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The European Under-21 Football Championship is Football competition organised by the sport's Europe an governing body, UEFA . It is held every two years. The competition has existed in its current form since 1978 . It was preceded by the Under 23 Challenge Cup which ran from 1967 to 1970 . A true championship was formed starting in 1972 . The age limit was reduced to 21 for the 1978 Championship and it has remained so since. To be eligible for the campaign ending in 2006 , players need to be born in or after 1983 . This means that many will actually be 23 years old at the finals tournament, but when the qualification process began (late 2004 ) all players would have been 21 or under. There is no Under-21 World Cup . In effect, the European Under-21 teams have two European Championships instead of one European Championship and a World Cup. Under-21 matches are typically played on the day before senior internationals and where possible, the same qualifying groups and fixtures were played out. This will change for the 2006-7 Championship. From 1994 to 2006, UEFA waited until all eight qualifying nations are determined, then chose a suitable host from the eight. On December 15, 2005, the host nation for the tournament in May/June 2006 was announced as Portugal . The competition will see many changes after the 2006 finals. REVAMP FOR 2006-2007 CHAMPIONSHIP UEFA have announced plans to change all future under-21 tournaments to odd years. This is because the senior teams of many nations choose to promote players from the Under-21s as their own qualification campaign intensifies. Staggering the tournaments will allow more players to develop in the Under-21 team rather than become reserves for the seniors. The first 'odd-year' tournament will be in 2007 . UEFA will use a coefficient based on qualification records for the last two tournaments ( 2004 and 2006 ) in order to finish the qualification stage in half the time. On December 15, 2005, the Netherlands were chosen as host nation and will qualify automatically. England, Italy, Portugal, Turkey and Sweden also submitted bids. For the first time, 12 teams will appear in the finals. WINNERS Under-23 Challenge Cup winners This was competed for on a basis similar to a Boxing title belt. The holders played a randomly chosen opponent for the championship. This format was soon dropped in favour of one more familiar to the sport of football. Under-23 Champions Held only three times before it was relabelled by UEFA. Under-21 Champions and runner-ups A host nation was chosen for a finals competition for the 1994 finals onwards. Finals 2006 See Also: UEFA U-21 Championship 2006 EXTERNAL LINK
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