# UEFA Euro 2000

The 2000 UEFA European Football Championship, also known as Euro 2000, was the 11th UEFA European Championship, a football tournament held every four years and organised by UEFA, the sport's governing body in Europe.
The finals tournament was played between 10 June and 2 July 2000, and co-hosted by Belgium and the Netherlands, the first time the tournament had been held in more than one nation. Spain and Austria also bid to host the event. The finals tournament was contested by 16 nations; with the exception of the hosts, Belgium and the Netherlands, the finalists had to go through a qualifying tournament to reach the final stage. France won the tournament by defeating Italy 2–1 in the final, via a golden goal.
The finals saw the first major UEFA competition contested in the King Baudouin Stadium (formerly the Heysel Stadium) since the events of the 1985 European Cup final and the Heysel Stadium disaster, with the opening game being played in the rebuilt stadium.
A high-scoring championship with many exciting matches and an elite standard of play, Euro 2000 is often labelled by football writers as one of the greatest international tournaments of all time.

## Bid process

Belgium and the Netherlands were selected as co-hosts on 14 July 1995 by the UEFA Executive Committee at a meeting in Geneva, Switzerland.

### Hooliganism concerns

Football hooliganism was a significant problem in the Netherlands in the 1990s, especially the fierce rivalry between Ajax and Feyenoord. There were concerns that hooliganism would overshadow the finals. Many instances of violence occurred, including several football riots in Rotterdam between 1995 and 1999, which would host the Euro 2000 final. One of the most infamous incidents was the Battle of Beverwijk in 1997. Although the violence is normally associated with domestic clubs, there were concerns that it could attach to the Dutch national team.
Violence did eventually occur during the Euro 2000 finals, albeit not involving the Dutch team. On 17 June, 174 England fans were arrested in Brussels, Belgium, following violence with Germans and local Turkish groups ahead of an England v Germany match.

## Summary

One of the biggest surprises of the tournament was Portugal, winning Group A with three wins, including a 3–0 victory against Germany, with Sérgio Conceição scoring a hat-trick, and a 3–2 victory against England, in which they came back from 2–0 down. Romania was the other qualifier from the group, beating England with a late penalty in their last group game.
Belgium had a surprise exit in the group stage, winning the tournament's first game against Sweden, but losing to Turkey and Italy. They finished third in Group B, behind Italy and Turkey. The other co-host and favourite, the Netherlands, progressed as expected from Group D, along with World Cup winners France. The Netherlands won the group, by beating France in their last group match. Also in Group D, Denmark's three losses with eight goals conceded and none scored set a new record for the worst team performance in the group stages of a Euros. Group C was memorable for the match between FR Yugoslavia and Spain. Spain needed a win to ensure progression, but found themselves trailing 3–2 after Slobodan Komljenović scored in the 75th minute. The Spanish side rescued their tournament by scoring twice in injury time to record a 4–3 victory. FR Yugoslavia managed to go through as well, despite losing because Norway and Slovenia played to a draw.
Italy and Portugal maintained their perfect records in the quarter-finals, beating Romania and Turkey, respectively, and the Netherlands started a goal-avalanche against FR Yugoslavia, winning 6–1. Spain fell 2–1 to France; Raúl missed a late penalty that ended Spanish hopes.
Italy eliminated the Netherlands in the semi-finals, despite going down to ten men and facing two penalty kicks. Italian goalkeeper Francesco Toldo, who had been drafted into the starting XI as Gianluigi Buffon missed the tournament through injury, made two saves in the penalty shootout – apart from his penalty save in normal time – to carry the Italians to the final.
In the other semi-final, Portugal lost in extra time to France after Zinedine Zidane converted a controversial penalty kick. Several Portuguese players challenged the awarding of the penalty for a handball and were given lengthy suspensions for shoving the referee. France won the tournament, defeating Italy 2–1 in the final with a golden goal by David Trezeguet after equalising with a last-minute goal, and became the first team to win the European championship while being world champion.
In Britain, Match of the Day named Stefano Fiore's goal against Belgium the Goal of the Tournament, ahead of Patrick Kluivert's against France and Zinedine Zidane's against Spain.

