UEFA Euro 1996

UEFA Euro 96

England '96
160px UEFA Euro 1996 official logo Football Comes Home
Tournament details
Host country	England
Dates	8 June – 30 June
Teams	16
Venue(s)	8 (in 8 host cities)
Final positions
Champions	Germany (3rd title)
Runners-up	Czech Republic
Tournament statistics
Matches played	31
Goals scored	64 (2.06 per match)
Attendance	1,275,857 (41,157 per match)
Top scorer(s)	Alan Shearer (5 goals)
Best player	Matthias Sammer

The 1996 UEFA European Football Championship, commonly referred to as Euro 96, was the 10th UEFA European Championship, a quadrennial football tournament contested by European nations. It took place in England from 8 to 30 June 1996.

It was the first European Championship to feature 16 finalists, following UEFA's decision to expand the tournament from eight teams. Games were staged in eight cities and, although not all games were sold out, the tournament holds the European Championship's second-highest aggregate attendance (1,276,000) and average per game (41,158) for the 16-team format, surpassed only in 2012.

Germany won the tournament, beating the Czech Republic 2–1 in the final with a golden goal during extra time; this was the first major competition to be decided using this method. This was Germany's first major title won as a unified nation.

Bid process

At the time of the bid process, the event was still not confirmed to include sixteen teams. Instead, the bids were largely prepared as if hosting an eight-team tournament, meaning only four venues were due to be required. All candidates had to submit their plans by 10 December 1991.

The hosting of the event was contested by five bids: Austria, England, Greece, the Netherlands and Portugal. The English bid was selected by the UEFA Executive Committee at a meeting in Lisbon on 5 May 1992. In the year preceding the decision, the English FA had dropped out of their plans to also bid for the 1998 World Cup in order to gain the support of other UEFA members who were to bid for that event.

Summary

First round

The hosts, England, drew 1–1 with Switzerland in the opening match of Group A when Alan Shearer's 23rd-minute goal was equalled by a late Kubilay Türkyilmaz penalty kick. England defeated rival Scotland 2–0 in their next game, and then produced one of their finest performances ever with a 4–1 win over the Netherlands. Patrick Kluivert's late goal for the Netherlands secured his team second place in the group and ensured that Scotland would exit another major competition on goal difference.

Group A game Scotland v Netherlands at Villa Park

Group B had Western European France and Spain, along with Balkan World Cup participants Romania and Bulgaria. France and Spain dominated the group, with France avenging Bulgaria for the 1994 qualification debacle, and World Cup quarter-finalists Romania going home, with no points and only one goal scored.

Groups C and D saw the Czech Republic and Croatia, whose national teams had only recently come into existence, qualify for the knockout stages. The Czechs lost to Germany, the eventual group winners, in their opener, but then defeated Italy and drew with Russia. Italy's defeat meant they had to beat Germany in their final game to progress, but the World Cup finalists could only manage a 0–0 draw and were eliminated. In Group D, Croatia qualified for the quarter-finals, with wins over Turkey (1–0) and Denmark (3–0). The loss to the Croats ultimately sent the Danes, the surprise champions of 1992, home. Turkey became the first team since the introduction of a group stage to be eliminated without gaining a point or scoring a goal.

The other three quarter-finalists were Portugal (whose "Golden Generation" was competing at its first major tournament), Spain, and a France team featuring a young Zinedine Zidane.

Quarter-finals and semi-finals

The knockout stages were characterised by negative, defensive play; as a result, only nine goals were scored in the seven games and four of the matches were decided on penalties. The first quarter-final between the hosts and Spain ended goalless, after Spain had two goals disallowed and two claims for a penalty denied. The English progressed 4–2 on spot kicks. France and Netherlands also played out a 0–0 draw, with France winning the penalty shootout 5–4. Jürgen Klinsmann opened the scoring for Germany in their match against Croatia. A goal from Davor Šuker evened the score after 51 minutes, before Matthias Sammer of Germany scored eight minutes later, and the game ended 2–1 to Germany. Czech Republic progressed after beating Portugal 1–0.

