1960-2020: Full UEFA EURO Ball History - Which Was The Best?

Nov 9, 2019

by Chris

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1960-1968: The first EURO ball had no branding, while Adidas began as the official ball maker in 1968, not creating a bespoke design until 1988.
1996 onwards: Adidas began designing unique balls for each tournament, with the designs becoming more elaborate, featuring a silver color scheme in the 2000s.
2012-Present: The Adidas Tango 12 moved away from the silver scheme, and Adidas has released three special final match balls, also releasing the EURO 2020 ball.

As Adidas revealed the Official Match Ball for next year's EURO, we take a look at how the tournament balls have evolved over the years.

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UEFA EURO Official Match Ball History

The story starts in 1960, the year of the 1960 UEFA European Nations' Cup, the first European Football Championship. The first-ever EURO ball was not sponsored / made by Adidas but featured no visible brandings.

Since the EURO 1968 in Italy, Adidas has been the official ball maker of the European Football Championship. The brand did not release a bespoke ball for the tournament in the first years as supplier - the first-ever official EURO ball by Adidas created for the competition was the Adidas 1988 "Tango Europa".

Since the EURO 1996 in England, Adidas designed really bespoke footballs for the UEFA Euro - all footballs since then feature very remarkable looks.

Interestingly, the official EURO football in the 2000s all had a similar silver color scheme. That color scheme was ditched with the Adidas Tango 2012. The Adidas Tango 12 featured a modern interpretation of the classic Tango design including a coloured outline inspired by the flags of the two host nations – Poland and Ukraine.