UEFA Women's Championship
| Organising body | UEFA |
|---|---|
| Founded | 1982 |
| Region | Europe |
| Number of teams | 16 (finals) 52 (qualifiers) |
| Qualifier for | Women's Finalissima |
| Current champions |  England (2nd title) |
| Most successful team(s) |  Germany (8 titles) |
| Website | uefa.com/womenseuro |
 UEFA Women's Euro 2025 | |
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| Tournaments |
|---|
The UEFA European Women's Championship, also called the UEFA Women's Euro, is the main competition in women's association football between national teams of the UEFA confederation. It is held every four years, one year after the men's. It was first held in 1984. The reigning champions are England, who won the tournament in 2022 and 2025. The most successful nation in the history of the tournament is Germany, with eight titles.
History
[edit]Previous European championships
[edit]In 1957 in West Berlin, a European Championship was staged by the International Ladies Football Association.[1][2] Four teams, representing West Germany, the Netherlands, Austria, and the eventual winners, England, played the tournament at the Poststadion,[1][2] at a time when women's football teams were officially forbidden by the German Football Association, a ban that was widely defied.[3][4]
The Italian Women's Football Federation FICF, which eventually merged into the Italian Football Federation, organised a European tournament in Italy in 1969 for women's national teams, a tournament won by the home team, Italy, who beat Denmark 3–1 in the final.[5] The two nations were also the finalists of the 1970 Women's World Cup in Italy.
Italy hosted another European women's tournament a decade later, the 1979 European Competition for Women's Football – won by Denmark.[6]
UEFA displayed little enthusiasm for women's football and were particularly hostile to Italy's independent women's football federation. Sue Lopez, a member of England's squad, contended that a lack of female representation in UEFA was a contributory factor:[7]
In 1971, UEFA had set up a committee for women's football, composed exclusively of male representatives, and by the time this committee folded in 1978 they had failed to organise any international competitions.[7]
UEFA organised championships
[edit]At a conference on 19 February 1980 UEFA resolved to launch its own competition for women's national teams.[8] The meeting minutes had registered the 1979 competition as a "cause for concern".[9] Qualification for the first UEFA-run international tournament began in 1982, with the inaugural 1984 competition being won by Sweden. Norway won the second competition in 1987. A period of German domination then followed, with Germany winning 8 of the 9 competitions from 1989 to 2013, interrupted only by Norway in 1993. The Netherlands won in 2017 followed by England winning the most recent two editions of the competition in 2022 and 2025.
From 1984 to 1995, the tournament was initially played as a four-team event. The 1997 edition was the first that was played with eight teams, followed by the 2001 and 2005 editions. The third expansion happened between 2009 and 2013 when 12 teams participated. From 2017 onwards 16 teams compete for the championship.[10]
The first three tournaments of the UEFA competition in the 1980s had the name "European Competition for Representative Women's Teams". With UEFA's increasing acceptance of women's football, this competition was given European Championship status by UEFA around 1990.[11] Only the 1991 and 1995 editions have been used as European qualifiers for a FIFA Women's World Cup; starting in 1999, women's national teams adopted the separate World Cup qualifying competition and group system used in men's qualifiers.
