UEFA Women's Championship

Updated on Oct 21, 2023

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Founded 1984 Most successful team(s) Germany (8 titles)		Current champions Germany (8th title) Region Europe (UEFA)

Number of teams 52 (Qualifiers) 12 (Finals) Website www.uefa.com/womenseuro/ Current champion Germany women's national football team Instances UEFA Women's Euro 2017, UEFA Women's Euro 2013, UEFA Women's Euro 2009, UEFA Women's Euro 2005, UEFA Women's Euro 2001

The UEFA European Women's Championship, also called the UEFA Women's Euro and unofficially the "European Cup", held every fourth year, is the main competition in women's association football between national teams of the UEFA Confederation. The competition is the women's equivalent of the UEFA European Championship.

The predecessor tournament to the UEFA Women's Championship began in the early 1980s, under the name UEFA European Competition for Representative Women's Teams. With increasing popularity of women's football, the competition was given European Championship status by UEFA around 1990. Only the 1991 and 1995 editions have been used as European qualifiers for a FIFA Women's World Cup; starting in 1999, the group system used in men's qualifiers was also used for women's national teams.

Eight UEFA Women's Championships have taken place, preceded by 3 editions of the earlier European Competition for Representative Women's Teams. The most recent holding of the competition was the 2013 Women's Euro hosted by Sweden in July 2013.

Backgrounds

Unofficial women's European tournaments for national teams were held in Italy in 1969 and 1979 (Won by Italy and Denmark respectively), but there was no formal international tournament until 1982 when the first UEFA 1984 European Competition for Women's Football qualification was launched. The 1984 Finals was won by Sweden. Norway won in the 1987 Finals. Since then, the UEFA Women's Championship has been dominated by Germany, which has won eight out of nine events, interrupted only by Norway in 1993. Germany's 2013 win was their sixth in a row.

Expansion

The tournament was initially played as a four team event. The 1997 edition was the first that was played with eight teams. The third expansion happened in 2009 when 12 teams participated. From 2017 onwards 16 teams will compete for the championship.

UEFA European Women's Championship

aet denotes after extra time

gg denotes golden goal

ps denotes after penalty shoot-out

Participation details

Participation by year of debut

1984: Denmark, England, Italy, Sweden

1987: Norway

1989: Germany

1997: France, Russia, Spain

2005: Finland

2009: Iceland, Netherlands, Ukraine

2017: Austria, Belgium, Portugal, Scotland, Switzerland

Legend

1st – Champions

2nd – Runners-up

3rd – Third place (not determined after 1993)

4th – Fourth place (not determined after 1993)

SF – Semifinals (since 1995)

QF – Quarterfinals (since 2009)

GS – Group stage

Q — Qualified for upcoming tournament

• — Did not qualify

× — Did not enter

— Hosts

For each tournament, the number of teams in each finals tournament (in brackets) are shown.

Highest attendances

41,301 – Germany v Norway, Friends Arena, Solna (2013 Final)

29,092 – England v Finland, City of Manchester Stadium, Manchester (2005 Group Stage)

25,694 – England v Sweden, Ewood Park, Blackburn (2005 Group Stage)

22,000 – West Germany v Norway, Stadion an der Bremer Brücke, Osnabrück (1989 Final)

21,105 – Germany v Norway, Ewood Park, Blackburn (2005 Final)

18,000 – Germany v Sweden, Donaustadion, Ulm (2001 Group Stage)

16,608 – Sweden v Germany, Gamla Ullevi, Gothenburg (2013 Semifinal)

16,414 – Finland v Sweden, Gamla Ullevi, Gothenburg (2013 Group Stage)

16,334 – Finland v Denmark, Olympic Stadium, Helsinki (2009 Group Stage)

16,148 – Netherlands v Finland, Olympic Stadium, Helsinki (2009 Group Stage)

References

UEFA Women's Championship Wikipedia

(Text) CC BY-SA