UEFA Women's Championship facts for kids

This page is about the women's tournament. For the men's tournament, see UEFA European Championship.

Quick facts for kids
UEFA Women's Championship
Organising body	UEFA
Founded	1982; 43 years ago (1982)
Region	Europe
Number of teams	16 (finals) 52 (qualifiers)
Qualifier for	Women's Finalissima
Current champions	England (1st title)
Most successful team(s)	Germany (8 titles)
Website	Official website: http://www.uefa.com/womenseuro/

The UEFA European Women's Championship, also known as the UEFA Women's Euro, is a major football competition for women's national teams in Europe. It is organized by UEFA, which is the governing body for football in Europe. This exciting tournament happens every four years, usually one year after the men's UEFA European Championship.

The first official UEFA Women's Euro was held in 1984. The current champions are England, who won the tournament when it was hosted in their home country in 2022. The most successful team in the history of the competition is Germany, with an amazing eight titles!

The History of Women's Euro Football
- UEFA's Official Start
- How the Tournament Grew
Tournament Results: Who Won and When?
Team Achievements: Winners and Runners-Up
Medal Count: Top Teams in the Euro
New Teams Joining the Euro Tournament
Overall Team Performance Records
Host Nations and Their Results
Top Scorers in Euro History
Top Scorers for Each Tournament
Golden Player Award Winners
Highest Attendance Records
See also

The History of Women's Euro Football

The idea of a European women's football championship started even before UEFA officially organized it. In 1957, an early tournament took place in West Berlin. Four teams played, and England won. This happened even though women's football was not officially supported by some football groups at the time.

Later, in 1969, a European tournament was held in Italy. The home team, Italy, won by beating Denmark in the final. Italy hosted another tournament in 1979, which Denmark won.

UEFA's Official Start

UEFA, the main football organization in Europe, decided to start its own official competition for women's national teams in 1980. The very first UEFA-run international tournament began with qualifying matches in 1982. The finals of this first official tournament, held in 1984, were won by Sweden.

Norway won the next tournament in 1987. After that, Germany became the dominant team, winning eight out of ten events. Norway won again in 1993, and the Netherlands won in 2017. Germany's win in 2013 was their sixth in a row! In 2022, England won the UEFA Women's Euro, marking the first time an English senior football team (men's or women's) won a major tournament since the men's team won the 1966 FIFA World Cup.

How the Tournament Grew

When the UEFA competition first started in the 1980s, it was a small event with only four teams.

From 1984 to 1995, only four teams played in the final tournament.
In 1997, the tournament grew to include eight teams. This continued for the 2001 and 2005 events.
Between 2009 and 2013, the number of teams increased to 12.
Since 2017, 16 teams now compete for the championship title.

The tournament was first called "European Competition for Representative Women's Teams." Around 1990, UEFA officially recognized it as the "European Championship." For a few years (1991 and 1995), this tournament also helped teams qualify for the FIFA Women's World Cup. However, since 1999, there has been a separate qualifying competition for the World Cup, similar to the men's tournaments.

Tournament Results: Who Won and When?

This table shows the winners, runners-up, and other top teams from each UEFA Women's Euro tournament.

Edition	Year	Host Nation	Winners	Scores	Runners-up	Third Place	Score	Fourth Place	Number of Teams
Edition	Year	Host Nation	Finals			Third Place or Losing Semi-Finalists			Number of Teams
1	1984	No official host	Sweden	1–1 (agg.) (4–3 p)	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 (aet)	Italy	4
4	1991	Denmark	Germany	3–1 (aet)	Norway	Denmark	2–1 (aet)	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	Norway Sweden	Germany	2–0	Italy	Spain and Sweden			8
8	2001	Germany	Germany	1–0 (aet)	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 (aet)	Germany	France and Sweden			16
14

Team Achievements: Winners and Runners-Up

This table summarizes how many times each team has won, been a runner-up, or reached the semi-finals.

