UEFA Euro 2016

UEFA Euro 2016
Championnat d'Europe de football 2016; (in French)
	Le Rendez-Vous
Tournament details
Host country	France
Dates	10 June – 10 July
Teams	24
Venue(s)	10 (in 9 host cities)
Final positions
Champions	Portugal (1st title)
Runners-up	France
Tournament statistics
Matches played	51
Goals scored	108 (2.12 per match)
Attendance	2,427,303 (47,594 per match)
Top scorer(s)	Antoine Griezmann (6 goals)
Best player(s)	Antoine Griezmann
Best young player	Renato Sanches
	← 2012 2020 →

The 2016 UEFA European Football Championship, commonly referred to as UEFA Euro 2016 (stylised as UEFA EURO 2016) or simply Euro 2016, was the 15th UEFA European Championship, the quadrennial international men's football championship of Europe organised by UEFA. It was held in France from 10 June to 10 July 2016.^[4]^[5] Spain were the two-time defending champions, having won the 2008 and 2012 tournaments, but were eliminated in the round of 16 by Italy. Portugal won the tournament for the first time, following a 1–0 victory after extra time over the host team, France, in the final played at the Stade de France.

For the first time, the European Championship final tournament was contested by 24 teams, having been expanded from the 16-team format used since 1996.^[6] Under the new format, the finalists contested a group stage consisting of six groups of four teams, followed by a knockout phase including three rounds and the final. Nineteen teams – the top two from each of the nine qualifying groups and the best third-placed team – joined France in the final tournament, who qualified automatically as host; a series of two-legged play-off ties between the remaining third-placed teams in November 2015 decided the last four finalist spots.

France was chosen as the host nation on 28 May 2010, after a bidding process in which they beat Italy and Turkey for the right to host the 2016 finals.^[7]^[8] The matches were played in ten stadiums in ten cities: Bordeaux, Lens, Lille Métropole, Décines-Charpieu, Marseille, Nice, Paris, Saint-Denis, Saint-Étienne, and Toulouse. It was the third time that France hosted the finals, after the inaugural tournament in 1960 and the 1984 finals.

As the winners, Portugal earned the right to compete at the 2017 FIFA Confederations Cup in Russia.^[9]

Bid process[edit]

Four bids came before the deadline on 9 March 2009. France, Italy and Turkey put in single bids while Norway and Sweden put in a joint bid.^[10] Norway and Sweden eventually withdrew their bid in December 2009.^[11]

The host was selected on 28 May 2010.^[12]

Voting results^[13]
Country	Round
Country	1st (points)	2nd (votes)
France	43	7
Turkey	38	6
Italy	23	–
Total	104	13

Round 1: Each of the thirteen members of the UEFA Executive Committee ranked the 3 bids first, second, and third. First place ranking received 5 points, second place 2 points, and third place 1 point. Executive members from the countries bidding were not allowed to vote.
Round 2: The same thirteen-member committee voted for either of the two finalists.

Qualification[edit]

The qualifying draw took place at the Palais des Congrès Acropolis in Nice, on 23 February 2014,^[5] with the first matches being played in September 2014.^[4]

53 teams competed for 23 places in the final tournament to join France, who automatically qualified as hosts. Gibraltar competed in a European Championship qualifying for the first time since their affiliation to UEFA in 2013. The seeding pots were formed on the basis of the UEFA national team coefficients, with the Euro 2012 champions Spain and hosts France automatically top seeded.

The 53 national sides were drawn into eight groups of six teams and one group of five teams. The group winners, runners-up, and the best third-placed team (with the results against the sixth-placed team discarded) qualify directly for the final tournament. The remaining eight third-placed teams contested two-legged play-offs to determine the last four qualifiers.^[14]^[15]^[16]

In March 2012, Gianni Infantino, the UEFA general secretary at the time, stated that UEFA would review the qualification competition to ensure that it was not "boring".^[17] In September 2011, during UEFA's first full strategy meeting, Michel Platini proposed a qualification format involving two group stages, but the member associations did not accept the proposal.^[18] In May 2013, Platini confirmed a similar qualifying format would be again discussed during the September 2013 UEFA executive committee meeting in Dubrovnik.^[19]

Qualified teams[edit]