View of Wembley Stadium from Wembley Way before the Germany v England semi-final

The first semi-final, featuring France and Czech Republic, resulted in another 0–0 draw and penalties. Reynald Pedros was the one player to miss in the shootout, as Czech Republic won the penalty shoot-out 6–5. The other semi-final was a repeat of the 1990 World Cup semi-final between Germany and England. Alan Shearer headed in, after three minutes to give his side the lead, but Stefan Kuntz evened the score less than 15 minutes later, and the score remained 1–1 after 90 minutes. In extra time, Paul Gascoigne came very close to scoring a golden goal, but fractionally missed a cross from Shearer in front of the empty goal, Darren Anderton hit the post, and Kuntz had a goal disallowed for pushing. Neither team was able to find a second goal. In penalties, both sides scored their first five kicks, but in the sixth round, Gareth Southgate had his penalty saved, allowing Andreas Möller to score the winning goal.

Final

The final saw the Czech Republic hoping to repeat Euro 1976 when Czechoslovakia defeated West Germany; the Germans were aiming to win their third European Championship. Patrik Berger scored from a penalty in 59th minute to put the Czechs ahead. German substitute Oliver Bierhoff then scored to make it 1–1. Five minutes into extra time, Bierhoff's shot was mishandled by Czech goalkeeper Kouba and the ball ended up in the back of the net for the first golden goal in the history of the competition. Germany were European champions again, the first time as a unified country.

Qualification

Main article: UEFA Euro 1996 qualifying

On 30 November 1992, UEFA formally decided to expand the tournament to sixteen teams. UEFA cited the increased number of international teams following the recent break up of the Soviet Union and of Yugoslavia – rising from 33 UEFA members in 1988 to 48 by 1994 – as a driving factor behind the expansion. Forty-seven teams ultimately entered to compete for the fifteen remaining places in the finals, alongside hosts England.

The draw for the qualifying competition took place in Manchester on 22 January 1994. The teams were divided into eight groups, each containing either six or five teams. The qualifying process began in April 1994 and concluded in December 1995. At the conclusion of the qualifying group stage in November 1994, the eight group winners qualified automatically, along with the six highest ranked second placed teams. The remaining two second placed teams – The Netherlands and the Republic of Ireland – contested a one-off play-off match in England to decide the final qualifier.

Qualified teams

See also: UEFA Euro 1996 squads

The following sixteen teams qualified for the finals:

Country	Qualified as	Date qualification was secured	Previous appearances in tournament1, 2
England	00Hosts	5 May 1992	4 (1968, 1980, 1988, 1992)
Romania	10Group 1 winner	15 November 1995	1 (1984)
France	05Group 1 runners-up	15 November 1995	3 (1960, 1984, 1992)
Spain	13Group 2 winner	15 November 1995	4 (1964, 1980, 1984, 1988)
Denmark	04Group 2 runners-up	15 November 1995	4 (1964, 1984, 1988, 1992)
Switzerland	14Group 3 winner	11 October 1995	0 (debut)
Turkey	15Group 3 runners-up	15 November 1995	0 (debut)
Croatia	02Group 4 winner	15 November 1995	0 (debut)
Italy	07Group 4 runners-up	15 November 1995	3 (1968, 1980, 1988)
Czech Republic3	03Group 5 winner	15 November 1995	3 (1960, 1976, 1980)
Portugal	09Group 6 winner	15 November 1995	1 (1984)
Germany4	06Group 7 winner	15 November 1995	6 (1972, 1976, 1980, 1984, 1988, 1992)
Bulgaria	01Group 7 runners-up	15 November 1995	0 (debut)
Russia5	11Group 8 winner	15 November 1995	6 (1960, 1964, 1968, 1972, 1988, 1992)
Scotland	12Group 8 runners-up	15 November 1995	1 (1992)
Netherlands	08Play-off winner	13 December 1995	4 (1976, 1980, 1988, 1992)