## Qualification

Qualification for the tournament took place throughout 1998 and 1999. Forty-nine teams were divided into nine groups and each played the others in their group, on a home-and-away basis. The winner of each group and the best runner-up qualified automatically for the final tournament. The eight other runners-up played an additional set of play-off matches to determine the last four qualifiers. Belgium and the Netherlands automatically qualified for the tournament as co-hosts. Notably, this was the only European Championship Belgium appeared in between 1984 and 2016.
As of 2024, this was the only time Norway qualified for the European Championship finals, as well as the last time that Croatia failed to qualify.

### Qualified teams

| Team | Qualified as | Qualified on | Previous appearances in tournament |
| Belgium | Co-host | 14 July 1995 | 3 (1972, 1980, 1984) |
| Netherlands | Co-host | 14 July 1995 | 5 (1976, 1980, 1988, 1992, 1996) |
| Czech Republic | Group 9 winner | 9 June 1999 | 4 (1960, 1976, 1980, 1996) |
| Norway | Group 2 winner | 8 September 1999 | 0 (debut) |
| Sweden | Group 5 winner | 8 September 1999 | 1 (1992) |
| Spain | Group 6 winner | 8 September 1999 | 5 (1964, 1980, 1984, 1988, 1996) |
| Italy | Group 1 winner | 9 October 1999 | 4 (1968, 1980, 1988, 1996) |
| Germany | Group 3 winner | 9 October 1999 | 7 (1972, 1976, 1980, 1984, 1988, 1992, 1996) |
| France | Group 4 winner | 9 October 1999 | 4 (1960, 1984, 1992, 1996) |
| Romania | Group 7 winner | 9 October 1999 | 2 (1984, 1996) |
| FR Yugoslavia | Group 8 winner | 9 October 1999 | 4 (1960, 1968, 1976, 1984) |
| Portugal | Best runner-up | 9 October 1999 | 2 (1984, 1996) |
| Denmark | Play-off winner | 17 November 1999 | 5 (1964, 1984, 1988, 1992, 1996) |
| England | Play-off winner | 17 November 1999 | 5 (1968, 1980, 1988, 1992, 1996) |
| Slovenia | Play-off winner | 17 November 1999 | 0 (debut) |
| Turkey | Play-off winner | 17 November 1999 | 1 (1996) |
* ↑ Bold indicates champion for that year. Italic indicates host for that year.
* ↑ From 1960 to 1980, the Czech Republic competed as Czechoslovakia.
* ↑ From 1972 to 1988, Germany competed as West Germany.
* ↑ From 1960 to 1984, FR Yugoslavia competed as Yugoslavia.

### Final draw

The finals draw took place 15:00 CET on 12 December 1999, at the Brussels Expo in Belgium; and was streamed live on UEFA's official website.
The composition of pots 1 to 4 was based on the teams' UEFA national team coefficient ranking at the end of 1999, with the exception of pot 1 automatically top seeding Germany as holders along with co-hosts Belgium and Netherlands.
Pot 1 :
| Pot 1 TeamCoeffRank  Germany (holders)2.2787  Belgium (co-hosts)2.3755  Netherlands (co-hosts)2.2508  Spain2.6111 | Pot 2 TeamCoeffRank  Romania2.6002  Norway2.5003  Sweden2.3894  Czech Republic2.3006 | Pot 3 TeamCoeffRank  FR Yugoslavia2.2229  Portugal2.10011  France2.10012  Italy2.06313 | Pot 4 TeamCoeffRank  England2.00015  Turkey1.93818  Denmark1.93819  Slovenia1.00037 |
* ↑ Defending champions Germany (coefficient 2.278; rank 7th) were automatically assigned to position A1.
* ↑ Co-hosts Belgium (coefficient 2.375; rank 5th) were automatically assigned to position B1.
* ↑ Co-hosts Netherlands (coefficient 2.250; rank 8th) were automatically assigned to position D1.
* ↑ Highest ranked Spain (coefficient 2.611; rank 1st) were automatically assigned to position C1.
Prior to the draw, the seeded teams in Pot 1 were assigned positions: Germany (defending champion) to A1, Belgium (co-host) to B1, Spain (highest coefficient) to C1, and the Netherlands (co-host) to D1. Teams were drawn consecutively from Pots 2 to 4 into a group, with each team then being assigned a specific position (for the purposes of determining the match schedules in each group).
The draw resulted in the following groups:
Group A :
| Group A Team  Germany  Romania  Portugal  England | Group B Team  Belgium  Sweden  Turkey  Italy | Group C Team  Spain  Norway  FR Yugoslavia  Slovenia | Group D Team  Netherlands  Czech Republic  France  Denmark |

