The European Cup is a former athletics competition for European teams that was replaced by the European Team Championships starting in 2009. The European Cup saw most of the major nations of Europe compete. Originally known as the Bruno Zauli Cup, it first took place in 1965 in Stuttgart (men) and Kassel (women), Germany. Initially, the competition was a bi-annual event (tri-annual once); however, from 1993, it took place once every year.

History

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.^{[ clarification needed (unclear wording)]}

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^{[ clarification needed (unclear wording)]} 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.

European Team Championships

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.

Scoring system and relegation

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.

League positions in 2009

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

Country	Pts
Russia	1548
Great Britain	1518
Poland	1512
Germany	1472
Italy	1455
Spain	1426.5
France	1423.5
Ukraine	1412.5
Greece	1359.5
Sweden	1309
Czech Republic	1236
Portugal	1222

First League

Country	Pts
Belarus	1217
Slovenia	1211
Romania	1182.5
Turkey	1166
Belgium	1139
Hungary	1133
Netherlands	1118
Finland	1072.5
Estonia	1035.5
Switzerland	1032.5
Serbia	1028.5
Norway	974

Second League

Country	Pts
Ireland	971.5
Bulgaria	947
Croatia	942
Latvia	933
Slovakia	901
Lithuania	839.5
Austria	783
Cyprus	749

Third League

Country	Pts
Moldova	722
Israel	714
Denmark	709.5
Bosnia and Herzegovina	555.5
Iceland	550.5
Luxembourg	399.5
Georgia	356
Azerbaijan	332.5
Montenegro	310.5
Armenia	301.5
AASSE	280
Albania	191
Andorra	187
Macedonia	164

Winners

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

Best performances

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.

Hosts

#	Year	A Final	B Final
1	1965	Stuttgart (men), Kassel (women)
2	1967	Kiev
3	1970	Stockholm
4	1973	Edinburgh
5	1975	Nice
6	1977	Helsinki	Gothenburg (men), Třinec (women)
7	1979	Turin	Karlovac (men), Paris (women)
8	1981	Zagreb	Athens (men), Pescara (women)
9	1983	London	Prague (men), Sittard (women)
10	1985	Moscow	Budapest (men), Budapest (women)
11	1987	Prague	Gothenburg (men), Gothenburg (women)
12	1989	Gateshead	Brussels (men), Strasbourg (women)
13	1991	Frankfurt	Barcelona
14	1993	Rome	Brussels
15	1994	Birmingham	Valencia
16	1995	Villeneuve d'Ascq	Basel, Turku
17	1996	Madrid	Lisbon, Bergen
18	1997	Munich	Prague, Dublin
19	1998	St. Petersburg	Budapest, Malmö
20	1999	Paris	Lahti, Athens
21	2000	Gateshead	Oslo, Bydgoszcz
21	2001	Bremen	Vaasa, Budapest
22	2002	Annecy	Banská Bystrica, Seville
23	2003	Florence	Lappeenranta, Velenje
24	2004	Bydgoszcz	Plovdiv, Istanbul
25	2005	Florence	Gävle, Leiria
26	2006	Málaga	Prague, Thessaloniki
27	2007	Munich	Vaasa, Milan
28	2008	Annecy	Leiria, Istanbul

See also

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

References

External links

• Málaga 2006 Official Website Archived 2013-10-05 at the Wayback Machine
• Málaga 2006 Schedule
• European Cup Memories
• Bulletin for 2007 event (pdf)