¹ Bold indicates champion for that year

² Italic indicates host for that year

³ from 1960 to 1992, Czech Republic competed in the European Championship final tournament as Czechoslovakia

⁴ from 1972 to 1988, Germany competed in the European Championship final tournament as West Germany

⁵ from 1960 to 1988, Russia competed in the European Championship final tournament as the Soviet Union and in 1992 as the Commonwealth of Independent States

With the extended format, three teams were able to qualify for their first European Championship: Bulgaria, Switzerland and Turkey. Croatia and Russia competed for the first time in their own right since the dissolution of Yugoslavia and the Soviet Union (though the Russian team is considered by FIFA to be the direct descendant of the Soviet Union and CIS teams that had appeared in six past tournaments). Seven of the eight participants at the previous tournament in 1992 were again present, with only Sweden – despite also having finished third in the World Cup two years earlier – missing out.

Final draw

The draw for the final tournament took place on 17 December 1995 at the International Convention Centre in Birmingham. Only four teams were seeded: England (as hosts), Denmark (as holders), Spain and Germany. The remaining twelve teams were all unseeded and could be drawn in any group.

In the draw procedure, the unseeded teams were drawn one-by-one into each of the four groups before finally the four seeds were then drawn out. While it was decreed in advance that England's group would be Group A, the remaining three groups were then drawn out a letter to decide the name of their group, and therefore determine what venues they would play at. The balls were drawn by UEFA figures Gerhard Aigner and Lennart Johansson.

Venues

Since the implementation of the Taylor Report in 1990, following the 1989 Hillsborough stadium disaster, England now had enough all-seater stadia of sufficient capacity to hold an expanded tournament due to the necessary stadium refurbishment by its leading clubs. The stadium capacities listed in the table are for the time of the tournament.

London Manchester Liverpool Birmingham Leeds Sheffield Newcastle Nottingham		London	Manchester
		Wembley Stadium Capacity: 76,567	Old Trafford Capacity: 55,000
		Liverpool	Birmingham
		Anfield Capacity: 42,730	Villa Park Capacity: 40,310
Leeds	Sheffield	Nottingham	Newcastle
Elland Road Planned capacity: 40,204	Hillsborough Capacity: 39,859	City Ground Capacity: 30,539	St James' Park Capacity: 36,649

Match ball

Main article: Adidas Questra

A custom version of the Adidas Questra, the Questra Europa, was the official match ball of the championships. The design of the ball included a reworking of the England badge, and was the first coloured ball in a major football tournament.

