UEFA Europa League History

History Of The UEFA Europa League Tournament

Th most popular UEFA Cup was the original brainchild of Switzerland's Ernst Thommen, Italy's Ottorino Barrasi - both future FIFA vice-presidents - and England's Sir Stanley Rous, the future president of FIFA.

Their purpose was to organise a tournament for representative sides from cities in Europe that regularly organised trade fairs. The concept was agreed upon and the forerunner to the UEFA Cup, namely the Inter-Cities Fairs Cup was founded on 18 April 1955, two weeks after the founding of the European Champion Clubs' Cup.

The first Fairs Cup involved teams from Barcelona, Basle, Birmingham, Copenhagen, Frankfurt, Lausanne, Leipzig, London, Milan and Zagreb. Originally conceived as a two-year tournament, it lasted for three, during which time 23 games were played. Barcelona, using players purely from FC Barcelona, beat a London representative side 8-2 on aggregate in the final.

For the second tournament the organisers reverted to club participation with the knockout format continuing, but the teams still had to come from cities staging trade fairs. Sixteen clubs took part in the 1958-60 tournament, after which it was staged on an annual basis. By 1962 the number of entrants had risen to 32; there were 48 in 1967; 60 in 1968; and, as from the 1969-70 season, there were 64 teams on the starting grid. There are now more than 100. The 1971/72 tournament, was the first to be known as the UEFA Cup.


From the 2009–10 season, the competition has been rebranded as the UEFA Europa League in a bid to increase the competition's profile. As well as changing the competition's name, an extra 16 teams now qualify for the main stages of the competition, with the group stage now consisting of 12 groups of four teams (in a double round robin), with the top two placed teams in each group progressing. The competition then progresses in much the same way as the previous format, with 4 rounds of two-legged knockout rounds and a one-off final held at a neutral ground meeting UEFA's Elite stadium criteria.

Past European Championships

2004 - Winner Greece

Euro 2004 provided one of the biggest surprises in the tournament history when Greece won the title despite having never won a single game before in any of the previous finals.

The tournament followed the format of 2000 with 16 teams. Portugal qualified as hosts and 15 teams joined them. There were 4 groups of 4 with the top 2 going through from each group to play in the quarter finals.

2000 - Winner France

For the first time, the tournament was co-hosted by Belgium and Holland. The tournament followed the same format as 1996 with 16 teams. Belgium and Holland qualified as hosts and 14 teams joined them. There were 4 groups of 4 with the top 2 going through from each group to play in the quarter finals.

1996 - Winner Germany

Football finally came home to England in 1996. It had been 30 years since England won the World Cup at Wembley stadium and the whole nation was gripped with football fever. Once again England and Germany met in the semi-finals but this time it was Germany who got revenge for their 1966 defeat as they beat the host nation on penalties to reach the final. The final saw a Golden Goal decide a major tournament for the first time with Oliver Bierhoff's goal giving the Germans the trophy with a 2-1 victory over the Czech Republic.

The tournament was extended to 16 teams. England qualified as hosts and 15 teams joined them. There were 4 groups of 4 with the top 2 going through from each group to play in the quarter finals.

1992 -Winner Denmark

Sweden hosted the 1992 finals and another 7 teams qualified to join them. Yugoslavia originally qualified by hostilities in the Balkans lead to the exclusions and Denmark took their place instead.

1988 - Winner Netherlands

The 1988 UEFA European Football Championship (Euro 88) final tournament was held in West Germany. It was the eighth European Football Championship, which is held every four years and supported by UEFA. The final tournament took place between June 10 and June 25, 1988.

1984 - Winner France

France hosted the 1984 tournament which again saw 8 teams in the finals. 7 had to qualify to join France as hosts. The was a slight change to the 1980 tournament with 4 teams playing in the semi-finals. The group winners played the runners-up from the other group.

1980 - Winner Germany

The 6th European Football Championships were hosted by Italy and in 1980, the finals were expanded to 8 teams. 7 teams had to qualify to join Italy in finals who automatically qualified as the host nation. The additional teams also meant a change in format. There were 2 groups of 4 teams who all played each other once. The group winners would go straight into the final and the runner's-up into a 3rd place play-off. There were no semi-finals.

1976 - Winner Czechoslovakia

The 5th European Football Championships was held in Yugoslavia. The format again remained unchanged with only 4 teams competing in the finals. It was the final year that the hosts had to qualify and before the final stage of the tournament was expanded.

1972 - Winner Germany

Four years later it was on to Belgium for the finals. The tournament did not change in format from the previous one in 1968.


1968 - Winner Italy

The 1968 tournament changed dramatically from it's previous format. It was renamed the European Football Championships and although only 4 teams still took part in the finals, the knock-out qualifying was replaced by group matches. The hosts were not decided until after it was known which 4 teams had qualified. There were 8 groups with the winners of each group going through.

If you think penalties are an unfair way to decide a game, spare a thought for USSR who lost their semi final to Italy on the toss of a coin.

1964 - Winner Spain

The 1964 tournament was played using the same format as the tournament 4 years earlier but this time, 29 teams entered playing for one of the 4 places in the finals which were held in Spain. The USSR, Austria and Luxembourg all received byes into the last 16 and Greece also went through without playing after their opponents, Albania withdrew. The most stunning upset happened in the last 16 when Luxembourg beat Holland 3-2 over 2 legs.

The host name went on to meet the USSR in the final but this time, General Franco allowed his country to play (he refused to allow them to travel to the USSR 4 years earlier) and they beat the holders 2-1 in the Bernabeu, Madrid in front of 125,000 people.


1960 - Winner USSR

The 1960 European Nations Cup format was very different from the tournament we know today. Just 17 teams took part in the competition and only 4 of those travelled to the finals in France. The earlier knock-out rounds were held over 2 legs (home and away). As has happened so often, politics came into sport when Spain refused to travel to the USSR (on the orders of General Franco) and the Soviets were given a bye to semi final. Politics didn't stop 3 Eastern Bloc countries travelling to France for the finals which saw the USSR win the inaugural tournament in front of 18,000 people in the Parc de Princes in Paris.