Thirteen of the sixteen teams (including hosts France) that qualified for Euro 2012 qualified again for the 2016 final tournament. Among them were England, who became only the sixth team to record a flawless qualifying campaign (10 wins in 10 matches),^[20] defending European champions Spain, and world champions Germany, who qualified for their 12th straight European Championship finals.^[21]

Romania, Turkey, Austria, and Switzerland all returned after missing out in 2012, with the Austrians qualifying for just their second final Euro tournament, after having co-hosted Euro 2008 and first time through qualifying.^[22] Returning to the final tournament after long absences were Belgium for the first time since co-hosting Euro 2000, and Hungary for the first time in 44 years, having last appeared at Euro 1972, and 30 years since appearing in a major tournament, their previous one being the 1986 FIFA World Cup.^[23]

Four teams secured their first qualification to a UEFA European Championship final tournament: Albania, Iceland, Northern Ireland, and Wales.^[22] Northern Ireland and Wales had each previously competed in the FIFA World Cup, while Albania and Iceland had never participated in a major tournament. Slovakia meanwhile are making the first tournament as an independent nation, having qualified for three Euro tournaments and eight World Cups under Czechoslovakia.^[22]^[24]^[25] Similarly, both Austria and Ukraine completed successful qualification campaigns for the first time, having only previously qualified as hosts (of 2008 and 2012 respectively).^[26]^[27]

Scotland were the only team from the British Isles not to qualify for the finals,^[28] and it also marked the first time that both Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland qualified for the same major tournament finals.^[29] Greece, champions in 2004, finished bottom in their group and failed to qualify for the first time since 2000. Two other previous champions, the Netherlands (1988) and Denmark (1992), missed out on the finals. The Dutch team failed to qualify for the first time since Euro 1984 (also held in France), missing out on their first major tournament since the 2002 FIFA World Cup and only 16 months after having finished third at the 2014 FIFA World Cup.^[30] Denmark did not appear at the Euro finals for the first time since 2008, after losing in the play-off round against Sweden.

Team	Qualified as	Qualified on	Previous appearances in tournament^[A]
France	Host	28 May 2010	8 (1960, 1984, 1992, 1996, 2000, 2004, 2008, 2012)
England	Group E winner	5 September 2015	8 (1968, 1980, 1988, 1992, 1996, 2000, 2004, 2012)
Czech Republic^[B]	Group A winner	6 September 2015	8 (1960, 1976, 1980, 1996, 2000, 2004, 2008, 2012)
Iceland	Group A runner-up	6 September 2015	0 (debut)
Austria	Group G winner	8 September 2015	1 (2008)
Northern Ireland	Group F winner	8 October 2015	0 (debut)
Portugal	Group I winner	8 October 2015	6 (1984, 1996, 2000, 2004, 2008, 2012)
Spain	Group C winner	9 October 2015	9 (1964, 1980, 1984, 1988, 1996, 2000, 2004, 2008, 2012)
Switzerland	Group E runner-up	9 October 2015	3 (1996, 2004, 2008)
Italy	Group H winner	10 October 2015	8 (1968, 1980, 1988, 1996, 2000, 2004, 2008, 2012)
Belgium	Group B winner	10 October 2015	4 (1972, 1980, 1984, 2000)
Wales	Group B runner-up	10 October 2015	0 (debut)
Romania	Group F runner-up	11 October 2015	4 (1984, 1996, 2000, 2008)
Albania	Group I runner-up	11 October 2015	0 (debut)
Germany^[C]	Group D winner	11 October 2015	11 (1972, 1976, 1980, 1984, 1988, 1992, 1996, 2000, 2004, 2008, 2012)
Poland	Group D runner-up	11 October 2015	2 (2008, 2012)
Russia^[D]	Group G runner-up	12 October 2015	10 (1960, 1964, 1968, 1972, 1988, 1992, 1996, 2004, 2008, 2012)
Slovakia^[B]	Group C runner-up	12 October 2015	3 (1960, 1976, 1980)
Croatia	Group H runner-up	13 October 2015	4 (1996, 2004, 2008, 2012)
Turkey	Best third-placed team	13 October 2015	3 (1996, 2000, 2008)
Hungary	Play-off winner	15 November 2015	2 (1964, 1972)
Republic of Ireland	Play-off winner	16 November 2015	2 (1988, 2012)
Sweden	Play-off winner	17 November 2015	5 (1992, 2000, 2004, 2008, 2012)
Ukraine	Play-off winner	17 November 2015	1 (2012)

^ Bold indicates champion for that year. Italic indicates host for that year.
^ ^a ^b From 1960 to 1980, the Czech Republic and Slovakia competed as Czechoslovakia.^[31]
^ From 1972 to 1988, Germany competed as West Germany.
^ From 1960 to 1988, Russia competed as the Soviet Union, and in 1992 as CIS.

