UEFA Euro 2004

The 2004 UEFA European Championship, commonly referred to as UEFA Euro 2004 or Euro 2004, was the 12th edition of the UEFA European Championship, a quadrennial football competition contested by the men's national teams of the member associations of UEFA. The final tournament was hosted in Portugal for the first time, after their bid was selected on 12 October 1999, over rival bids from Spain and Austria/Hungary. It took place from 12 June to 4 July 2004, and matches were played in ten venues across eight cities: Aveiro, Braga, Coimbra, Guimarães, Faro/Loulé, Leiria, Lisbon and Porto.

As in the 1996 and 2000 editions, the final tournament was contested by 16 teams – the hosts plus the 15 teams that successfully overcame the qualification round, which began in September 2002. Latvia secured their first participation in a major tournament after overcoming Turkey in the play-offs, while Greece returned to the European Championship after 24 years.

The tournament was rich in surprises and upsets: Germany, Spain and Italy were knocked out during the group stage, while France, the defending champions, were eliminated in the quarter-finals by Greece. The Portuguese team recovered from an opening defeat to Greece to reach the final, eliminating England and the Netherlands along the way. For the first time in a major football tournament, the last match featured the same teams as the opening match, and as in their previous encounter, Portugal were beaten by Greece with a goal from Angelos Charisteas. Greece's triumph was unexpected, considering that they had only qualified for two other major tournaments, the UEFA Euro 1980 and the 1994 FIFA World Cup, where they failed to win a single match.

UEFA Euro 2004 (video game)

UEFA Euro 2004 is the official licensed video game of UEFA Euro 2004 football tournament hosted in Portugal. The game was developed by EA Canada and published by EA Sports. It was released for PC, Xbox and PlayStation 2.

It is the second game from EA Sports based on the quadrennial UEFA European Championship and features all 51 national teams from the respective qualifying round.

The commentary is provided by John Motson and Ally McCoist.

Gameplay

UEFA Euro 2004 uses a tweaked and improved version of the graphics engine from FIFA 2004 and introduces many new gameplay features and game modes to both the UEFA Euro and FIFA series.

Development

Electronic Arts made the game's development public on February 6, 2004, when it announced that it had signed an agreement with UEFA to develop, publish and distribute the official game based on UEFA Euro 2004 championship that would begin on June 12 of that same year in Portugal.

For the soundtrack, the developers specifically chose rock-based tracks due to the genre's big resurgence in Europe at the time.

UEFA Euro 2012

The 2012 UEFA European Championship, commonly referred to as UEFA Euro 2012 or simply Euro 2012, was the 14th European Championship for men's national football teams organised by UEFA. The final tournament, held between 8 June and 1 July 2012, was co-hosted for the first time by Poland and Ukraine, and was won by Spain, who beat Italy 4–0 in the final at the Olympic Stadium in Kiev, Ukraine.

Poland and Ukraine's bid was chosen by UEFA's Executive Committee on 18 April 2007. The two host teams qualified automatically while the remaining 14 finalists were decided through a qualifying competition, featuring 51 teams, from August 2010 to November 2011. This was the last European Championship to employ the 16-team finals format in use since 1996; from Euro 2016 onward, it will be expanded to 24 finalists.

Euro 2012 was played at eight venues, four in each host country. Five new stadiums were built for the tournament, and the hosts invested heavily in improving infrastructure such as railways and roads at UEFA's request. Euro 2012 set attendance records for the 16-team format, for the highest aggregate attendance (1,440,896) and average per game (46,481).

UEFA Euro 2016

The 2016 UEFA European Championship, commonly referred to as UEFA Euro 2016 or simply Euro 2016, will be the 15th edition of the UEFA European Championship, the quadrennial international men's football championship of Europe organized by UEFA. It is scheduled to be held in France from 10 June to 10 July 2016.Spain are two-time defending champions.

For the first time, the European Championship final tournament will be contested by 24 teams, having been expanded from the 16-team format used since 1996. Under this new format, the finalists will contest a group stage consisting of six groups of four teams, followed by a knockout stage including three rounds and the final. 19 teams (the top two from each of the nine qualifying groups and the best third-placed team) joined France who qualified automatically as hosts; a series of two-legged play-off ties between the remaining third-placed teams in November 2015 decided the last four spots at the final tournament.

France was chosen as the host nation on 28 May 2010, after a bidding process in which they beat Italy and Turkey for the right to host the 2016 finals. The matches will be played in ten stadia in ten cities: Bordeaux, Lens, Lille, Lyon, Marseille, Nice, Paris, Saint-Denis, Saint-Étienne, and Toulouse. It will be the third time that France hosts the tournament, after the inaugural tournament in 1960 and the 1984 finals. The French team have won the European Championship twice: in 1984 and 2000.

UEFA Euro 1996

The 1996 UEFA European Football Championship, commonly referred to as Euro 96, was the 10th UEFA European Championship, a quadrennial football tournament contested by European nations. It took place in England from 8 to 30 June 1996.

It was the first European Championship to feature 16 finalists, following UEFA's decision to expand the tournament from eight teams. Games were staged in eight cities and, although not all games were sold out, the tournament holds the European Championship's second-highest aggregate attendance (1,276,000) and average per game (41,158) for the 16-team format, surpassed only in 2012.

Germany won the tournament, beating the Czech Republic 2–1 in the final with a golden goal during extra time; this was the first major competition to be decided using this method. This was Germany's first major title won as a unified nation.

Bid process

At the time of the bid process, the event was still not confirmed to include sixteen teams. Instead, the bids were largely prepared as if hosting an eight-team tournament, meaning only four venues were due to be required. All candidates had to submit their plans by 10 December 1991.

UEFA European Championship video games

The UEFA European Football Championship has its own video games licensed from European football's governing body, UEFA. Seven games have been released so far, with the first game released in 1988. Originally held by Gremlin Interactive, it was then held by Electronic Arts from Euro 2000 till Euro 2012. Konami have the rights for Euro 2016.

UEFA Euro 1988

Euro'88, by Gremlin Interactive was the first game to replicate the European Football Championship, including only the 8 teams present in the final stage with accurate rosters and stadiums.

UEFA Euro 1992

Euro'92, by Gremlin Interactive was the second game to replicate the European Football Championship, including only the 9 teams (with Yugoslavia) present in the final stage with accurate rosters and stadiums.

UEFA Euro 1996

Euro'96, by Gremlin Interactive was the third game to replicate the European Football Championship, and using all the hype behind the Football is coming home campaigns, the Sheffield company modified some parts in their Actua Soccer title, including the 16 teams present in the final stage with accurate rosters and stadiums, as well as Euro 96 mode, Exhibition Match, Practice Penalties, and Practice game.