EURO Champions since 1960
The European Championship kicked off with a tournament back in 1960. In the early days it did not attract many countries nor was it an international media event at the scale of today.
The tournament gained steam during the 1970s and has since then become ubiquitous in the international football calendar taking up the same in even years with a frequency of 4.
The winning nations since the start back in 1960:
1960 – USSR
1964 – Spain
1968 – Italy
1972 – Germany
1976 – Czechoslovakia
1980 – Germany
1984 – France
1988 – Holland
1992 – Denmark
1996 – Germany
2000 – France
2004 – Greece
2008 – Spain
2012 – ?
A number of different countries have won. Including the minors like Czechoslovakia, Denmark, and Greece.
Among the major nations never to have one the Cup one stands out: England.
For the tournament 2012 in Poland and Ukraine all former winners will be present. 3 former winners will be gathered in the same group: Denmark , Germany, Holland + one former finalist Portugal.
Group A can also boast of having 3 former winners participating: Russia, Czech Republic, and Greece + one of the two host countries Poland.
So how does the all – time ranking look like over the best performers ?
Germany – 3
Spain – 2
France – 2
and then all other countries which have won stands at just one titel:
USSR , Italy , Czech , Holland , Denmark , Greece.
So the odds of winning look pretty good for all participating nations.