Final draw[edit]

The draw for the finals took place at the Palais des Congrès de la Porte Maillot in Paris on 12 December 2015, 18:00 CET.^[4]^[5]^[32]^[33] The 24 qualified teams were drawn into six groups of four teams, with the hosts France being automatically placed in position A1. The remaining teams were seeded into four pots of five (Pot 1) or six teams (Pots 2, 3, and 4). As the title holders, Spain were seeded in Pot 1, while the other 22 teams were seeded according to the UEFA national team coefficients updated after the completion of the qualifying group stage (excluding the play-offs), which were released by UEFA on 14 October 2015.^[34]^[35]^[36]^[37]

Pot 1^[a]
Team	Coeff	Rank^[37]
Spain (holders)^[b]	37,962	2
Germany	40,236	1
England	35,963	3
Portugal	35,138	4
Belgium	34,442	5

Pot 2
Team	Coeff	Rank^[37]
Italy	34,345	6
Russia	31,345	9
Switzerland	31,254	10
Austria	30,932	11
Croatia	30,642	12
Ukraine	30,313	14

Pot 3
Team	Coeff	Rank^[37]
Czech Republic	29,403	15
Sweden	29,028	16
Poland	28,306	17
Romania	28,038	18
Slovakia	27,171	19
Hungary	27,142	20

Pot 4
Team	Coeff	Rank^[37]
Turkey	27,033	22
Republic of Ireland	26,902	23
Iceland	25,388	27
Wales	24,531	28
Albania	23,216	31
Northern Ireland	22,961	33

Automatically selected as a top-seeded team into pot 1, irrespective of their ranking position.

^ Hosts France (coefficient 33,599; rank 8th) belonged to Pot 1 irrespective of their ranking position. Ahead of the draw, they were removed as drawing options from Pot 1, and instead automatically assigned to Group position A1.
^ Defending champions Spain (coefficient 37,962; rank 2nd) were automatically assigned to Pot 1, and could be drawn into either Group position B1, C1, D1, E1 or F1.

Teams were drawn consecutively into Group A to F. First, the Pot 1 teams were assigned to the first positions of their groups, while next the positions of all other teams were drawn separately from Pot 4 to 2 (for the purposes of determining the match schedules in each group).

The draw resulted in the following groups:

Group A
Team
France
Romania
Albania
Switzerland

Group B
Team
England
Russia
Wales
Slovakia

Group C
Team
Germany
Ukraine
Poland
Northern Ireland

Group D
Team
Spain
Czech Republic
Turkey
Croatia

Group E
Team
Belgium
Italy
Republic of Ireland
Sweden

Group F
Team
Portugal
Iceland
Austria
Hungary

Venues[edit]

Ten stadiums were used for the competition. Initially, twelve stadiums were presented for the French bid, chosen on 28 May 2010. These venues were to be whittled down to nine by the end of May 2011, but it was suggested in June 2011 that eleven venues might be used.^[38]^[39] The French Football Federation had to choose which nine would actually be used.

The choice for the first seven was undisputed – the national Stade de France, four newly constructed ones in Lille Metropole (Villeneuve-d'Ascq), Décines-Charpieu (Lyon Metropolis), Nice and Bordeaux, and two stadiums in the two largest cities, Paris and Marseille. After Strasbourg opted out for financial reasons following relegation,^[40] two more venues were selected to be Lens and Nancy, leaving Toulouse and Saint-Étienne as reserve options.

In June 2011, the number of host venues was increased to eleven due to the new tournament format featuring 24 teams, instead of the previous 16.^[41]^[42] The decision meant that the reserve cities of Toulouse and Saint-Étienne joined the list of hosts. Then, in December 2011, Nancy announced its withdrawal from the tournament, after plans for the stadium's renovation were cancelled,^[43] finalising the list of host venues at ten.