Results
[edit]
Records and statistics
[edit]Medal table
[edit]| Rank | Nation | Gold | Silver | Bronze | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Germany | 8 | 1 | 1 | 10 |
| 2 |  Norway | 2 | 4 | 3 | 9 |
| 3 | England | 2 | 2 | 2 | 6 |
| 4 |  Sweden | 1 | 3 | 5 | 9 |
| 5 |  Netherlands | 1 | 0 | 1 | 2 |
| 6 |  Italy | 0 | 2 | 3 | 5 |
| 7 |  Denmark | 0 | 1 | 5 | 6 |
| 8 |  Spain | 0 | 1 | 1 | 2 |
| 9 |  Austria | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
 Finland | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | |
 France | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | |
| Totals (11 entries) | 14 | 14 | 24 | 52 | |
Top goalscorers
[edit]| Rank | Player | Euro | Total | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1984 | 1987 |
1989 |
 1991 |
1993 |
1995 | 1997 |
2001 |
2005 |
2009 |
2013 |
2017 |
2022 |
 2025 | |||
| 1 | Inka Grings
|
4 | 6 | 10 | ||||||||||||
| Birgit Prinz
|
2 | 2 | 1 | 3 | 2 | 10 | ||||||||||
| 3 | Carolina Morace
|
2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 4 | 8 | ||||||||
| Heidi Mohr
|
1 | 4 | 1 | 2 | 8 | |||||||||||
| Lotta Schelin
|
0 | 1 | 5 | 2 | 8 | |||||||||||
| 6 | Beth Mead
|
6 | 1 | 7 | ||||||||||||
| 7 | Stina Blackstenius
|
2 | 1 | 3 | 6 | |||||||||||
| Hanna Ljungberg
|
1 | 2 | 3 | 6 | ||||||||||||
| Alexandra Popp
|
6 | 6 | ||||||||||||||
| Alessia Russo
|
4 | 2 | 6 | |||||||||||||
See also
[edit]
- FIFA U-17 Women's World Cup
- FIFA U-20 Women's World Cup
- FIFA Women's World Cup
- UEFA Women's Champions League
- UEFA Women's Under-17 Championship
- UEFA Women's Under-19 Championship
References
[edit]- ^ a b "Damenfußball in der Verbotszeit [Ladies' football in the banned era]". BPB. 4 September 2007. Archived from the original on 18 February 2022.
- ^ a b "Women's european football championship scene from match germany (GFR) against England in Berlin (West-Berlin) . final result 0:4 05.Nov. 1957". Getty Images. Archived from the original on 2 August 2022. Retrieved 24 July 2022.
- ^ Skillen, Fiona; Byrne, Helena; Carrier, John; James, Gary (27 January 2022). "A comparative analysis of the 1921 English Football Association ban on women's football in Britain and Ireland". Sport in History. 42 (1): 49–75. doi:10.1080/17460263.2021.2025415. S2CID 246409158.
- ^ "Frauenfußball-Verbot 1955 [Women's football ban 1955]". Deutschlandfunk. 30 July 2015. Archived from the original on 5 August 2022. Retrieved 24 July 2022.
- ^ "Coppa Europa per Nazioni (Women) 1969". Rsssf.com. 19 March 2001. Archived from the original on 7 December 2022. Retrieved 12 September 2009.
- ^ "Inofficial European Women Championship 1979". Rsssf.com. 15 October 2000. Archived from the original on 6 December 2022. Retrieved 12 September 2009.
- ^ a b Lopez, Sue (1997). Women on the Ball: A Guide to Women's Football. London, England: Scarlet Press. p. 99. ISBN 1857270169.
- ^ "2013 Uefa Women's Competitions" (PDF). UEFA. August 2013. p. 4. Archived (PDF) from the original on 17 December 2013. Retrieved 12 January 2014.
- ^ Williams, Jean (2007). A Beautiful Game: International Perspectives on Women's Football. Berg Publishers. p. 30. ISBN 978-1845206758.
- ^ "Women's EURO and U17s expanded". UEFA. 8 December 2011. Archived from the original on 17 September 2019. Retrieved 8 December 2011.
- ^ Leslie-Walker, Anika; Schlenker, Marisa (8 July 2020). "Four decades of UEFA Women's Championships "come home"". Football Makes History. Archived from the original on 23 November 2023. Retrieved 23 November 2023.
External links
[edit]
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International women's association football | ||
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| Worldwide |  | |
| Asia | ||
| Africa | ||
| North America, Central America and the Caribbean | ||
| South America | ||
| Oceania | ||
| Europe | ||
| Non-FIFA | ||
| Games | ||
| Invitationals |
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