European Cup (athletics)

The main idea of the cup, developed by Bruno Zauli, president of the European Committee of the International Association of Athletics Federations, was to create a competition for all European athletics federations, in which they would face each other in track and field events. Although Zauli died a few months before the launch of the first event, the competition has gone from strength to strength.

The competition always had different leagues through which countries had to progress. For the first twenty years, there were different groups (leagues) that took place at different times. Smaller nations, like Luxembourg and Switzerland, would compete in preliminary rounds, before larger countries, such as the United Kingdom and France, would join in the semi-finals. The top two countries from three semi-finals would enter into the final.

This formula was fairly successful; however, by 1983 the number of competitions that athletes were expected to compete in made it extremely difficult for countries to send their best team to each event. The format of the cup had to be changed so that each country in the whole cup competed on the same day.

The top league was named the Super League and contained eight male and eight female teams. The male and female teams were separate teams, which meant that the female team of one country could get relegated while their male counterpart would stay in the Super League as long as they had enough points. Below the Super League were the First and Second Leagues, which contained other European countries that did not qualify for the finals.

In 2009, the competition took a new format, European Team Championships. There are now four leagues, which consist of 20 events for men and 20 for women. The Super League and the First League have 12 teams each, while the Second League and the Third League 8 and 14 respectively. Team scores are calculated by combination of men and women's points.

Countries scored points for their performance in each race/event: The winning athlete received 8 points for their country, and this then carried on so second would get 7 points, third 6 points, etc. In the case of an athlete that did not finish a race, was disqualified or did not record a mark (as the case may be), their country would receive zero points for that event.

The male and female team with the most points was declared the winner. The four winning teams from the 'Super League' (two male and two female) went on to compete as individual countries in the IAAF World Cup in Athletics.

Since 1983, the lowest scoring male, and the lowest scoring female teams in the 'Super League' were relegated down into the 'First League'. These were replaced by the highest scoring male and female teams from the 'First League'. This process was repeated for relegation/promotion from the second to the first league. This system allowed countries to progress, and for a wider range of athletes to compete against opposition they might not normally face.

The leagues for the 2009 competition were formed by combination of each country's men and women's performances in 2008. As the teams are 46, the winning team received 46 points, the second 45 and so on. The new leagues are:[1]

Super League		First League		Second League		Third League
Country	Pts	Country	Pts	Country	Pts	Country	Pts
Russia	1548	Belarus	1217	Ireland	971.5	Moldova	722
Great Britain	1518	Slovenia	1211	Bulgaria	947	Israel	714
Poland	1512	Romania	1182.5	Croatia	942	Denmark	709.5
Germany	1472	Turkey	1166	Latvia	933	Bosnia and Herzegovina	555.5
Italy	1455	Belgium	1139	Slovakia	901	Iceland	550.5
Spain	1426.5	Hungary	1133	Lithuania	839.5	Luxembourg	399.5
France	1423.5	Netherlands	1118	Austria	783	Georgia	356
Ukraine	1412.5	Finland	1072.5	Cyprus	749	Azerbaijan	332.5
Greece	1359.5	Estonia	1035.5			Montenegro	310.5
Sweden	1309	Switzerland	1032.5			Armenia	301.5
Czech Republic	1236	Serbia	1028.5			AASSE	280
Portugal	1222	Norway	974			Albania	191
						Andorra	187
						Macedonia	164

Super League

Year	Men	Women	Host City	Host Country
1965	Soviet Union	Soviet Union	Stuttgart/Kassel	West Germany
1967	Soviet Union	Soviet Union	Kiev	Soviet Union
1970	East Germany	East Germany	Stockholm/Budapest	Sweden/ Hungary
1973	Soviet Union	East Germany	Edinburgh	Great Britain
1975	East Germany	East Germany	Nice	France
1977	East Germany	East Germany	Helsinki	Finland
1979	East Germany	East Germany	Turin	Italy
1981	East Germany	East Germany	Zagreb	Yugoslavia
1983	East Germany	East Germany	London	Great Britain
1985	Soviet Union	Soviet Union	Moscow	Soviet Union
1987	Soviet Union	East Germany	Prague	Czechoslovakia
1989	Great Britain	East Germany	Gateshead	Great Britain
1991	Soviet Union	Germany	Frankfurt	Germany
1993	Russia	Russia	Rome	Italy
1994	Germany	Germany	Birmingham	Great Britain
1995	Germany	Russia	Villeneuve d'Ascq	France
1996	Germany	Germany	Madrid	Spain
1997	Great Britain	Russia	Munich	Germany
1998	Great Britain	Russia	Saint Petersburg	Russia
1999	Germany	Russia	Paris	France
2000	Great Britain	Russia	Gateshead	Great Britain
2001	Poland	Russia	Bremen	Germany
2002	Great Britain	Russia	Annecy	France
2003	France	Russia	Florence	Italy
2004	Germany	Russia	Bydgoszcz	Poland
2005	Germany	Russia	Florence	Italy
2006	France	Russia	Málaga	Spain
2007	France	Russia	Munich	Germany
2008	Great Britain	Russia	Annecy	France

Below is a list of the events that took place at the championships, and what is the European Cup record, who set it, what country they represented and which year.

• European Athletics Association
• European Athletics Indoor Cup
• European Team Championships

• Málaga 2006 Official Website
• Málaga 2006 Schedule
• European Cup Memories
• Bulletin for 2007 event (pdf)