In honour of Delaunay, the trophy awarded to the champions is named after him. The idea for a pan-European football tournament was first proposed by the French Football Federation's secretary-general Henri Delaunay in 1927, but it was not until 1958 that the tournament was started, three years after Delaunay's death. It brought together the national teams of Austria, Hungary, Italy, Czechoslovakia, Switzerland, and Yugoslavia. Similarly, from 1927 until 1960, the Central European International Cup was held six times. Until these national teams entered the FIFA World Cup in 1950, it was the most important international tournament these nations competed in. Starting in 1883, the British Home Championship was an annual competition contested between the United Kingdom's four national teams, England, Scotland, Wales, and Ireland. Regional tournaments for national teams existed before the advent of a truly pan-European competition. The most recent championship, held across Europe in 2021 (postponed from 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic), was won by Italy, who lifted their second European title after beating England in the final at Wembley Stadium in London on penalties. To date, Spain is the only team to have won consecutive titles, doing so in 20. The sixteen European Championship tournaments have been won by ten national teams: Germany and Spain have each won three titles, Italy and France have won two titles, and the Soviet Union, Czechoslovakia, the Netherlands, Denmark, Greece and Portugal have won one title each. From the 2020 edition onwards, the winner competes in the CONMEBOL–UEFA Cup of Champions. Until 2016, the championship winners could compete in the following year's FIFA Confederations Cup, but were not obliged to do so. Since 1996, the individual events have been branded as ' UEFA Euro '.īefore entering the tournament, all teams other than the host nations (which qualify automatically) compete in a qualifying process. Scheduled to be in the even-numbered year between FIFA World Cup tournaments, it was originally called the European Nations' Cup before changing to its current name in 1968. The competition has been held every four years since 1960, except for 2020, when it was postponed until 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic in Europe, but kept the name Euro 2020.

The Euro 2012 final was watched by a global audience of around 300 million. It is the second-most watched football tournament in the world after the FIFA World Cup. The competition is contested by UEFA members' senior men's national teams, determining the continental champion of Europe. The UEFA European Football Championship, less formally the European Championship and informally the Euro, is the primary association football tournament organised by the Union of European Football Associations ( UEFA).

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