Match officials

Country	Referee	Assistants		Matches refereed
Austria	Gerd Grabher	Egon Bereuter	Manfred Zeiszer	Netherlands 1–4 England
Belarus	Vadim Zhuk	Yury Dupanau	Aleh Chykun	France 1–1 Spain
Belgium	Guy Goethals	Marc Van Den Broeck	Stany Op De Beeck	Italy 0–0 Germany
Bulgaria	Atanas Uzunov	Ivan Borissov Lekov	Iordan Yordanov	Switzerland 0–0 Netherlands
Czech Republic	Václav Krondl	Milan Brabec	Otakar Drastik	Scotland 1–0 Switzerland
Denmark	Peter Mikkelsen Kim Milton Nielsen	Jens Larsen Carl-Johan Christensen Meyer	Henning Knudsen Torben Siersen	Bulgaria 1–0 Romania Russia 0–3 Germany
England	David Elleray Dermot Gallagher	Anthony Bates Philip Joslin	Peter Walton Mark Warren	Germany 2–0 Czech Republic France 3–1 Bulgaria
France	Marc Batta	Pierre Ufrasi	Jacques Mas	Croatia 3–0 Denmark Spain 0–0 England (Quarter-final)
Germany	Hellmut Krug Bernd Heynemann	Klaus Plettenberg Hans Wolf	Egbert Engler Harald Sather	Romania 0–1 France Czech Republic 1–0 Portugal Croatia 0–3 Portugal
Hungary	Sándor Puhl	Laszlo Hamar	Imre Bozóky	Portugal 1–0 Turkey England 1–1 Germany (Semi-final)
Italy	Pierluigi Pairetto Piero Ceccarini	Donato Nicoletti Enrico Preziosi	Tullio Manfredini Fabrizio Zanforlin	Spain 1–1 Bulgaria Czech Republic 1–2 Germany (Final) Scotland 0–2 England
Netherlands	Mario van der Ende	Jan Dolstra	Berend Talens	Denmark 1–1 Portugal
Portugal	José Rosa dos Santos	Valdemar Aguiar Pinto Lopes	Antonio Guedes Gomes De Carvalho	Sweden 2–1 England
Russia	Nikolai Levnikov	Serguei Foursa	Sergei Frantsuzov	Turkey 0–3 Denmark
Scotland	Leslie Mottram	Robert Orr	John Fleming	Italy 2–1 Russia France 0–0 Czech Republic (Semi-final)
Spain	Manuel Díaz Vega Antonio López Nieto	Joaquin Olmos Gonzalez Victoriano Giraldez Carrasco	Paolo Calcagno Manuel Lopez Fernandez	England 1–1 Switzerland Czech Republic 2–1 Italy France 0–0 Netherlands (Quarter-final)
Sweden	Anders Frisk Leif Sundell	Mikael Nilsson Kenneth Petersson	Sten Samuelsson Mikael Hansson	Russia 3–3 Czech Republic Netherlands 0–0 Scotland Germany 2–1 Croatia (Quarter-final)
Switzerland	Serge Muhmenthaler	Ernst Felder	Martin Freiburghaus	Turkey 0–1 Croatia
Turkey	Ahmet Çakar	Akif Ugurdur	Turgay Güdü	Romania 1–2 Spain

Fourth officials

Country	Fourth officials
Austria	Günter Benkö
Belgium	Michel Piraux
Bulgaria	Stefan Ormandjiev
Belarus	Kazimir Znaydinsky
Czech Republic	Jiři Ulrich
Denmark	Knud Erik Fisker Lars Gerner
England	Paul Durkin Stephen Lodge
France	Alain Sars
Germany	Hermann Albrecht Hartmut Strampe
Hungary	Sándor Piller
Italy	Marcello Nicchi Alfredo Trentalange
Netherlands	René Temmink
Portugal	Jorge Emanuel Monteiro Coroado
Russia	Serguei Khussainov
Scotland	Hugh Dallas
Spain	José María García-Aranda Juan Ansuategui Roca
Sweden	Karl-Erik Nilsson Morgan Norman
Switzerland	Urs Meier
Turkey	Oğuz Sarvan

Results

Finishing positions of the participating teams

Group stage

The teams finishing in the top two positions in each of the four groups progress to the quarter-finals, while the bottom two teams in each group were eliminated from the tournament.

For the first time at a European Championship three points were awarded for a win, with one for a draw and a none for a defeat. If two or more teams were equal on points on completion of the group matches, the following criteria were applied to determine the rankings:

1. Higher number of points obtained in the matches played between the teams in question;
2. Superior goal difference resulting from the matches played between the teams in question (if more than two teams finish equal on points);
3. Higher number of goals scored in the matches played between the teams in question (if more than two teams finish equal on points);
4. If, after having applied criteria 1 to 3 to more than two teams, two teams still have an equal ranking, criteria 1 to 3 are reapplied exclusively to the matches between the two teams in question to determine the final rankings of the two teams. If this procedure does not lead to a decision, criteria 5 to 9 apply in the order given;
5. Superior goal difference in all group matches;
6. Higher number of goals scored in all group matches;
7. Position using UEFA's national team coefficient ranking system calculated using average points per game from: the Euro 1992 qualifying stage and final tournament, the 1994 World Cup qualifying stage and final tournament and the Euro 1996 qualifying stage.
8. Fair play conduct of the teams (final tournament);
9. Drawing of lots.

