The UEFA Women's European Championship

The UEFA Women's European Championship — also called the UEFA Women's EURO — is now usually held every four years. The tournament is contested by 16 national teams that qualify through UEFA's European Qualifiers, with the host nation qualifying automatically. The full tournament is held in one host country, or occasionally a small group of host countries, across roughly a month in the summer. The competition is run by UEFA, European football's governing body, and is the continental equivalent of the FIFA Women's World Cup for European national teams.

The tournament was first held in 1984, when Sweden beat England on penalties across a two-legged final — the only Women's EURO final played over two legs. The competition began as the "European Competition for Women's Football" before the UEFA Women's Championship and UEFA Women's EURO names became established. The Women's Euros has expanded significantly since its launch, from a four-team knockout stage in the early editions to 16 teams since 2017. The 2025 edition was held in Switzerland.

The 16 teams are drawn into four groups of four. Each team plays the others in their group once across three group-stage matches. The top two teams from each group advance to the quarter-finals, with the knockout stage continuing through the semi-finals to the final. There is no third-place match. The full tournament is usually played in one host nation over about three to four weeks. Three points are awarded for a group-stage win and one for a draw.

The knockout matches use extra time and penalty shoot-outs if needed. The 2025 final between England and Spain ended 1-1 after extra time and went to penalties, with England winning 3-1 to retain the trophy they first won in 2022. The format has been expanded over the years — from four teams (1984-95) to eight teams (1997-2005) to 12 teams (2009-13) to the current 16-team format (2017 onwards). The expansion has paralleled the wider growth of women's football across Europe.

The qualifying competition begins in the years before each tournament and involves UEFA member national teams. The exact format has varied across editions. In the current system, teams compete in UEFA Women's European Qualifiers arranged in leagues, with some teams qualifying directly and others entering play-offs. The host nation qualifies automatically. The number of qualifying places has varied with the tournament size — currently 15 qualifiers plus the hosts make up the 16-team finals tournament.

Women's EURO qualifying is separate from UEFA's qualifying process for the FIFA Women's World Cup, although both are now organised under UEFA's Women's Nations League and European Qualifiers framework. UEFA also runs the UEFA Women's Nations League, launched in 2023, which ranks teams into leagues, creates promotion and relegation between levels, and can affect play-off routes or Olympic qualification depending on the cycle.

The Women's Euros developed after women's football gradually gained official recognition across Europe in the 1970s. Before UEFA created its own competition, unofficial European tournaments had been organised independently. UEFA's first women's national-team competition began with qualifying in 1982 and concluded in 1984, when Sweden beat England across a two-legged final.

The tournament has grown significantly in the modern era. The 2022 Euros in England set major attendance and broadcast records, including a record crowd of 87,192 for the final at Wembley. The 2025 Euros in Switzerland then set a new overall Women's EURO attendance record, with 657,291 spectators across 31 matches. The competition's expansion to 16 teams in 2017 has produced a deeper and more competitive field, with multiple winners across the past three editions after Germany's six-in-a-row from 1995 to 2013.