UEFA Women's Euro 2017
The 2017 UEFA European Women's Championship, commonly referred to as UEFA Women's Euro 2017, was the 12th edition of the UEFA Women's Championship, the quadrennial international football championship organised by UEFA for the women's national teams of Europe. The competition was expanded to 16 teams (from 12 teams in the previous edition). The Netherlands were declared as hosts by the UEFA Executive Committee on 4 December 2014. Germany's 22-year reign as champions of Europe was ended after losing 1–2 to Denmark in the quarter-finals. In addition it was  only Germany's second loss in the finals since 1993. Another former winner, Norway, lost to both finalists, the Netherlands and Denmark, and ended without goals or points. The Netherlands won their first ever title by beating fellow first time finalists, Denmark, 4–2 in the final. Host selection. Expressions of interest in hosting the tournament were received from seven associations. On 4 December 2014 The Netherlands were chosen as hosts for the first time having never previously staged the tournament. Qualification. A total of 47 UEFA nations entered the competition (including Andorra which entered for the first time at senior  women's level), and with the hosts Netherlands qualifying automatically, the other 46 teams competed in the qualifying competition to determine the remaining 15 spots in the final tournament. The qualifying competition, which took place from April 2015 to October 2016, consisted of three rounds: Qualified teams. The following 16 teams qualified for the final tournament. Five teams made their Women's Euro debuts. The only team that qualified in 2013 but did not qualify in 2017 was Finland. Final draw. The final draw was held on 8 November 2016, 17:30 CET (), at the Luxor Theatre in Rotterdam. The 16  teams were drawn into four groups of four teams. The teams were seeded according to their coefficient ranking following the end of the qualifying group stage (excluding the play-offs), with the hosts Netherlands assigned to position A1 in the draw. Each group contained one team from each of the four seeding pots. Venues. Seven venues in seven different towns were used in the tournament. Match officials. A total of 11 referees, 21 assistant referees and 2 fourth officials were appointed for the final tournament. Squads. Each national team have to submit a squad of 23 players, three of whom  must be goalkeepers. If a player is injured or ill severely enough to prevent her participation in the tournament before her team's first match, she can be replaced by another player. The squad list must be published no later than 10 days before the tournaments opening match. Group stage. The schedule of the competition was announced on 23 September 2015. The group winners and runners-up advance to the quarter-finals. All times are local, CEST (). Tiebreakers. Teams are ranked according to points (3 points for a win, 1 point for a draw, 0 points for a loss), and  if tied on points, the following tiebreaking criteria are applied, in the order given, to determine the rankings (Regulations Articles 19.01 and 19.02): Knockout stage. In the knockout stage, extra time and penalty shoot-out are used to decide the winner if necessary. On 1 June 2017, the UEFA Executive Committee agreed that the competition would be part of the International Football Association Board (IFAB)'s trial to allow a fourth substitute to be made during extra time. Statistics. Awards. The following awards were given at the conclusion of the tournament by UEFA. Prize money. A total prize money of  €8,000,000 were available, an increase from €2,200,000 in 2013, with the following breakdown: Broadcasting rights. Matches were streamed on UEFA.com and UEFA.tv (YouTube) in territories where no partner had been appointed.