UEFA European Championship qualifying


This page is a summary of the UEFA European Championship qualifying, the process that UEFA-affiliated national association football teams go through in order to qualify for the UEFA European Championship.
Since 1960, European Championship final tournaments have been contested in June or July of every fourth year. The qualifying procedure for each final tournament has usually included qualifying matches held during the two years preceding that year. In this article, the years correspond to the final tournaments of the European Championship, and not to the actual dates when the qualification matches were played.

Format evolution

The 1960 and 1964 qualifications consisted of a knock-out tournament only. The four quarter-final-winning teams qualify for the final stages, and one of them was chosen to host the tournament.
The 1968, 1972, and 1976 qualifying tournaments included a group stage of eight groups. The eight group winners advanced to a quarter-final stage, which was still part of the qualifying. The four quarter-final winners progressed to the finals. Again, the host nation was chosen among the four finalists.
From 1980 onwards, the hosting rights would be assigned in advance to one or two countries, and the host teams would be guaranteed an automatic spot in the finals and would not have to go through qualification. Also, the format was expanded to feature 8 teams. The 1980, 1984, 1988, and 1992 qualifications included seven qualifying groups, and the seven group winners progressed to the finals joining the host team.
From 1996, the 16-team format was employed. The 1996 qualifying consisted of eight groups; the eight group winners and the six best runners-up qualified directly, while the two worst runners-up met in a play-off to determine the last team to earn a spot in the finals, joining the host country.
In 2000, the winners of the nine qualifying groups qualified for the finals and so was the best runner-up. The remaining eight runners-up entered a play-off round, where they were paired off against each other; the winners of each pairing qualified too. For the first time, there were two host countries; they both received automatic berths in the finals.
In 2004, along with the host team, the ten qualifying group winners qualified, and so does the winners of each of the five play-off ties which were contested by the ten runners-up.
In 2008, the top two teams from each of the seven qualifying groups joined the two host teams to bring the number of finalists to 16.
The 2012 qualification used a format similar to that of 2000: spots were given to nine group winners and the best runner-up, and the remaining eight runners-up entered play-offs to determine the remaining four finalists, with automatic berths being guaranteed to the two host countries.
From 2016, the finals format was expanded again, now featuring 24 teams. The 2016 qualifying included nine groups; the winners, the runners-up, and the best third-placed team qualified directly, while the remaining eight third-placed teams formed four play-off pairings to determine the last four finalists. The host nation would still qualify automatically.
For the 2020 finals, hosted by multiple cities across Europe, there would be no automatic qualifying berths. 20 of the 24 qualifying places went to the winners and runners-up of the ten groups of the 2020 qualifying, while the remaining four would be determined via play-offs. Participation in those play-offs would be determined based on the teams' performances in the newly formed UEFA Nations League and not in the qualifying itself. From each of the four divisions of the 2018–19 Nations League, the four best-placed teams not yet qualified for Euro 2020 would advance to a four-team play-off for that division using a knock-out system of semi-finals and a final. The four final winners would qualify for the Euro main tournament.

Participating teams

All national teams that are members of UEFA are eligible to enter the qualification for the European Championship. A total of 56 distinct entities have made attempts to qualify for the European Championship. Of those, 55 are still active in the competition. Due to political changes, a few of the entities have appeared under multiple incarnations, and the East Germany team is now defunct.
Saarland, a former UEFA member, merged into West Germany in 1957 and therefore did not enter the qualifiers of any European Championships.
;Successor teams inheriting the records of former teams
;Teams competing as parts of other teams
;Renamed teams

Overview

Team19601964196819721976198019841988199219962000200420082012201620202024
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DNEr161/4+QW1/4+QF3/4Qhost 4/51/52/52/61/51/51/71/61/61/6
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r16pr4/44/44/45/54/45/53/53/61/62/5+p3/73/53/6+p3/6+p
r16pr3/42/42/42/53/44/53/44/63/53/51/8Qhost2/61/6
QFpr2/42/43/43/51/43/52/51/62/6Qhost 2/82/5+p1/52/5
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QWQW1/4+QW1/4+QW1/4+QF4/42/41/51/51/63/62/5+p2/71/62/62/6
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3/63/63/54/74/62/63/5+p
5/62/6+p2/5+p6/74/63/6+p4/6
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DNEpr3/42/44/44/52/44/52/51/53/51/5Qhost3/52/61/5
r16pr4/43/43/42/44/54/44/42/52/5+p2/5+p2/72/6+p3/62/6
4/62/6+p3/54/7Qhost 3/6+p1/5
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Team19601964196819721976198019841988199219962000200420082012201620202024

Key
Legend
Team has won the European Championship
Team has qualified for the main tournament
Team hasn't qualified for the main tournament
Team is defunct

Up to and including the Euro 2020 qualifying matches played in November 2019. Teams in bold continue their participation in the qualifying, in the play-offs.
Notes on the below table:
Footnotes