Key to colours in group tables
Team progressed to the quarter-finals

Group A

Main article: UEFA Euro 1996 Group A

Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts
England	3	2	1	0	7	2	+5	7
Netherlands	3	1	1	1	3	4	−1	4
Scotland	3	1	1	1	1	2	−1	4
Switzerland	3	0	1	2	1	4	−3	1

8 June 1996
England	1–1	Switzerland
10 June 1996
Netherlands	0–0	Scotland
13 June 1996
Switzerland	0–2	Netherlands
15 June 1996
Scotland	0–2	England
18 June 1996
Scotland	1–0	Switzerland
Netherlands	1–4	England

Group B

Main article: UEFA Euro 1996 Group B

Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts
France	3	2	1	0	5	2	+3	7
Spain	3	1	2	0	4	3	+1	5
Bulgaria	3	1	1	1	3	4	–1	4
Romania	3	0	0	3	1	4	–3	0

9 June 1996
Spain	1–1	Bulgaria
10 June 1996
Romania	0–1	France
13 June 1996
Bulgaria	1–0	Romania
15 June 1996
France	1–1	Spain
18 June 1996
France	3–1	Bulgaria
Romania	1–2	Spain

Group C

Main article: UEFA Euro 1996 Group C

Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts
Germany	3	2	1	0	5	0	+5	7
Czech Republic	3	1	1	1	5	6	–1	4
Italy	3	1	1	1	3	3	0	4
Russia	3	0	1	2	4	8	–4	1

9 June 1996
Germany	2–0	Czech Republic
11 June 1996
Italy	2–1	Russia
14 June 1996
Czech Republic	2–1	Italy
16 June 1996
Russia	0–3	Germany
19 June 1996
Russia	3–3	Czech Republic
Italy	0–0	Germany

Group D

Main article: UEFA Euro 1996 Group D

Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts
Portugal	3	2	1	0	5	1	+4	7
Croatia	3	2	0	1	4	3	+1	6
Denmark	3	1	1	1	4	4	0	4
Turkey	3	0	0	3	0	5	–5	0

9 June 1996
Denmark	1–1	Portugal
11 June 1996
Turkey	0–1	Croatia
14 June 1996
Portugal	1–0	Turkey
16 June 1996
Croatia	3–0	Denmark
19 June 1996
Croatia	0–3	Portugal
Turkey	0–3	Denmark

Knockout stage

Main article: UEFA Euro 1996 knockout stage

The knockout stage was a single-elimination tournament involving the eight teams that qualified from the group stage of the tournament. There were three rounds of matches, with each round eliminating half of the teams entering that round, culminating in the final to decide the champions.

Any game in the knockout stage that was undecided by the end of the regular 90 minutes, was followed by up to thirty minutes of extra time (two 15-minute halves). For the first time in a major football competition, the golden goal system was applied, whereby the match would immediately end upon either team scoring during the extra time period with the goalscoring team becoming the winner. If scores were still level after 30 minutes extra time, there would be a penalty shoot-out (at least five penalties each, and more if necessary) to determine the winner.

	Quarter-finals				Semi-finals				Final
	22 June – Liverpool
	France (p)	0 (5)
					26 June – Manchester
	Netherlands	0 (4)
					France	0 (5)
	23 June – Birmingham
					Czech Republic (p)	0 (6)
	Czech Republic	1
									30 June – London
	Portugal	0
									Czech Republic	1
	23 June – Manchester
									Germany (aet)	2
	Germany	2
					26 June – London
	Croatia	1
					Germany (p)	1 (6)
	22 June – London
					England	1 (5)
	Spain	0 (2)
	England (p)	0 (4)

All times are British Summer Time (UTC+1)