Two other possible options, the Stade de la Beaujoire in Nantes and the Stade de la Mosson in Montpellier (venues which were used for the 1998 World Cup) were not chosen. The final list was confirmed by the UEFA Executive Committee on 25 January 2013.^[44] Capacity figures are those for matches at UEFA Euro 2016 and are not necessarily the total capacity that the venues are capable of holding.

Paris (Saint-Denis)	Marseille	Lyon (Décines-Charpieu)	Lille (Villeneuve-d'Ascq)
Stade de France	Stade Vélodrome	Parc Olympique Lyonnais	Stade Pierre-Mauroy
Capacity: 81,338	Capacity: 67,394	Capacity: 59,286	Capacity: 50,186

Paris	Paris Marseille Lyon Lille Bordeaux Saint-Étienne Lens Nice Toulouse		Bordeaux
Parc des Princes			Nouveau Stade de Bordeaux
Capacity: 48,712			Capacity: 42,115

Saint-Étienne	Lens	Nice	Toulouse
Stade Geoffroy-Guichard	Stade Bollaert-Delelis	Stade de Nice	Stadium Municipal
Capacity: 41,965	Capacity: 38,223	Capacity: 35,624	Capacity: 33,150

Team base camps[edit]

Each team had a "team base camp" for its stay between the matches. The teams trained and resided in these locations throughout the tournament, travelling to games staged away from their bases. From an initial list of 66 bases, the 24 participating teams had to confirm their selection with UEFA by 31 January 2016.^[45]

The selected team base camps were announced on 2 March 2016:^[46]

Team	Base camp
Albania	Perros-Guirec
Austria	Mallemort
Belgium	Bordeaux/Le Pian-Médoc
Croatia	Deauville/Cœur Côte Fleurie
Czech Republic	Tours
England	Chantilly
France	Clairefontaine-en-Yvelines
Germany	Évian-les-Bains
Hungary	Tourrettes
Iceland	Annecy/Annecy-le-Vieux
Italy	Grammont/Montpellier
Northern Ireland	Saint-Georges-de-Reneins
Poland	La Baule-Escoublac
Portugal	Marcoussis
Republic of Ireland	Versailles
Romania	Orry-la-Ville
Russia	Croissy-sur-Seine
Slovakia	Vichy
Spain	Saint-Martin-de-Ré
Sweden	Saint-Nazaire/Pornichet
Switzerland	Montpellier/Juvignac
Turkey	Saint-Cyr-sur-Mer
Ukraine	Aix-en-Provence
Wales	Dinard

Finals format[edit]

To accommodate the expansion from a 16-team finals tournament to 24 teams, the format was changed from the one used in 2012 with the addition of two extra groups in the group stage, and an extra round in the knockout phase. The six groups (A to F) still contained four teams each, with the top two from each group still going through to the knockout phase. In the new format, however, the four best third-ranked sides also progressed, leaving 16 teams going into the new round of 16 knockout phase (ahead of the usual quarter-finals, semi-finals and final), and only eight teams going out after the group stage.^[17] The format was the same as the one which was applied to the 1986, 1990, and 1994 FIFA World Cups, except for the absence of a third place play-off.

This format generated a total of 51 matches, compared with 31 matches for the previous 16-team tournament, played over a period of 31 days. UEFA's general secretary Gianni Infantino previously described the format as "not ideal" due to the need for third-ranked teams in the group stage advancing, leading to difficulty in preventing situations where teams might be able to know in advance what results they needed to progress out of the group; this led to the risk of a lack of suspense for fans, or even the prospect of mutually beneficial collusion between teams.^[17]

Squads[edit]

Each national team had to submit a squad of 23 players, three of whom had to be goalkeepers, at least ten days before the opening match of the tournament.^[47] If a player became injured or ill severely enough to prevent his participation in the tournament before his team's first match, he could be replaced by another player.^[16]

Match officials[edit]

On 15 December 2015, UEFA named eighteen referees for Euro 2016.^[48] The full referee teams were announced on 1 March 2016.^[49]^[50] England was the only country to have two referees in the tournament.

