1965: A championship is born

UEFA has recently responded to the wishes of Europe's national associations for competitive national team football by introducing the UEFA Nations League from 2018.

Fifty years ago this week, a similar wish throughout the continent led to a decision which gave impetus to the European national-team game – when the European Nations' Cup became the European Football Championship.

UEFA considers national team football as a source of national pride and identity, which can also serve as an expression of a country's national football philosophy. The UEFA Nations League stems from a desire to improve the quality and standing of national team football. The associations have been increasingly of the opinion that friendly matches are not providing adequate competition for national teams.

In the mid-1960s, thoughts of a similar nature were being expressed across Europe. The continent's premier national-team competition, the European Nations' Cup, had been launched in 1958, and the first two editions had taken place, with the Soviet Union and Spain victorious in 1960 and 1964 respectively.

UEFA was certainly pleased with the progress of its competition in terms of the number of countries wishing to take part, as General Secretary Hans Bangerter confirmed in his report for 1964/65: "The fact that 29 national associations participated in the second European Nations' Cup [1962/64], as compared with only 17 entries for the first competition [1958/60], gives ample evidence of the growing popularity of this competition. Fifty-four matches, attended by 1,808,186 spectators, were played during 1962/64."

However, certain other aspects of the national team game concerned UEFA. In the 1963/64 UEFA Handbook, the UEFA President, Switzerland's Gustav Wiederkehr, had signalled worries about its appeal, and his body was determined to do something about it. "The revaluation of the international matches is [a] task which we consider to be of great importance," he wrote.

"As a result of the popularity of the European club competitions and numerous other international events in which club teams participate," he added, "the interest of the public and, in part, also of the press, in international matches has in many countries suffered considerably … Under no circumstances shall we idly watch this development.

"In the great majority of cases our national associations depend upon the receipts of international matches in order to be able to fulfil their duties towards amateur football, which must be one of our main concerns."

UEFA deemed that the time was right to consult its national associations about how to propel its major national team competition forward, and the reply from the majority was crystal-clear: "We need more competitive action." It was keenly felt that friendly international matches of the time no longer attracted the crowds, whose attention was focusing increasingly on competition matches.

As a result, on 14 September 1965, UEFA's Executive Committee met in the Parkhotel in Sandefjord, Norway, to prepare for change. The committee proceeded, as the minutes state, to transform the European Nations' Cup into a European Championship, and asked the organising committee of the competition to set up appropriate regulations. UEFA confirmed that the first championship would start after the 1966 FIFA World Cup in England.

The name of the trophy, the Henri Delaunay Cup, remained the same in honour of UEFA's first general secretary, the pioneer behind the competition who had passed away in 1955, and who sadly never saw his dream reach fruition. To this day, the trophy bears Henri Delaunay's name as a tribute to his legacy and vision.

A new format was introduced for the championship's inaugural edition from 1966 to 1968. Eight groups would be formed, with each group team playing each other in home and away matches, and the eight group winners would qualify for quarter-finals over two legs.

The previous format was kept for the final stages – the two semi-finals, the final and the third/fourth place match would be staged in a country designated by the UEFA Executive Committee on the proposal of the organising committee. For the record, Italy was chosen to host the 1968 final phase, and went on to clinch the first championship title.

Only Malta and Iceland of the 33 member associations did not enter the competition, which kicked off on 7 September 1966 with a 2-2 Group 5 draw between the Netherlands and Hungary in Rotterdam. West Germany made their first appearance in the competition, and the four British associations – England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales – were allocated to Group 8 for a European version of the traditional British Home Championship. The biggest crowd for any UEFA European Championship match was set in this qualifying competition - 130,711 fans would pack Hampden Park, Glasgow to watch a 1-1 draw between Scotland and England on 24 February 1968.

In his report three years earlier, Hans Bangerter had spoken for UEFA and its associations in expressing optimism that the new European Championship would be crowned by success. "It is hoped," he wrote, "that this measure, complying with the general request for competition matches, will lead the public to show a more lively interest in the matches of the national representative teams.

"If the European Championship for national representative teams succeeds in raising as much interest as the European Champion Clubs' Cup," he concluded, "then this new competition will no doubt become the greatest and most important European competition."

Fifty years on, alongside UEFA's successful club competitions, the European Championship provides unequivocal proof of just how much national teams and their players mean to millions of fans across the continent.