UEFA stages a European Football Championship for senior men’s national teams every four years, over two seasons.

All UEFA member associations (hereinafter associations) are invited to enter their senior men’s national team for the competition.

To be eligible to participate in the competition, an association must fulfil the following criteria:

a) It must confirm in writing that the association itself, as well as its players and officials, agree to respect the statutes, regulations, directives and decisions of UEFA;

b)It must confirm in writing that the association itself, as well as its players and officials, agree to recognise the jurisdiction of the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) in Lausanne as defined in the relevant provisions of the UEFA Statutes;

c)It must fill in the official entry documents (i.e. all documents containing the information deemed necessary by the UEFA administration for ascertaining compliance with the admission criteria), which must reach the UEFA administration within the deadline set by the latter and communicated in due course through a circular letter sent to all associations.

The UEFA General Secretary communicates the decision on admission to the competition to the associations in writing.

If an association does not fulfil the admission criteria, the UEFA General Secretary will decide not admit it to the competition. Such decisions are final.

On entering the competition, participating associations agree:

a)to comply with the Laws of the Game issued by the IFAB;

b)to respect the principles of fair play as defined in the UEFA Statutes;

c) to field their strongest team throughout the competition;

d) to play all matches under a head coach who holds at least the highest coaching qualification of the association by which he is employed (based on the implementation status of the UEFA Coaching Convention as at October 2009) or who, subject to domestic regulations, undertakes to start (within one year of his appointment) a procedure to obtain such a licence;

e) to stage all matches in the competition in accordance with the present regulations;

f) to comply with all decisions regarding the competition taken by the UEFA Executive Committee, the UEFA administration or any other competent body and communicated appropriately (by UEFA circular letter or by official letter, fax or email);

g)to observe the UEFA Safety and Security Regulations for all matches in the competition;

h) to stage all matches in the competition in a stadium meeting the structural criteria of the stadium category required by paragraph 12.01;

i) not to represent UEFA or the UEFA European Football Championship without UEFA’s prior written approval;

j) to indemnify, defend and hold UEFA and its subsidiaries and all of their officers, directors, employees, representatives, agents and other auxiliary persons free and harmless against any and all liabilities, obligations, losses, damages, penalties, claims, actions, fines and expenses (including reasonable legal expenses) of whatsoever kind or nature resulting from, arising out of, or attributable to any non-compliance by the participating association or any of its players, officials, employees, representatives or agents with these regulations.

The teams competing in the final tournament are not entitled to play friendly matches in the host countries from three months before the start until one month after the conclusion of the final tournament. This stipulation does not apply to the host associations.

Matches between any two teams that have qualified for the final tournament may not be played within one month of the start of the final tournament. This stipulation also applies to the host associations.

The winner of the UEFA European Football Championship undertakes to participate in intercontinental competitions arranged by UEFA in conjunction with other confederations and/or FIFA. In exceptional cases, for which justification must be provided, the runner-up may be enlisted to play these matches.