The Ludwig Boltzmann Institute for Research on the Consequences of War in Graz has been investigating the effects of wars and conflicts of the 20th century since 1993. Harald Knoll discovered his passion for sports history around 15 years ago and has been researching its effects on today’s sporting events ever since. “For thousands of years, sport has been a phenomenon in its own right, but at the same time it is closely linked to other areas of society on many levels: social, cultural, political and economic,” says Harald Knoll.

In his book “Sport, Prestige, Profit – Historische Betrachtungen zum Run auf Ruhm und Reichtum”, published in 2024, Knoll, together with Walter Iber, Johannes Gießauf and Peter Mauritsch, examines on 373 pages how the European Championships were able to develop into a crowd-puller and mass spectacle and which economic levers prove to be decisive for the success of the tournaments today.

Of rule adjustments, profit and fame – how soccer has changed over time

France in 1960: the first European Men’s Football Championship is held. Four nations compete in the tournament known at the time as the “European Cup of Nations”. France, Yugoslavia, the Soviet Union and Czechoslovakia made up the first quartet. The winner of the primary was the Soviet Union with a 2:1 victory over Yugoslavia. Eight years later, UEFA officially named the competition the European Football Championship, laying the foundations for the tournament we know today.

Over the years, not only the name but also the rules and the mentality of the competition changed. Partly due to the heatstroke in Lausanne, in which the Austrian goalkeeper Kurt Schmied suffered sunstroke and was not allowed to be substituted due to strict tournament regulations, the rules changed after a few years in 1967. From then on, substitutions could be made by the coach during the 90-minute match. In order to reform soccer in terms of both health and social aspects, around 20 years after the start of the first European Championship, in 1980, red and yellow cards were introduced to caution players. Previously, players had only been sent off for very serious misconduct and major injuries.

In the years that followed, fans’ growing interest in the competition and soccer in general boosted the status of soccer in society and thus also the fame and prestige of individual players and clubs. “One factor in this development that should not be neglected is the medialization of these events. It is part of people’s social identity to be interested in extraordinary, attention-grabbing coverage. For me, it is therefore in the nature of things that the media serve this purpose,” says Knoll.

The final whistle: the soccer expert’s assessment

For Harald Knoll, the modern development of the tournament and the increasing quality of the teams in particular are decisive arguments for the growing popularity of the European Championships. “While the European Championship was not very popular when it was first held, especially alongside its ‘big brother, the World Cup’, it is now a major event in a class of its own,” explains the expert. “The Copa América, which is currently taking place at the same time as the European Championship, is faced with comparatively empty stadiums, while South American interest in European soccer is growing. This alone confirms the international reputation and the high level of performance of the teams taking part in the European Championship.“