Team	Winners	Runners-up	Losing semi-finalists
Germany¹	8 (1989, 1991, 1995, 1997, 2001, 2005, 2009, 2013)	1 (2022)	1 (1993)
Norway	2 (1987*, 1993)	4 (1989, 1991, 2005, 2013)	3 (1995, 2001, 2009)
Sweden	1 (1984)	3 (1987, 1995, 2001)	5 (1989, 1997, 2005, 2013, 2022)
England	1 (2022*)	2 (1984, 2009)	3 (1987, 1995, 2017)
Netherlands	1 (2017*)	—	1 (2009)
Italy	—	2 (1993*, 1997)	4 (1984, 1987, 1989, 1991)
Denmark	—	1 (2017)	5 (1984, 1991*, 1993, 2001, 2013)
Austria	—	—	1 (2017)
Finland	—	—	1 (2005)
France	—	—	1 (2022)
Spain	—	—	1 (1997)

* hosts

¹ named West Germany until 1990

Medal Count: Top Teams in the Euro

This table shows the total number of gold, silver, and bronze medals won by each country.

In the first tournament in 1984, no bronze medal was given out.
From 1987 to 1993, there was a special match to decide who won the bronze medal.
Since 1995, both teams that lose in the semi-finals are awarded a bronze medal.
Only Norway and Germany have won the competition more than once.

Rank	Team	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total
1	Germany	8	1	0	9
2	Norway	2	4	3	9
3	Sweden	1	3	5	9
4	England	1	2	2	5
5	Netherlands	1	0	1	2
6	Italy	0	2	1	3
7	Denmark	0	1	4	5
8	Austria	0	0	1	1
Finland	0	0	1	1
France	0	0	1	1
Spain	0	0	1	1
Totals (11 entries)	13	13	20	46

New Teams Joining the Euro Tournament

This table shows which teams made their first appearance in the UEFA Women's Euro in different years.

Players fighting for the ball during a match between Germany and Norway in the 2009 UEFA Women's Euro.

The Germany women's national football team celebrating their 2009 UEFA Women's Championship win.

Year	Debuting Teams			Successor Teams
Year	Teams	No.	Cum.	Successor Teams
1984	Denmark, England, Italy, Sweden	4	4
1987	Norway	1	5
1989	West Germany	1	6
1991	N/A	0	6	Germany
1993		0	6
1995		0	6
1997	France, Russia, Spain	3	9
2001	N/A	0	9
2005	Finland	1	10
2009	Iceland, Netherlands, Ukraine	3	13
2013	N/A	0	13
2017	Austria, Belgium, Portugal, Scotland, Switzerland	5	18
2022	Northern Ireland	1	19

Overall Team Performance Records

This table ranks teams based on their total points earned in all UEFA Women's Euro tournaments.

Teams get 3 points for a win, 1 point for a draw, and 0 points for a loss.
Matches decided in extra time count as wins or losses.
Matches decided by penalty shoot-outs count as draws.

Teams are ranked by points, then by goal difference (goals scored minus goals against), then by goals scored.

Rank	Team	Part	M	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Points
1	Germany	11	46	36	6	4	107	27	+80	114
2	Sweden	11	42	22	6	14	72	47	+25	72
3	Norway	12	39	16	7	16	51	58	−7	55
4	England	9	34	17	3	14	62	53	+9	54
5	France	7	26	11	8	7	39	34	+5	41
6	Denmark	10	33	10	8	15	33	46	−13	38
7	Netherlands	4	18	10	3	5	27	15	+12	33
8	Italy	12	35	8	7	20	38	63	−25	31
9	Spain	4	16	5	3	8	16	19	−3	18
10	Austria	2	9	4	3	2	8	4	+4	15
11	Finland	4	14	3	3	8	12	27	−15	12
12	Belgium	2	7	2	1	4	6	7	−1	7
13	Iceland	4	13	1	4	8	7	22	−15	7
14	Russia	5	15	1	3	11	10	31	−21	6
15	Switzerland	2	6	1	2	3	7	11	−4	5
16	Portugal	2	6	1	1	4	7	15	−8	4
17	Ukraine	1	3	1	0	2	2	4	−2	3
18	Scotland	1	3	1	0	2	8	−6	3
19	Northern Ireland	1	3	0	0	3	1	11	−10	0

Host Nations and Their Results

This table shows how well the host nation performed in each tournament they hosted.

