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Euro 1984 Championships |
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| The 1984 UEFA European Football Championship (Euro 84) final tournament was held in France. It was the seventh European Football Championship, held every four years and endorsed by UEFA. The final tournament took place from June 12 - 27, 1984. At the time, only eight countries took part in the final stage of the tournament. |
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| France qualified automatically as hosts of the event; led by Michel Platini, who scored nine goals in France's five matches, Les Bleus won the tournament - their first major international title. |
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| After trying out several formats, UEFA finally developed for the 1984 tournament the format that would serve for all subsequent eight-team Euros. The eight qualified teams were split into two groups of four that played a round-robin schedule. The top two teams of each group advanced to semi-finals (reintroduced after being absent from the 1980 tournament) and the winners advanced to the final. The third-place game, widely perceived as an unnecessary chore, was dropped. As usual at the time, a win was credited with two points only, teams on equal points were ranked by goal difference instead of head-to-head results, and the sudden-death rule in extra time did not apply. |
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| Fixtures were scheduled according to an innovative rotation schedule in which each team played its three first-round matches in three different stadia. Host France, for instance, played in Paris, Nantes, and Saint-Étienne. This formula had the advantage of exposing residents of a given city to more teams but implied multiple and sometimes costly trips from town to town for fans who wanted to follow their side. In subsequent Euros, the organizers reverted to conventional schedules in which teams played in one or two cities only. |
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| The entire competition was marked by exceptionally fine weather which, along with the high quality of play throughout the tournament (a welcome change from the previous tournament) and the absence of hooligans, contributed to a very positive and enjoyable experience for teams and fans alike. |
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| Information supplied by Wikipedia |
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