The 1980 UEFA European Football Championship finals tournament was held in Italy. This was the sixth

UEFA European Championship The UEFA European Football Championship, less formally the European Championship and informally the Euro, is the primary association football tournament organised by the Union of European Football Associations ( UEFA). The competition is conte ...

, which is held every four years and endorsed by

UEFA Union of European Football Associations (UEFA ; french: Union des associations européennes de football; german: Union der europäischen Fußballverbände) is one of six continental bodies of governance in association football. It governs f ...

. It was the first European Championship to feature eight teams in the finals, which took place between 11 and 22 June 1980.

West Germany West Germany is the colloquial term used to indicate the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG; german: Bundesrepublik Deutschland , BRD) between its formation on 23 May 1949 and the German reunification through the accession of East Germany on 3 O ...

won the

final Final, Finals or The Final may refer to: * Final (competition), the last or championship round of a sporting competition, match, game, or other contest which decides a winner for an event ** Another term for playoffs, describing a sequence of con ...

2–1 against

Belgium Belgium, ; french: Belgique ; german: Belgien officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. The country is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeast, France to th ...

for their second title. This was the last European Championship with a

third place play-off A third place match, game for third place, bronze medal game or consolation game is a single match that is included in many sporting knockout tournaments to decide which competitor or team will be credited with finishing third and fourth. The te ...

Bid process

This was the first European Championship in which eight teams, rather than four, contested the finals tournament. On 17 October 1977

announced that England, Greece, Italy, Netherlands, Switzerland and West Germany had expressed interest in hosting this event. On 19 October UEFA's Organising Committee decided to assign the hosting to England or Italy (expressing its favour to the latter, the former having already hosted the FIFA World Cup just 11 years earlier), and on 12 November the Organising Committee and the Executive Committee announced that Italy had been chosen unanimously. Seven countries had to qualify for the finals, and the draw for the

qualifying round Qualification is either the process of qualifying for an achievement, or a credential attesting to that achievement, and may refer to: * Professional qualification, attributes developed by obtaining academic degrees or through professional exper ...

took place in

Rome , established_title = Founded , established_date = 753 BC , founder = King Romulus (legendary) , image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg , map_caption ...

on 30 November 1977. Also for the first time, the hosts, in this case

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical ...

, qualified automatically for the finals.

Overview

Because of the expanded format, the finals tournament went through some changes as well. Two groups of four teams each were created; each team would play all others within their group. The winners of the groups would go straight to the final (there were no semi-finals), while the runners-up disputed the

. The tournament failed to draw much enthusiasm from spectators and TV viewers. Attendance was generally poor except for matches involving the Italian team. The defensive style of play of many teams led to a succession of dull matches.

Hooliganism Hooliganism is disruptive or unlawful behavior such as rioting, bullying and vandalism, usually in connection with crowds at sporting events. Etymology There are several theories regarding the origin of the word ''hooliganism,'' which is a d ...

, already a rising problem in the 1970s, made headlines again at the first-round match between

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

and

where riot police had to use

tear gas Tear gas, also known as a lachrymator agent or lachrymator (), sometimes colloquially known as "mace" after the early commercial aerosol, is a chemical weapon that stimulates the nerves of the lacrimal gland in the eye to produce tears. In ...

, causing the match to be held up for five minutes in the first half. The only bright spots were the emergence of a new generation of talented German stars such as

Bernd Schuster Bernd Schuster (born 22 December 1959) is a German former professional footballer of the late 1970s through early 1990s, who won club titles playing for the Spanish sides FC Barcelona (1980–1987) and Real Madrid (1988–1990). He played as a m ...

Hans-Peter Briegel Hans-Peter Briegel (born 11 October 1955) is a German former professional football player and manager who played as a defender or midfielder. One of the most popular German players in his days, Briegel's original sport was athletics, being succ ...

Horst Hrubesch Horst Hrubesch (; born 17 April 1951) is a German professional football manager and former player who last managed Hamburger SV. As a player, Hrubesch won three West German championships with his club side, Hamburger SV, as well as the European C ...

Hansi Müller Hans-Peter "Hansi" Müller (born 27 July 1957) is a German former footballer who played as a midfielder. Both his parents were of Danube Swabian descent (German: ''Donauschwaben)'' that were displaced from Yugoslavia after World War II. His fath ...

and Karl-Heinz Rummenigge, and the inspirational performance of

(around rising stars such as

Jan Ceulemans Jan Anna Gumaar Ceulemans (; born 28 February 1957) is a Belgian former professional footballer who played as an attacking midfielder. A prolific goalscorer, Ceulemans was known for his stamina, aerial ability and technique. He was also known ...

Eric Gerets Eric Maria Gerets (, born 18 May 1954) is a Belgian football manager and former player who played as a right back. He started his playing career as an amateur for his local team AA Rekem, before achieving success with Standard Liège and PSV. ...

Jean-Marie Pfaff Jean-Marie Pfaff (born 4 December 1953) is a Belgian former professional footballer who played as a goalkeeper who spent most of his professional career with Beveren and Bayern Munich. Pfaff was capped 64 times playing for Belgium, and partici ...

, and

Erwin Vandenbergh Erwin Vandenbergh (; born 26 January 1959) is a Belgian retired football who played as a forward. Between 1979 and 1991, he finished six times topscorer of the Belgian First Division (a record as of 2020), with three clubs (the first three wit ...

) who reached the final, only losing to

(2–1) by a Hrubesch goal two minutes before time.

Qualification

Greece made their major tournament debut. Spain and Italy made their first appeareances since their wins in 1964 and 1968, respectively. England also qualified for the first time since 1968. Belgium qualified after missing the 1976 tournament. Yugoslavia didn't qualify after hosting the previous tournament. Other notable absenties were USSR, France and Hungary. This was the last time until 2008 Denmark failed to qualify.

Qualified teams

Venues

Squads

Each national team had to submit a squad of 22 players.

Match officials

Group stage

The teams finishing in the top position in each of the two groups progress to the finals, while the second placed teams advanced to the third place play-off, and bottom two teams were eliminated from the tournament. ''All times are local, CEST (

UTC+2 UTC+02:00 is an identifier for a time offset from UTC of +02:00. In ISO 8601, the associated time would be written as 2020-11-08T23:41:45+02:00. This time is used in: As standard time (year-round) ''Principal cities: Cairo, Pretoria, Cape ...

).''

Tiebreakers

If two or more teams finished level on points after completion of the group matches, the following tie-breakers were used to determine the final ranking: # Greater number of points in all group matches # Goal difference in all group matches # Greater number of goals scored in all group matches # Drawing of lots

Group 1

---- ----

Group 2

---- ----

Knockout stage

In the final, extra time and a

penalty shoot-out The penalty shootout is a method of determining a winner in sports matches that would have otherwise been drawn or tied. The rules for penalty shootouts vary between sports and even different competitions; however, the usual form is similar to pe ...

were used to decide the winner if necessary. However, the third place play-off would go straight to a penalty shoot-out if the scores were level after 90 minutes. ''All times are local, CEST (

).''

Bracket

Third place play-off

Final

Statistics

Goalscorers

Awards

References

External links

UEFA Euro 1980
at UEFA.com {{DEFAULTSORT:Uefa Euro 1980 1980 1979–80 in European football 1979–80 in Italian football 1980 June 1980 sports events in Europe