Year 1960 Winners Soviet Union Year 1964 Winners Spain
Year 1968 Winners Italy Year 1972 Winners West Germany
Year 1976 Winners Czechoslovakia Year 1980 Winners West Germany
Year 1984 Winners France Year 1988 Winners Netherlands
Year 1992 Winners Denmark Year 1996 Winners Germany
Year 2000 Winners France Year 2004 Winners Greece
Year 2008 Winners Spain
The most successful team in the tournament's history is Germany winning the competition a total of three times,(twice as West Germany and once as Germany) with Spain and Italy both having been crowned champions of Europe twice. Spain are the current champions, and will be defending their title at Euro 2012. In that competition we will see for the last time 16 teams competing against one another as in 2016 we will see an increase to 24 teams competing in the tournament. This news has been met by excitement by most of football-loving Europe, as it means more teams will make it through qualifying to the main competition, meaning more matches, more countries represented, and more money generated by the tournament. It will certainly enhance the competition as a spectacle, especially for countries who nearly, but never quite make it to the main competition. We here at Football Betting Tips hope to see more of the home nations make it to the Euro's as a result of these extra available places. It is every international football team's dream to win the World Cup, however tournaments like this are great for European football as it gives countries like Denmark who have a tiny population and are unlikely to ever win the world cup a chance to take home some coveted silverware.
Betting on these competitions always makes the matches and the overall tournament far more interesting. Many bookies this year are hinting that the victors of Euro 2012 will be either Spain, Germany or Italy. If you think the bookies are right then place a bet as early as possible as the odds are better the earlier you place the bet. The World Cup this year will be a very good way of rating teams in the future. Turkey are not in the World Cup but Spain and Germany (the possible hosts in 2012) are. If they do well in the 2010 tournament they are sure to have roughly the same squad of players in Euro 2012. This could be a good way of ascertaining who could win in 2012, for example France won the world cup in 1998 and then went onto win the Euro 2000 competition. So if in the World Cup either Spain or Germany do well, it would be more than likely that the bookies put them as favourites to dominate in Europe.
Football competition's can be great for a countries economy if they are the hosts. Many countries bid for the competition because it is so lucrative due to how many tourists come to watch the football matches and of course they need accommodation, flights, food etc. On the 18th of April 2007 the UEFA's executive committee who are in charge of who hosts the competition, decided that Ukraine and Poland will host the Euro 2012 tournament. The reason for joint hosts is that neither one of them have enough large stadiums to host the competition on their own, so at Euro 2012 the two countries will share both the burden of organising the tournament, and the wealth that the competition brings.
The 2016 competition has seen three countries which are France, Italy and Turkey bid to host the competition, which is also likely to make the host the favourites to win the tournament. It would be very good for international football in Europe to see a team that hasn't won the tournament like Turkey win the competition. Good football competitions are usually those that aren't predictable, and the more previous different winners a tournament has, the better it becomes to watch.
Facts about the competition over the last Fifty years;
The debut of the competition in 1960 was almost cancelled due to lack of support from other countries.
In 1992 Denmark failed to qualify for the competition but Yugoslavia were thrown out of the competition due to civil war resulting in Denmark being invited back into the competition. In one of the biggest upsets in the history of football, they went on to win it.
The largest attendance was in Scotland at Hampden park in 1968 where over 130,000 watched Scotland play England.
At Euro 2004, lowly ranked Greece, who had come in for a lot of criticism before the tournament for their near failure to have stadiums finished and the tournament ready on time, proved the value of home-advantage by causing a huge upset by going on to win the tournament.
The qualifying for the competition starts two years before the tournament. For example the qualifying for the Euro 2012 tournament stated in 2010.
This article was written by Ian Ryan who is the webmaster at footballbettingtips.co.uk. Football is a difficult sport to predict and although fun can be very frustrating if you are losing your hard earned cash. In two years time Euro 2012 is upon us and will present some good betting opportunities. However we urge you to make your bet as early as possible as you will get the best odds the earlier you bet. Please gamble responsibly.
