EUROPEAN NATIONS' CHAMPIONSHIP FINAL: USSR 3-1 HUNGARY 1958

The idea of a European Championship was considered not long after the Jules Rimet tournament was established. Rimet had considered organising a "World Cup" in the mid 1920s and indeed it was established in 1930. Like the World Cup, the European tournament was the brainchild of the French Football Federation. Henri Delaunay (below) proposed the tournament in 1927, but with the World Cup in the thoughts of the footballing hierarchy, a European tournament was put on the "back burner". Then politics in the 1930s and 1940s made European "agreement" impossible, but by the 1950s the idea was back on the cards.

UEFA had been recently founded in 1954 and European club competitions were gradually forming, so it was only a matter of time before an international tournament was up and running. In 1957, a UEFA congress suggested a European Championship, but it wasn't entirely popular and the British associations dragged their feet, as the had done with the World Cup, fearing that these tournaments would interfere with their Home internationals tournament!

Seven other countries also voted against this, including West Germany, Italy and Holland. But another 29 nations in UEFA set the ball rolling. Henri Delauni had died in 1955, so missed the founding of this new tournament, but the trophy would bear his name. France was to host the semi-final stages of the knock out cup and the final in the summer of 1960.

The first match to be played was between USSR (as they were called then) and Hungary, on September 1958, with Anatoly Ilyin scoring the first goal after 4 minutes. USSR won the match 4-1 on aggregate. One notable moment was for General Franco's refusal to let the Soviets enter Spain to contest the quarter-final match, so the Russians were given a walk over!! They eventually won the tournament beating Yugoslavia 2-1 in the Final. The tournament stayed the same until 1980 when eight nations were allowed to play in the "finals".

Number of teams	24 (finals) 55 (eligible to enter qualification)
Qualifier for	CONMEBOL–UEFA Cup of Champions
Current champions	Italy (2nd title)
Most successful team(s)	Germany  Spain (3 titles each)

The Henri Delaunay Trophy, which is awarded to the winner of the European Championship, is named in honour of Henri, the first General Secretary of UEFA, who came up with the idea of a European championship but died five years before the first tournament in 1960. His son Pierre was in charge of creating the trophy.