## Venues

Capacity figures are those for matches at UEFA Euro 2000 and are not necessarily the total capacity that the stadium is capable of holding.
| Belgium | Belgium | Netherlands | Netherlands |
| Brussels | Bruges | Amsterdam | Rotterdam |
| King Baudouin Stadium | Jan Breydel Stadium | Amsterdam Arena | Feijenoord Stadion |
| Capacity: 50,000 | Capacity: 30,000 | Capacity: 52,000 | Capacity: 51,000 |
| BrusselsBrugesLiègeCharleroi | BrusselsBrugesLiègeCharleroi | RotterdamAmsterdamEindhovenArnhem | RotterdamAmsterdamEindhovenArnhem |
| Liège | Charleroi | Eindhoven | Arnhem |
| Stade Maurice Dufrasne | Stade du Pays de Charleroi | Philips Stadion | GelreDome |
| Capacity: 30,000 | Capacity: 30,000 | Capacity: 33,000 | Capacity: 30,000 |

### Team base camps

The 16 national teams each stayed in their own "team base camp" during the tournament.
| Team | Base camp |
| Belgium | Lichtaart |
| Czech Republic | Knokke-Heist |
| Denmark | Brunssum |
| England | Spa/Waterloo |
| FR Yugoslavia | Edegem |
| France | Genval |
| Germany | Vaals |
| Italy | Grobbendonk |
| Netherlands | Hoenderloo |
| Norway | Knokke-Heist |
| Portugal | Ermelo |
| Romania | Grimbergen/Arnhem |
| Slovenia | Soestduinen |
| Spain | Tegelen |
| Sweden | Oisterwijk |
| Turkey | Delden |

## Squads

Each national team had to submit a squad of 22 players, three of whom had to be goalkeepers.

## Match officials

On 15 February 2000, UEFA appointed 12 referees, 16 assistant referees and four fourth officials for the competition, including a referee and an assistant referee from the Confederation of African Football. The event saw assistant referees being allowed to intervene an ongoing game, in particular to help the match official apply the 10-metre rule when deciding free-kicks – as well as warn the referee instantly if he had booked or ejected the wrong player, something that was not possible in previous tournaments. Also, fourth officials were given a larger role in assisting to take command of the match if any decisions are gone unnoticed by the referee or an assistant referee.
The German referee Markus Merk was selected to referee the opening game between Belgium and Sweden.
| Referees | Assistant referees | Fourth officials |
| Günter Benkö | Yuri Dupanov | Michel Piraux |
| Kim Milton Nielsen | Roland Van Nylen | Kyros Vassaras |
| Gamal Al-Ghandour | Ivan Lekov | Terje Hauge |
| Graham Poll | Jens Larsen | Ľuboš Micheľ |
| Gilles Veissière | Philip Sharp | |
| Markus Merk | Jacques Poudevigne | |
| Pierluigi Collina | Kurt Ertl | |
| Dick Jol | Sergio Zuccolini | |
| Vítor Melo Pereira | Dramane Dante | |
| Hugh Dallas | Emanuel Zammit | |
| José María García-Aranda | Jaap Pool | |
| Anders Frisk | Eddie Foley | |
| Urs Meier | Nicolae Grigorescu | |
| | Igor Šramka | |
| | Carlos Martín Nieto | |
| | Leif Lindberg | |
| | Turgay Güdü | |

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

### Tiebreakers

If two or more teams finished level on points after completion of the group matches, the following tie-breakers were used to determine the final ranking:
* greater number of points in the matches between the teams in question;
* greater goal difference in matches between the teams in question;
* greater number of goals scored in matches between the teams in question;
* greater goal difference in all group games;
* greater number of goals scored in all group games;
* higher coefficient derived from Euro 2000 and 1998 World Cup qualifiers (points obtained divided by number of matches played);
* fair play conduct in Euro 2000;
* drawing of lots.