Hungarian referee Viktor Kassai was chosen to officiate the opener between France and Romania.^[51] English referee Mark Clattenburg was chosen to officiate the final between Portugal and France.^[52]

Country	Referee	Assistant referees	Additional assistant referees	Matches assigned^[51]
England	Martin Atkinson	Michael Mullarkey Stephen Child Gary Beswick (standby)	Michael Oliver Craig Pawson	Germany–Ukraine (Group C) Hungary–Portugal (Group F) Wales–Northern Ireland (Round of 16)
Germany	Felix Brych	Mark Borsch Stefan Lupp Marco Achmüller (standby)	Bastian Dankert Marco Fritz	England–Wales (Group B) Sweden–Belgium (Group E) Poland–Portugal (Quarter-finals)
Turkey	Cüneyt Çakır	Bahattin Duran Tarık Ongun Mustafa Emre Eyisoy (standby)	Hüseyin Göçek Barış Şimşek	Portugal–Iceland (Group F) Belgium–Republic of Ireland (Group E) Italy–Spain (Round of 16)
England	Mark Clattenburg	Simon Beck Jake Collin Stuart Burt (standby)	Anthony Taylor Andre Marriner	Belgium–Italy (Group E) Czech Republic–Croatia (Group D) Switzerland–Poland (Round of 16) Portugal–France (Final)
Scotland	Willie Collum	Damien MacGraith Francis Connor Douglas Ross (standby)	Bobby Madden John Beaton	France–Albania (Group A) Czech Republic–Turkey (Group D)
Sweden	Jonas Eriksson	Mathias Klasenius Daniel Wärnmark Mehmet Culum (standby)	Stefan Johannesson Markus Strömbergsson	Turkey–Croatia (Group D) Russia–Wales (Group B) Portugal–Wales (Semi-finals)
Romania	Ovidiu Hațegan	Octavian Șovre Sebastian Gheorghe Radu Ghinguleac (standby)	Alexandru Tudor Sebastian Colțescu	Poland–Northern Ireland (Group C) Italy–Republic of Ireland (Group E)
Russia	Sergei Karasev	~~Anton Averyanov~~ Tikhon Kalugin Nikolai Golubev^[A]	Sergey Lapochkin Sergey Ivanov	Romania–Switzerland (Group A) Iceland–Hungary (Group F)
Hungary	Viktor Kassai	György Ring Vencel Tóth István Albert (standby)	Tamás Bognár Ádám Farkas	France–Romania (Group A) Italy–Sweden (Group E) Germany–Italy (Quarter-finals)
Czech Republic	Pavel Královec	Roman Slyško ~~Martin Wilczek~~ Tomáš Mokrusch^[B]	Petr Ardeleánu Michal Paták	Ukraine–Northern Ireland (Group C) Romania–Albania (Group A)
Netherlands	Björn Kuipers	Sander van Roekel Erwin Zeinstra Mario Diks (standby)	Pol van Boekel Richard Liesveld	Germany–Poland (Group C) Croatia–Spain (Group D) France–Iceland (Quarter-finals)
Poland	Szymon Marciniak	Paweł Sokolnicki Tomasz Listkiewicz Radosław Siejka (standby)	Paweł Raczkowski Tomasz Musiał	Spain–Czech Republic (Group D) Iceland–Austria (Group F) Germany–Slovakia (Round of 16)
Serbia	Milorad Mažić	Milovan Ristić Dalibor Đurđević Nemanja Petrović (standby)	Danilo Grujić Nenad Đokić	Republic of Ireland–Sweden (Group E) Spain–Turkey (Group D) Hungary–Belgium (Round of 16)
Norway	Svein Oddvar Moen	Kim Thomas Haglund Frank Andås Sven Erik Midthjell (standby)	Ken Henry Johnsen Svein-Erik Edvartsen	Wales–Slovakia (Group B) Ukraine–Poland (Group C)
Italy	Nicola Rizzoli	Elenito Di Liberatore Mauro Tonolini Gianluca Cariolato (standby)	~~Luca Banti~~ Antonio Damato Daniele Orsato^[C]	England–Russia (Group B) Portugal–Austria (Group F) France–Republic of Ireland (Round of 16) Germany–France (Semi-finals)
Slovenia	Damir Skomina	Jure Praprotnik Robert Vukan Bojan Ul (standby)	Matej Jug Slavko Vinčić	Russia–Slovakia (Group B) Switzerland–France (Group A) England–Iceland (Round of 16) Wales–Belgium (Quarter-finals)
France	Clément Turpin	Frédéric Cano Nicolas Danos Cyril Gringore (standby)	Benoît Bastien Fredy Fautrel	Austria–Hungary (Group F) Northern Ireland–Germany (Group C)
Spain	Carlos Velasco Carballo	Roberto Alonso Fernández Juan Carlos Yuste Jiménez Raúl Cabañero Martínez (standby)	Jesús Gil Manzano Carlos del Cerro Grande	Albania–Switzerland (Group A) Slovakia–England (Group B) Croatia–Portugal (Round of 16)

