automatically assigned to their group based on the host city pairings.
 * Prohibited clashes: For political reasons, UEFA set pairs of teams that were considered prohibited clashes. In addition to being unable to be drawn into the same group, non-host teams were prevented from being drawn into a group hosted by a country they clash with, even should the host not qualify. Armenia v Azerbaijan, Russia v Ukraine, Kosovo v Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo v Serbia, Kosovo v Russia and Gibraltar v Spain. However, these prohibited clashes are not excluded for the knockout phase.

2024 Withdrawn Interest

 * The Finnish Football Association withdrew its bid on 4 March 2022 as redevelopments to its chosen venue, the Helsinki Olympic Stadium, will leave it below the standards required to host matches at the tournament.
 * The Czech Football Association withdrew its candidacy in March 2022 citing that the government was not ready to provide the guarantees for building a new stadium.
 * Several federations withdrew their bids in late April 2022, before the final dossiers were submitted on 25 April. 4 nations who had hosted recent tournaments – Euro 2008 hosts Switzerland (St. Jakob-Park, Basel), Euro 2012 co-hosts Poland (Silesian Stadium, Chorzów) and Ukraine (NSC Olimpiyskiy, Kiev), and Euro 2016 hosts France (Stade des Lumières, Lyon) – withdrew after deciding that their chances of success were minimal.
 * Both Portuguese bids, at the Estádio da Luz and Estádio do Dragão withdrew due to lack of support from local councils
 * The bid from the Czech Football Association in Prague withdrew due to lack of financial guarantees from city authorities
 * The Croatian Football Federation's bid in Zagreb withdrew due to financial problem
 * Munich withdrew from Finals Package out of fairness due to already hosting the previous tournaments finals (2021).

1st phase
In the 1st phase, the venue which will host the semi-finals and final was selected

2nd phase
In the 2nd phase, the 4 venues which will host 1 quarter-final and 3 group stage matches were selected. The 7 candidate venues with a capacity of at least 60,000 were eligible. Each voting member ranked the venues in their order of preference: four points for their 1st choice, 3 points for their 2nd choice, 2 points for their 3rd choice, and 1 point for their 4th choice. The 4 venues with the highest points total were selected.

Third phase
In the 3rd phase, a venue from each of the geographical zones which had not yet been chosen was selected to host a 1 quarter-final playoff match and 3 group stage matches. The 6 geographical zones were:


 * Zone 1 (North-West): England, Republic of Ireland, Scotland, Wales
 * Zone 2 (Scandinavia): Denmark, Sweden
 * Zone 3 (East): Azerbaijan, Belarus, Russia
 * Zone 4 (Centre-East): Bulgaria, Macedonia, Hungary, Romania
 * Zone 5 (Centre): Belgium, Germany, Netherlands
 * Zone 6 (South-Mediterranean): Italy, Israel, Spain

Prior to the vote, the venues of Belarus (Minsk), Bulgaria (Sofia) and Macedonia (Skopje) were determined to have failed bid requirements, and thus were not involved in the final 2 phases.

Of the 6 zones; Zones 1, 3, 5 and 6 already had venues chosen in the first 2 phases. Therefore, only Zones 2 and 4 were involved in this phase.

Fourth phase
In the 4th phase, the 6 remaining venues which will host 2 group stage matches were selected among the remaining candidate venues. Each voting member ranked the venues in their order of preference: 6 points for their 1st choice, 5 points for their 2nd choice, 4 points for their 3rd choice, 3 points for their 4th choice, 2 points for their 5th choice, and 1 point for their 6th choice. The 4 venues with the highest points total were selected. Amsterdam will host 1 quarter-final playoff due to having the most votes.

Qualifiers

 * Host teams: In order to allow all 8 teams from the host associations to have a chance to qualify as group winners and runners-up, a maximum of 2 were placed in each group
 * Winter venues: A maximum of 2 teams whose venues were identified as having high or medium risk of severe winter conditions were placed in each group: Belarus, Estonia, Faroe Islands, Finland, Iceland, Latvia, Lithuania, Norway, Russia, Ukraine.
 * The 3 "hard winter venues" (Faroe Islands, Finland, Iceland) generally could not host games in March or November; the others played as few home matches as possible in March and November.
 * Excessive travel: A maximum of one pair of teams identified with excessive travel distance in relation to other countries were placed in each group: Azerbaijan: with Faroe Islands, Gibraltar, Iceland and Portugal. (Gibraltar was also identified with Azerbaijan for excessive travel distance, but the teams were in the same pot for the draw.) Iceland: with Armenia, Cyprus, Georgia, Israel. Kazakhstan: with Andorra, England, France, Iceland, Malta, Northern Ireland, Portugal, Republic of Ireland, Scotland, Spain, Wales. ( were also identified with Kazakhstan for excessive travel distance, but the teams were in the same pot for the draw.)

Qualification for Euros are also done for FIFA World Cup too.


 * 1st Round: 4 teams are added and is a 2-legged straight knockout matches (UEFA Europa Conference League winner + 3 lowest ranked teams that don't play the UECL according to FIFA Elo Rating)
 * 2nd Round: 16 teams compete 2-legged straight knockout matches; 14 teams bye the 1st round and play in the 2nd and are joined by 2 winners from the 1st round
 * 3rd round: 32 teams divided into 8 groups of 4 playing 6 games, 3 home and 3 away. 20 teams join this round joined by 8 winners from 2nd round. Top team in the group + 5 best runners up (1 automatic host will qualify regardless of position) qualify for the FIFA World Cup. Top 2 teams will qualify for Euros.

Copa America
In 2016 Copa America switched to 16 teams and allowed North American teams to qualify they also will play same years as UEFA Euros.

Automatic qualifiers

 * 1) Argentina
 * 2) Bolivia
 * 3) Brazil
 * 4) Chile
 * 5) Colombia
 * 6) Ecuador
 * 7) Paraguay
 * 8) Peru
 * 9) Uruguay
 * 10) Venezuela
 * 11) USA
 * 12) Mexico
 * 13) Canada

Joining the automatic qualifiers are the:


 * Caribbean Cup
 * Copa Centroamerica
 * Copa América qualifying play-off (runner-up of Caribbean Cup and Copa Centroamerica)

Copa Centroamerica

Group stage: 4 teams, top team goes through.

Semi-final: 3 teams added + top team from group stage.

Caribbean Cup

8 groups (7 with 4 teams, 1 with 3 teams). Same as 2014 World Cup format.

Results
South American Championship era 1921: Chile was also invited but withdrew due to internal problems in the team

1963: Chile was not invited due to the Lauca River conflict with Bolivia. Uruguay withdrew due to the designation of La Paz as a tournament site. Venezuela did not enter

Copa América era

Key

 * agg - On aggregate
 * a.e.t - after extra time
 * p - penalties

Invited teams

 * 2001: Canada, Honduras (replacing Argentina)
 * 1993, 1995, 1999, 2007: United States
 * 1997, 2004, 2011: Costa Rica
 * 2015: Jamaica