Results of host nations
Year	Host Nation	Finish
1984	No fixed host	n/a
1987	Norway	Champions
1989	West Germany	Champions
1991	Denmark	Third place
1993	Italy	Runners-up
1995	No fixed host	n/a
1997	Norway	Group stage
1997	Sweden	Semi-final
2001	Germany	Champions
2005	England	Group stage
2009	Finland	Quarter-final
2013	Sweden	Semi-final
2017	Netherlands	Champions
2022	England	Champions

Top Scorers in Euro History

This table lists the players who have scored the most goals in the history of the UEFA Women's Euro tournaments.

Rank	Name	Euro													Total
Rank	Name	1984	1987	1989	1991	1993	1995	1997	2001	2005	2009	2013	2017	2022	Total
1	Inka Grings									4	6				10
1	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	Hanna Ljungberg							1	2	3					6
	Beth Mead													6	6
	Alexandra Popp													6	6
9	Melania Gabbiadini									2	1	2	0		5
	Solveig Gulbrandsen								0	3	0	2			5
	Maren Meinert					1	1	1	2						5
	Patrizia Panico							1	2	0	2	0			5
	Pia Sundhage	4	0	1			0								5
	Jodie Taylor												5		5
	Lena Videkull	0	1	1			3								5
	Bettina Wiegmann				0	0	2	1	2						5

Top Scorers for Each Tournament

This table shows the top goal scorer(s) for each individual UEFA Women's Euro tournament.

Year	Player	Matches played	Goals
1984	Pia Sundhage	4	4
1987	Trude Stendal	2	3
1989	Sissel Grude Ursula Lohn	2	2
1991	Heidi Mohr	2	4
1993	Susan Mackensie	2	2
1995	Lena Videkull	3	3
1997	Carolina Morace Marianne Pettersen Angélique Roujas	5	4
2001	Claudia Müller Sandra Smisek	5	3
2005	Inka Grings	5	4
2009	Inka Grings	6	6
2013	Lotta Schelin	6	5
2017	Jodie Taylor	6	5
2022	Beth Mead Alexandra Popp	6	6

Golden Player Award Winners

The UEFA.com Golden Player award is given to the best player of each tournament.

Year	Player
1984	Pia Sundhage
1987	Heidi Støre
1989	Doris Fitschen
1991	Silvia Neid
1993	Hege Riise
1995	Birgit Prinz
1997	Carolina Morace
2001	Hanna Ljungberg
2005	Anne Mäkinen
2009	Inka Grings
2013	Nadine Angerer¹
2017	Lieke Martens¹
2022	Beth Mead¹

¹Official player of the tournament since 2013

Highest Attendance Records

These are the matches with the largest crowds in UEFA Women's Euro history.

87,192 – England v Germany, Wembley, London (2022 final)
68,871 – England v Austria, Old Trafford, Manchester (2022 group stage)
41,301 – Germany v Norway, Friends Arena, Solna (2013 final)
30,785 - England v Northern Ireland, St Mary's Stadium, Southampton (2022 group stage)
29,092 – England v Finland, City of Manchester Stadium, Manchester (2005 group stage)
28,994 – England v Spain, Falmer Stadium, Brighton and Hove (2022 quarter-final)
28,847 – England v Norway, Falmer Stadium, Brighton and Hove (2022 group stage)
28,624 – England v Sweden, Bramall Lane, Sheffield (2022 semi-final)
28,182 – Netherlands v Denmark, De Grolsch Veste, Enschede (2017 final)
27,445 – Germany v France, Stadium MK, Milton Keynes (2022 semi-final)