Quarter-finals

Spain v England

22 June 1996 16:00

Spain	0–0 (a.e.t.)	England
	Report
	Penalties
Hierro Amor Belsué Nadal	2–4	Shearer Platt Pearce Gascoigne

Wembley Stadium, London Attendance: 75,440 Referee: Marc Batta (France)

---

France v Netherlands

22 June 1996 19:30

France	0–0 (a.e.t.)	Netherlands
	Report
	Penalties
Zidane Djorkaeff Lizarazu Guérin Blanc	5–4	de Kock R. de Boer Kluivert Seedorf Blind

Anfield, Liverpool Attendance: 37,465 Referee: Antonio López Nieto (Spain)

---

Germany v Croatia

23 June 1996 16:00

Germany	2–1	Croatia
Klinsmann  20' (pen.) Sammer  59'	Report	Šuker  51'

Old Trafford, Manchester Attendance: 43,412 Referee: Leif Sundell (Sweden)

---

Czech Republic v Portugal

23 June 1996 19:30

Czech Republic	1–0	Portugal
Poborský  53'	Report

Villa Park, Birmingham Attendance: 26,832 Referee: Hellmut Krug (Germany)

Semi-finals

France v Czech Republic

26 June 1996 17:00

France	0–0 (a.e.t.)	Czech Republic
	Report
	Penalties
Zidane Djorkaeff Lizarazu Guérin Blanc Pedros	5–6	Kubík Nedvěd Berger Poborský Rada Kadlec

Old Trafford, Manchester Attendance: 43,877 Referee: Leslie Mottram (Scotland)

---

Germany v England

26 June 1996 20:30

Germany	1–1 (a.e.t.)	England
Kuntz  16'	Report	Shearer  3'
	Penalties
Häßler Strunz Reuter Ziege Kuntz Möller	6–5	Shearer Platt Pearce Gascoigne Sheringham Southgate

Wembley Stadium, London Attendance: 75,862 Referee: Sándor Puhl (Hungary)

Final

Main article: UEFA Euro 1996 Final

Czech Republic v Germany

30 June 1996 20:00

Czech Republic	1–2 (a.e.t.)	Germany
Berger  59' (pen.)	Report	Bierhoff  73'  95'

Wembley Stadium, London Attendance: 73,611 Referee: Pierluigi Pairetto (Italy)

Statistics

Goalscorers

Alan Shearer received the Golden Boot award for scoring five goals. In total, 64 goals were scored by 48 different players, with only one of them credited as own goal.

5 goals

• Alan Shearer

3 goals

• Hristo Stoichkov
• Davor Šuker

• Brian Laudrup
• Jürgen Klinsmann

2 goals

• Teddy Sheringham
• Oliver Bierhoff

• Matthias Sammer
• Pierluigi Casiraghi

1 goal

• Zvonimir Boban
• Goran Vlaović
• Radek Bejbl
• Patrik Berger
• Pavel Kuka
• Pavel Nedvěd
• Karel Poborský
• Vladimír Šmicer
• Jan Suchopárek
• Allan Nielsen
• Paul Gascoigne
• Laurent Blanc
• Youri Djorkaeff

• Christophe Dugarry
• Patrice Loko
• Stefan Kuntz
• Andreas Möller
• Christian Ziege
• Enrico Chiesa
• Dennis Bergkamp
• Jordi Cruyff
• Patrick Kluivert
• Fernando Couto
• Domingos
• Luís Figo
• João Pinto

• Sá Pinto
• Florin Răducioiu
• Vladimir Beschastnykh
• Aleksandr Mostovoi
• Omari Tetradze
• Ilya Tsymbalar
• Ally McCoist
• Alfonso
• Guillermo Amor
• José Luis Caminero
• Javier Manjarín
• Kubilay Türkyilmaz

Own goal

• Lyuboslav Penev (playing against France)

Awards

Team of the Tournament

Goalkeepers	Defenders	Midfielders	Forwards
David Seaman Andreas Köpke	Radoslav Látal Laurent Blanc Marcel Desailly Matthias Sammer Paolo Maldini	Karel Poborský Steve McManaman Paul Gascoigne Didier Deschamps Dieter Eilts Rui Costa	Hristo Stoichkov Davor Šuker Pavel Kuka Alan Shearer Youri Djorkaeff

Golden Boot

Alan Shearer was awarded the Golden Boot award, after scoring five goals in the group stage and in the semi-finals against Germany.