### Group A

| Pos | Teamvte | Pld | W | D | L | GF | GA | GD | Pts | Qualification |
| 1 | Portugal | 3 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 7 | 2 | +5 | 9 | Advance to knockout stage |
| 2 | Romania | 3 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 4 | 4 | 0 | 4 | Advance to knockout stage |
| 3 | England | 3 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 5 | 6 | −1 | 3 | |
| 4 | Germany | 3 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 5 | −4 | 1 | |

### Group B

| Pos | Teamvte | Pld | W | D | L | GF | GA | GD | Pts | Qualification |
| 1 | Italy | 3 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 6 | 2 | +4 | 9 | Advance to knockout stage |
| 2 | Turkey | 3 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 2 | +1 | 4 | Advance to knockout stage |
| 3 | Belgium (H) | 3 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 5 | −3 | 3 | |
| 4 | Sweden | 3 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 4 | −2 | 1 | |

### Group C

| Pos | Teamvte | Pld | W | D | L | GF | GA | GD | Pts | Qualification |
| 1 | Spain | 3 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 6 | 5 | +1 | 6 | Advance to knockout stage |
| 2 | FR Yugoslavia | 3 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 7 | 7 | 0 | 4 | Advance to knockout stage |
| 3 | Norway | 3 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 4 | |
| 4 | Slovenia | 3 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 4 | 5 | −1 | 2 | |
* 1 2 Head-to-head result: Norway 0–1 FR Yugoslavia.

### Group D

| Pos | Teamvte | Pld | W | D | L | GF | GA | GD | Pts | Qualification |
| 1 | Netherlands (H) | 3 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 7 | 2 | +5 | 9 | Advance to knockout stage |
| 2 | France | 3 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 7 | 4 | +3 | 6 | Advance to knockout stage |
| 3 | Czech Republic | 3 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 3 | 3 | 0 | 3 | |
| 4 | Denmark | 3 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 8 | −8 | 0 | |

## Knockout stage

The knockout stage was a single-elimination tournament with each round eliminating the losers. Any game that was undecided by the end of the regular 90 minutes, was followed by up to thirty minutes of extra time. For the second time the golden goal system was applied, whereby the first team to score during the extra time would become the winner. If no goal was scored there would be a penalty shoot-out to determine the winner. For the second time the final was won by a golden goal.
As with every tournament since UEFA Euro 1984, there was no third place play-off.
All times are local, CEST (UTC+2).

### Bracket

| Quarter-finals | Quarter-finals | Semi-finals | Semi-finals | | Final | Final |
| 25 June – Bruges | 25 June – Bruges | | | |
| Spain | 1 | | | |
| Spain | 1 | 28 June – Brussels | 28 June – Brussels | | |
| France | 2 | 28 June – Brussels | 28 June – Brussels | |
| France | 2 | France (g.g.) | 2 | |
| 24 June – Amsterdam | 24 June – Amsterdam | | France (g.g.) | 2 | |
| 24 June – Amsterdam | 24 June – Amsterdam | Portugal | 1 | |
| Turkey | 0 | Portugal | 1 | |
| Turkey | 0 | | | | 2 July – Rotterdam | 2 July – Rotterdam |
| Portugal | 2 | | | | 2 July – Rotterdam | 2 July – Rotterdam |
| Portugal | 2 | | | | France (g.g.) | 2 |
| 24 June – Brussels | 24 June – Brussels | | | | | France (g.g.) | 2 |
| 24 June – Brussels | 24 June – Brussels | | | | Italy | 1 |
| Italy | 2 | | | | Italy | 1 |
| Italy | 2 | 29 June – Amsterdam | 29 June – Amsterdam | | | |
| Romania | 0 | 29 June – Amsterdam | 29 June – Amsterdam | | | |
| Romania | 0 | Italy (p) | 0 (3) | | | |
| 25 June – Rotterdam | 25 June – Rotterdam | | Italy (p) | 0 (3) | | | |
| 25 June – Rotterdam | 25 June – Rotterdam | Netherlands | 0 (1) | |
| Netherlands | 6 | Netherlands | 0 (1) | |
| FR Yugoslavia | 1 | | | |

