Euro Summits: The Story of the Uefa European Championships 1960 to 2016

by Jonathan Brien

Panenka's pearl of a penalty in Belgrade, van Basten's volley of a lifetime in Munich, Gazza's agonising near-miss at over its six decades, the UEFA European Championship has thrown up many of the most memorable stories in football lore. Now it gets the history it deserves. Euro Summits is the first full retelling of the tournament, from its tentative beginnings in the late 1950s to its elephantine expansion in the mid-2010s. Taking in the USSR's early success, the grim violence of 1968, France's cavalier feats on home soil in 1984, the sensational triumphs of no-hopers Denmark and Greece, Spain's modern-day dominance, all the way up to Portugal's shock victory in 2016, it's a panoramic portrait of an event that captures a whole continent's imagination every four years. Dramatic, detailed and teeming with compelling personalities like Michel Platini, Günter Netzer, Hristo Stoichkov, Zinedine Zidane, Wayne Rooney and Cristiano Ronaldo, this is the complete story of a footballing event second only to the World Cup.

Genres: Sports, Football

416 pages, Hardcover

Published August 1, 2021

Reviews

[Joe O'Donnell · Rating 4 out of 5]

It is perhaps surprising that, until now, there has not been a definitive history written of the European Football Championships – one of the three biggest sporting events on the face of the earth. But, when one sees the level of research, analysis and sheer hard graft that Jonathan O’Brien has undoubtedly poured into the creation of “Euro Summits”, you can see why other sportswriters might have been reluctant to embark on such a mammoth undertaking.

Happily, while “Euro Summits” is unquestionably a comprehensive and exhaustive history of the European Championships, it is never exhausting. Given that “Euro Summits” recounts every single game played in the 60-plus-year history of the Euros, this is quite an achievement. O’Brien takes us from the rather inauspicious early tournaments (including the ludicrous spectacle of a 1968 semi-final being decided on the toss of a coin), through to sensational championships like 1976 and 2000 (where the Euros inarguably eclipsed the World Cup for thrills and excitement), and on to Denmark and Greece’s unlikely triumphs in 1992 and 2004. All the while he casts a commendably dubious eye on the machinations of the European football governing body UEFA – especially their greed-driven bloating of the tournament size – and their unofficial philosophy of “If it ain’t broke, break it”.

It would have been quite easy for “Euro Summits” to be a quite dry reference book that merely recounted the key statistics and events of each tournament, but it is greatly enlivened by Jonathan O’Brien’s lovely turn of phrase. So we see France’s over-the-hill 1960 squad “exposed as multimillionaires in a discontinued currency”. A thuggish mid-70s clash between Wales and Yugoslavia is described as “the footballing equivalent of The Sweeney”. And O’Brien has a gift for depicting the more colourful characters from the pantheon of European football, from the gregarious Gunter Netzer (“a Westphalian nightclub impresario with fabulous hair”) to the imperious Uli Hoeness (“whose own ego was in no danger of falling into the missing persons file”) to the matchless Andrea Pirlo (“the very model of a modern midfield general”).

While “Euro Summits” is undoubtedly the most definitive history of the European Championships that has been published to date, O’Brien is far from afraid to take aim at European football’s sacred cows. Neither is he reticent to call out a particular Euros (1968, 1980 and 2016 spring to mind) when it is an absolute dog of a tournament. “Euro Summits” is enjoyably spiky and acerbic throughout. O’Brien is no Henry Winter-esque flim-flam, as evidenced by how he refreshingly cuts through the “Football’s Coming Home” guff surrounding Euro’96 to uncover what was, in reality, a fairly mediocre tournament.

The only real criticisms you could have of this admirable work are that it could benefit from having an index and a concluding chapter giving an overview of the 60-year history of the Championships. The final paragraph of “Euro Summits” does, however, leave it nicely poised for a possible second edition that might cover the Covid-delayed Euro 2020. “Euro Summits” is a superb feat of research and sportswriting.

[Rob · Rating 4 out of 5]

The author of this book has performed a massive service by providing such a comprehensive update of Europe’s most important soccer tournament (yes, that includes you, Champions League). Overall, he does the job magnificently, painstakingly charting the history of each tournament and the statistical sections covering every finals match since 1960 are flawlessly put together – not a háček is out of place and O’Brien has even been careful enough to deploy Ukrainian spelling of Soviet players’ names. Nor does the author eschew politics – there are fascinating tales of Francoist Spain attempting to avoid playing the USSR while he pulls no punches in highlighting the greed of the organisers in stretching the tournament out to a competition for 24 countries. The highlights are well told too and there’s also a refreshing lack of home nations centrism – England, Wales and the rest are just other countries and refereeing decisions that split observers along national lines are analysed objectively. There’s also a nice line of scurrilous humour underlying the narrative and some excellent writing to boot.