by Olivia | January 11, 2020 9:50 pm
The world of football loves its tournaments. When the large tournaments are on, people are often glued to their TV screens, waiting for the matches to unfold. They’re happening less often than, for example, horse races which attract a lot of fans each year (if you want to read more about them, go to http://horsesinthesouth.com/blog/cheltenham-festival-hurdle-horse-races-2021/[1]).
As far as football is concerned, people are really passionate about it and the other part is because they have money on the line. Yes, sports betting is a large part of the football culture and is almost always associated with football. And nowadays, there are so many ways one can place a bet. Whether they do it offline or online, punters educate themselves by reading useful guides, much like the guide we’ve provided our readers with about the draw no bet betting technique[2]. And what do people do after reading the useful guides? They browse the web in order to find great bookmakers like Star Sports[3].
With every European Championship, football fans come together to watch, bet and simply cheer their national teams on. But, the EUROS is a tournament which has its own quirks which you may not know about. Here are some of the most interesting facts surrounding the EUROS you should know about.
The first European Championship didn’t have that many teams, really. There were only four teams in the championship and that was back in 1960. The competition evolved over the years to include more teams, like 8, for example. Yet, for a competition which now has 55 teams to have started with four is almost unimaginable for today’s viewers. Imagine the EUROS with only four teams. The competition would be rather short and most likely nowhere near as entertaining or profitable.
When the game went into extended time and if no goals were scored, or goals were scored but the game was still a tie, a coin toss would take place. In 1968, Italy won a coin toss semi-finals against the USSR. Imagine being the captain of that team and having to go to the field to tell the crowd that you won by coin toss. Another interesting fact is that the Italian club Perugia fired Korean footballer Ahn Jung-kwan for scoring the winning goal against Italy at the 2002 World Cup, thus knocking them out of the tournament. You win some, you lose some.
This isn’t that strange, but it actually is because Denmark didn’t even qualify for the 1992 European Championship. They did get a spot, however, because a war broke out in Yugoslavia, which lead to its dissolution. Denmark got a spot instead of Yugoslavia. Denmark also won that tournament, which was strange because they failed to qualify. They definitely found their spirit and game once given the chance.
The anniversary of the Euros, the 60th anniversary, will be taking place in 12 host countries, and not a single one. It is a one off celebration event, which will not be repeated, at least not for a while longer, due to multiple practical reasons. Each of the championships had a single host, which made it a lot simpler, for both the hosts and most definitely the teams.
People expect modern football matches to have the highest attendance but they are wrong. The highest attended match ever was in 1968, and the match was played between Scotland and England. This is an old rivalry, who would’ve thought and it being such an important match, there was a crowd of almost 130,000 people.
These are some interesting facts about the European Championship which you might not have known. The Euros are interesting and are evolving, making new facts along the way.
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