### Final
## Statistics
### Goalscorers

There were 85 goals scored in 31 matches, for an average of 2.74 goals per match.
5 goals
* Savo Milošević
* Patrick Kluivert
4 goals
* Nuno Gomes
3 goals
* Thierry Henry
* Sérgio Conceição
* Zlatko Zahovič
2 goals
* Vladimír Šmicer
* Alan Shearer
* Youri Djorkaeff
* David Trezeguet
* Sylvain Wiltord
* Zinedine Zidane
* Filippo Inzaghi
* Francesco Totti
* Frank de Boer
* Marc Overmars
* Boudewijn Zenden
* Alfonso
* Gaizka Mendieta
* Hakan Şükür
1 goal
* Bart Goor
* Émile Mpenza
* Karel Poborský
* Steve McManaman
* Michael Owen
* Paul Scholes
* Ljubinko Drulović
* Dejan Govedarica
* Slobodan Komljenović
* Laurent Blanc
* Christophe Dugarry
* Mehmet Scholl
* Antonio Conte
* Alessandro Del Piero
* Marco Delvecchio
* Luigi Di Biagio
* Stefano Fiore
* Ronald de Boer
* Steffen Iversen
* Costinha
* Luís Figo
* João Pinto
* Cristian Chivu
* Ionel Ganea
* Viorel Moldovan
* Dorinel Munteanu
* Miran Pavlin
* Joseba Etxeberria
* Pedro Munitis
* Raúl
* Henrik Larsson
* Johan Mjällby
* Okan Buruk
1 own goal
* Dejan Govedarica (against Netherlands)
Source: UEFA

### Awards
#### UEFA Team of the Tournament

| Goalkeepers | Defenders | Midfielders | Forwards |
| Fabien Barthez Francesco Toldo | Laurent Blanc Marcel Desailly Lilian Thuram Fabio Cannavaro Paolo Maldini Alessandro Nesta Frank de Boer | Patrick Vieira Zinedine Zidane Demetrio Albertini Edgar Davids Rui Costa Luís Figo Pep Guardiola | Savo Milošević Thierry Henry Francesco Totti Patrick Kluivert Nuno Gomes Raúl |
Golden Boot
* Patrick Kluivert (5 goals)
* Savo Milošević (5 goals)
UEFA Player of the Tournament
* Zinedine Zidane

### Prize money

Prize money :
| Rank | Team | CHFMillion |
| 1 | France | 14.4 |
| 2 | Italy | 13.2 |
| 3 | Netherlands Portugal | 10.2 |
| 5 | Romania Spain Turkey FR Yugoslavia | 7.8 |
| 9 | Belgium Czech Republic England Norway | 5.4 |
| 13 | Denmark Germany Slovenia Sweden | 4.8 |
A sum of CHF120 million was awarded to the 16 qualified teams in the competition. France, the winners of the tournament, received a total prize money of CHF14.4 million. Below is a complete list of the allocations:
Extra payment based on teams performances:
* Winner: CHF14.4 million
* Runner-up: CHF13.2 million
* Semi-finals: CHF10.2 million
* Quarter-finals: CHF7.8 million
* Group stage:
** Third place: CHF5.4 million
** Fourth place: CHF4.8 million
On 9 July 2000, UEFA refused to hand FR Yugoslavia their prize money of CHF7.8 million, because of alleged ties between the Football Association of FR Yugoslavia and Slobodan Milošević's government. However, no connections were found and the Football Association of FR Yugoslavia later received their money with an additional bonus.

## Marketing
### Slogan and theme song

The slogan of the competition was "Football without frontiers". "Campione 2000" by E-Type was the official anthem of the event.

### Match ball

The Adidas Terrestra Silverstream was unveiled as the official match ball of the competition on 13 December 1999 at Constant Vanden Stock Stadium, Anderlecht's home arena by Alessandro Del Piero, Edwin van der Sar, Zinedine Zidane and Luc Nilis.

### Mascot

The official mascot for the tournament was Benelucky (a pun on Benelux), a lion-devil hybrid with its mane having the flag colours of both host nations. The lion is the national football emblem of the Netherlands and a devil is the emblem of Belgium (the team being nicknamed "the Red Devils").

### Sponsorships

| Official Sponsors | Official Suppliers |
| Carlsberg Coca-Cola Fujifilm Hyundai JVC Mastercard McDonald's Philips PlayStation Pringles PSINet Sportal | Adecco Adidas Cisco Systems Connexxion KLM Lever Fabergé Nestlé Cereals Telfort TotalFina |