| |
 |
Euro 1980 Championships |
|
 |
|
|
| The 1980 UEFA European Football Championship (Euro 80) final tournament was held in Italy. This was the sixth European Football Championship, which is held every four years and endorsed by UEFA. The final tournament took place between June 11 and June 22, 1980. This was the first time that eight teams contested the final tournament. |
|
| Seven of these countries had to qualify for the final stage. Also for the first time, the hosts, in this case Italy, qualified automatically for the finals. This was also the first time in the history of the tournament that all of the matches were played in the one country. |
|
| Because of the expanded format, the final 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 third place match. |
|
| The tournament generally 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, already a rising problem in the 1970s, made headlines again at the first-round match between England and Belgium where riot police had to use tear gas, delaying the start of play. The only bright spots were the emergence of a new generation of talented West German stars such as Hans-Peter Briegel, Horst Hrubesch, Hansi Müller and Karl-Heinz Rummenigge, and the inspired performance of offensively-minded Belgium (around rising stars such as Jan Ceulemans, Eric Gerets, Jean-Marie Pfaff, and Erwin Vandenbergh) who unexpectedly reached the final, only losing to West Germany (1-2) by a Hrubesch goal two minutes before time. |
|
| Information supplied by Wikipedia |
| |
|
|
|
|
