Liedjes Voetbal Steekspel Euro 2002

This was the eighth European Championships and took place across the year of 2002. The first match kicked off on... and the final match ended on... It was hosted between Norway, Sweden and Denmark.

France submitted a bit to host an upcoming Euro championship in 1984 following that year's Euros hosted across multiple German speaking nations. France nominated many different cities and had enough stadiums to qualify them to host on their own. By 1989 however, it was clear that both the 1984 and 1988 Euros had been co-hosted even by nations with as many stadiums as France. There was also the Spanish-Portuguese bid for 1996 that would also see two equally qualified nations cooperate to host. Criticism came on France and many demanded that they would be at an advantage to be at home. Therefore, Italy suggested themselves team up to co-host with France. Italy would host around half of the matches, but the final of the knockout would remain in Paris, France.

Other bids included a withdrawn joint-bid between Spain and Portugal. They later applied for the 1996 contest, which they awarded, before it was brought forward to 1994. Italy was considering running a singular bid similar to France's before they agreed to co-host, the low land nations of Belgium, Luxembourg and the Netherlands submitted a bid to host too, alongside a joint-bid between Norway, Sweden and Denmark.

Every eligible European team would compete. Even regional nations or provinces could compete if they had fulfilled the requirements. This allowed nations such as the Faroe Islands or Gibraltar to take part. Furthermore, the United Kingdom, Yugoslavia, and Soviet Union would play as it's constituent countries. Partially recognised countries were technically allowed to compete, but were forced to be placed into separate groups as nations who did not recognise them. Only the Vatican City didn't participate who was a sovereign state in Europe. This is the first Euros where the Soviet Union ceased to exist but no participants changed as the nations had been playing as Socialist Republics in previous events. Slovakia saw the biggest increase going from 48th to 12th and Ukraine going from 44th to 14th.

Robin Round
The top 2 countries from League D, top 6 countries from League C, top 10 countries from League B, and top 12 countries from League A qualify for the round. They are divided into ten groups of three. The top of each group automatically qualify. The last places are dropped into a bracket to find their top 2 teams who progress to the playoffs with every second placer. The individual winner of these 3 playoff spots go to the World Cup.

Group 1
Matches would be played in Bordeaux and  Marseille.

Group 2
Matches would be played in Paris and  Brest.

Group 3
Matches would be played in Montpellier and  Toulouse.

Group 4
Matches would be played in Nantes and  Rennes.

Group 5
Matches would be played in Rome and  Naples.

Group 6
Matches would be played in Palermo and  Catania.

Group 7
Matches would be played in Florence and  Bologna.

Group 8
Matches would be played in Genoa and  Milan.

Group 9
Matches would be played in Genoa and  Milan.

Group 10
Matches would be played in Genoa and  Milan.

Knockouts
The 13 qualifying nations plus the three best performing third place playoffs that didn't make the qualifiers are placed into a bracket of 16.

bold is a penalty victory, while a ; means they win after extra time.