| Organiser(s) | UEFA |
|---|---|
| Founded | 1982; 43 years ago (1982) |
| Region | Europe |
| Teams | 16 (finals) 52 (qualifiers) |
| Qualifier for | Women's Finalissima |
| Related competitions | UEFA European Championship |
| Current champions |  England (2nd title) |
| Most championships |  Germany (8 titles) |
| Website | uefa.com/womenseuro |
 UEFA Women's Euro 2025 | |
.jpg) The closing ceremony prior to the 2009 final |
| Tournaments |
|---|
TheUEFA European Women's Championship, also called theUEFA Women's Euro, is the main competition inwomen's association football between national teams of theUEFA confederation. It is held every four years, one year after themen's. It was first held in 1984. The reigning champions areEngland, who won the tournament in 2022 and 2025. The most successful nation in the history of the tournament isGermany, with eight titles.
In 1957 inWest 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 thePoststadion,[1][2] at a time when women's football teams were officially forbidden by theGerman Football Association, a ban that was widely defied.[3][4]
The Italian Women's Football Federation FICF, which eventually merged into theItalian Football Federation, organised aEuropean tournament in Italy in 1969 for women's national teams, a tournament won by the home team,Italy, who beatDenmark 3–1 in the final.[5] The two nations were also the finalists of the1970 Women's World Cup in Italy.
Italy hosted another European women's tournament a decade later, the1979 European Competition for Women's Football – won byDenmark.[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]
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 the1979 competition as a "cause for concern".[9]Qualification for the firstUEFA-run international tournament began in 1982, with the inaugural1984 competition being won bySweden.Norway won the second competition in1987. A period ofGerman domination then followed, with Germany winning 8 of the 9 competitions from 1989 to 2013, interrupted only byNorway in1993.The Netherlands won in2017 followed byEngland winning the most recent two editions of the competition in2022 and2025.
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 the1991 and1995 editions have been used as European qualifiers for aFIFA Women's World Cup; starting in 1999, women's national teams adopted the separateWorld Cup qualifying competition and group system used in men's qualifiers.
| Edition | Year | Host nation | Final | Third place playoff or losing semi-finalists | Number of teams | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Winners | Score | Runners-up | Third place | Score | Fourth place | |||||||
| 1 | 1984 | No official host |  Sweden | 1–1 (agg.) (4–3p) | England |  Denmark and Italy | 4 | |||||
| 2 | 1987 |  Norway | Norway | 2–1 | Sweden | Italy | 2–1 | England | 4 | |||
| 3 | 1989 | West Germany | West Germany | 4–1 | Norway | Sweden | 2–1 (a.e.t.) | Italy | 4 | |||
| 4 | 1991 | Denmark | Germany | 3–1 (a.e.t.) | Norway |  Denmark | 2–1 (a.e.t.) | Italy | 4 | |||
| 5 | 1993 | Italy | Norway | 1–0 | Italy | Denmark | 3–1 | Germany | 4 | |||
| 6 | 1995 | No official host | Germany | 3–2 | Sweden | England and Norway | 4 | |||||
| 7 | 1997 | NorwaySweden | Germany | 2–0 | Italy |  Spain and Sweden | 8 | |||||
| 8 | 2001 | Germany | Germany | 1–0 (g.g.) | Sweden | Denmark and Norway | 8 | |||||
| 9 | 2005 | England | Germany | 3–1 | Norway |  Finland and Sweden | 8 | |||||
| 10 | 2009 | Finland | Germany | 6–2 | England |  Netherlands and Norway | 12 | |||||
| 11 | 2013 | Sweden | Germany | 1–0 | Norway | Denmark and Sweden | 12 | |||||
| 12 | 2017 | Netherlands | Netherlands | 4–2 | Denmark |  Austria and England | 16 | |||||
| 13 | 2022 | England | England | 2–1 (a.e.t.) | Germany |  France and Sweden | 16 | |||||
| 14 | 2025 |  Switzerland | England | 1–1 (a.e.t.) (3–1p) | Spain | Germany and Italy | 16 | |||||
| 15 | 2029 | 16 | ||||||||||
| 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 | |
| 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 | |||||||||||||
Links to related articles | |||||||||
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|
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