• Alan Shearer (5 goals)

UEFA Player of the Tournament

• Matthias Sammer

Fastest goal

2 minutes and 14 seconds: Alan Shearer (England vs Germany)

Average goals

2.06 goals per game

Marketing

Slogan and theme songs

File:Three-lions-original-1996.jpg

Three Lions single

The competition slogan was Football Comes Home reflecting that the sport's rules were first standardised in the United Kingdom. UEFA President Lennart Johansson had said that the organisation had felt it time to bring the event "back to the motherland of football". The slogan was incorporated into the competition's most popular song: "Three Lions" recorded by comedians Frank Skinner and David Baddiel with the Lightning Seeds. Skinner and Baddiel were then strongly connected with football owing to their BBC show Fantasy Football League. Released as a single, the song topped the UK Singles Chart for a total of three weeks. It was promoted by a video featuring the England squad.

The song was prominently sung by England fans during all their games, and was also chanted by the German team upon parading the trophy in Berlin after the tournament. It was even referenced by future Prime Minister Tony Blair in an address at the 1996 Labour Party Conference with the line: "Seventeen years of hurt, never stopped us dreaming, Labour's coming home".

Despite Three Lions being the song most strongly connected with the tournament, its official song was instead "We're in This Together" by Simply Red. The song was performed at the tournament's opening ceremony.

Merchandise and mascots

The British Royal Mint issued a commemorative £2 coin in 1996, which featured a representation of a football, "1996" in the centre, and 16 small rings representing the 16 competing teams. Further special coins were only issued in the Isle of Man and Gibraltar.

The official mascot, 'Goaliath', was designed in a similar fashion to the original World Cup mascot from the 1966 World Cup. Goaliath comprised a lion, the image on the English team crest, dressed in an England football strip and football boots whilst holding a football under his right arm.

Sponsorship

Global sponsors	Event sponsors
	Canon Carlsberg Coca-Cola Fujifilm JVC MasterCard McDonalds Philips Snickers Vauxhall Motors Umbro

Controversies

Terrorist attack

A terrorist attack took place in Manchester on 15 June, one day before the group stage match between Germany and Russia was due to take place in the same city. The detonation of a van bomb in the city centre injured 212 people and caused an estimated £700 million worth of damage. Four days after the blast, the far-left terrorist organization, the Provisional Irish Republican Army, issued a statement in which it claimed responsibility, but regretted causing injury to civilians.

The Manchester bombing was the first and so far only major terrorist attack in the host city of an ongoing UEFA European Championship. The scheduled match at Old Trafford on the day following the bombing went ahead as planned after the stadium had been heavily guarded overnight and carefully searched; the game, in which Germany defeated Russia 3–0, was watched by a near capacity crowd of 50,700.

Disorder

After England's defeat to Germany in the semi-finals, a large-scale riot took place in Trafalgar Square and the surrounding area. Further outbreaks of trouble occurred in the streets of several other towns. The police, German-made cars were targeted, with damage also caused to various other properties. A Russian student was stabbed in Brighton after attackers mistook him for being German.

Despite this outbreak, the tournament overall was free of hooliganism, helping rehabilitate England's reputation after their fans' conduct during the previous decades. UEFA's awarding of the tournament to England was in itself a further step in bringing back the country back fully into the international fold, coming soon after their decision in 1990 to re-admit English clubs back into UEFA competitions after the indefinite ban issued to them following the Heysel Stadium disaster in 1985.

See also

• UEFA Euro 1996 schedule

External links

• UEFA Euro 1996 at UEFA.com