Euro 2016: 9 things you probably didn't know about the history of the tournament

#8 An affair of four

The UEFA Euro 2016 saw 24 teams participate in the group stages

Modern day European Championship finals are typically held among 16 teams divided into 4 groups. But until the 1976 Euro was held in Yugoslavia, the finals only consisted of four teams that squared off against each other in four knockout games. Two semi-finals decided the finalists, whilst the losers of those two matches faced each other in a third place playoff.

This changed in the 1980 (Italy) edition of the tournament when 8 teams were let through and divided into two groups of four. The number doubled to 16 in 1996 (England). Eight more teams were added to this in the 2016 France edition.

Number of teams in the tournaments

YEAR	HOSTS	NUMBER OF TEAMS
1960	FRANCE	4
1964	SPAIN	4
1968	ITALY	4
1972	WEST GERMANY (NOW BELGIUM)	4
1976	YUGOSLAVIA	4
1980	ITALY	8
1984	FRANCE	8
1988	WEST GERMANY	8
1992	SWEDEN	8
1996	ENGLAND	16
2000	BELGIUM & NETHERLANDS	16
2004	PORTUGAL	16
2008	AUSTRIA & SWITZERLAND	16
2012	POLAND & UKRAINE	16
2016	FRANCE	24