The Legacy of Henry Delaunay lives on

The UEFA European Championship is easily the biggest spectacle of the football world barring the FIFA World Cup. From a very modest beginning five decades ago, when just four teams made it to the finals, it has since turned into a massive success story and enjoys the status of one of the world`s most watched events today. Few of the tournament’s founding members would have imagined the heights it would scale in the years to come. When the UEFA was born, in 1954, the impetus for a European championship come from the distinguished French sports newspaper L`Equipe, which proposed a competition. The matches could be mid week clashes, played on home-and-away match format.

Adding fuel to this predominently French drive for such a tournament was Henry Delaunay, first UEFA General Secretary and former French National Association General Secretary. As early as 1927, Delaunay had already submitted a proposal to FIFA, in conjunction with the great Austrian official Hugo Meisl, for the creation of a European Cup, to run concurrently with the World Cup, which would involve a qualifying competition every two years.

Similar tournaments had already begun in other continents by the time the idea of a European competition for national teams had begun to bear fruits in the 1950s. There were numerous reasons for the relative late emergence of a such a pan continental championship on the European continent. In addition to the challenging task of bringing the conflicting opinions and interest circles throughout Europe together, there were also fears in some quarters that such a competition might threaten the status of the FIFA World Cup.

Writing after UEFA`s inaugural Basle assembly in 1954, Delaunay said that the idea was to cocieve a competition that would be open to all of the European associations. In this earnest, he entrusted a three man committee to examine this difficult problem.All the while, Delaunay insisted that this competition should not lead to an infinite number of matches and neither should it harm the World Cup.

Following Henry Delaunay`s death in 1955, his son Pierre joined the French journalists in the drive towards initiating the European Nations` Cup. Pierre Delaunay was subsequently appointed secretary of the European Nations` Cup Organising Committee. This elevation enabled him to observe at close quarters, the blossoming of the competition that his father had dreamt of.

After an agreement had been reached that the championship would be founded, the new competition was named the Henri Delaunay Cup in recognition of outstanding services he rendered to the cause of European football.

The inaugural tournament was entered by around half of UEFA`s member associations, 17 in total, and one more than the minimum required. The Republic of Ireland were eliminated by Czechoslovakia in a qualifying play-off after the two teams met after the drawing of lots. The first championship match was held on 28 September 1958 in Moscow`s Central Stadium, where the USSR prevailed over Hungary 3-1.

Home side`s Anatoli Ilyin had the honour of scoring the first ever goal of the championship with his fourth minute strike. The inaugural competition took place over 22 months between 1958 and 1960. Played in Paris on 10th June 1960, the final was won by the Soviet Union, who beat Yugoslavia 2–1 after extra time.

Over the years…

Year Winner Host

1960 Soviet Union France

1964 Spain Spain

1968 Italy Italy

1972 West Germany Belgium

1976 Czechoslovakia Yugoslavia

1980 West Germany Italy

1984 France France

1988 Holland West Germany

1992 Denmark Sweden

1996 Germany England

2000 France Holland/Belgium

2004 Greece Portugal