^ Anton Averyanov was replaced by Nikolai Golubev after failing a fitness test.^[53]
^ Martin Wilczek was replaced by Tomáš Mokrusch after failing a fitness test.^[54]
^ Luca Banti was replaced by Daniele Orsato after withdrawing for personal reasons.^[55]

Two match officials, who serve only as fourth officials, and two reserve assistant referees were also named:^[49]

Country	Fourth official	Reserve assistant referee
Belarus	Aleksei Kulbakov	Vitali Maliutsin
Greece	Anastasios Sidiropoulos	Damianos Efthymiadis

Opening ceremony[edit]

An hour before the first match at the Stade de France on 10 June 2016, 20:00 CEST, the opening ceremony of the tournament was held. The ceremony featuring 600 dancers, 150 of which were involved in a traditional French dance before an uptempo version of "La Vie en rose" by French singer Édith Piaf was played. Following this, French DJ David Guetta took to the stage, he performed shortened versions of some of his hits before he was joined on stage by Swedish singer Zara Larsson to perform the official song of the tournament "This One's for You".

David Guetta's setlist^[56]

"I Gotta Feeling"
"Play Hard"
"Bang My Head"
"Titanium"
"This One's for You" (with Zara Larsson)

The ceremony ended with a fly over from the Patrouille Acrobatique de France of the French Air Force, trailing the French blue, white, and red. The ceremony also featured a tribute to the victims of the November 2015 Paris attacks. Following the ceremony, the hosts France beat Romania 2–1 in the opening game of the tournament.^[57]^[58]

Group stage[edit]

UEFA announced the tournament schedule on 25 April 2014,^[59]^[60] which was confirmed on 12 December 2015, after the final draw.^[61]

Group winners, runners-up, and the best four third-placed teams advanced to the Round of 16.

All times are local, CEST (UTC+2).

Tiebreakers[edit]

If two or more teams were equal on points on completion of the group matches, the following tie-breaking criteria would be applied:^[16]

Higher number of points obtained in the matches played between the teams in question;
Superior goal difference resulting from the matches played between the teams in question;
Higher number of goals scored in the matches played between the teams in question;
If, after having applied criteria 1 to 3, teams still had an equal ranking (e.g. if criteria 1 to 3 were applied to three teams that were level on points initially and these criteria separated one team from the other two who still have an equal ranking), criteria 1 to 3 would be reapplied exclusively to the matches between the teams who were still level to determine their final rankings. If this procedure did not lead to a decision, criteria 5 to 9 would apply;
Superior goal difference in all group matches;
Higher number of goals scored in all group matches;
If only two teams had the same number of points, and they were tied according to criteria 1–6 after having met in the last round of the group stage, their ranking would be determined by a penalty shoot-out. (This criterion would not be used if more than two teams had the same number of points.);
Fair play conduct (1 point for a single yellow card, 3 points for a red card as a consequence of two yellow cards, 3 points for a direct red card);
Position in the UEFA national team coefficient ranking system.

Group A[edit]

Pos	Team v t e	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	France (H)	3	2	1	0	4	1	+3	7	Advance to knockout phase
2	Switzerland	3	1	2	0	2	1	+1	5	Advance to knockout phase
3	Albania	3	1	0	2	1	3	−2	3
4	Romania	3	0	1	2	2	4	−2	1

Source: UEFA
(H) Hosts

10 June 2016

21:00

France	2–1	Romania
Giroud 57' Payet 89'	Report	Stancu 65' (pen.)

Stade de France, Saint-Denis

Attendance: 75,113^[62]

Referee: Viktor Kassai (Hungary)

11 June 2016