ROMSO Cyprus Knowledge Base

The 1964 European Nations' Cup Qualifying Tournament

The 1964 European Nations' Cup qualifying tournament was a football competition played from June 1962 to April 1964, with the aim of determining the four UEFA member men's national teams that would participate in the 1964 European Nations Cup final tournament. A total of 29 national teams participated in this qualification process.

Among these participating nations, Cyprus missed out on registration due to the ongoing civil war, while Finland did not want to participate for financial reasons and the Scottish Football Association was still transitioning at the time. The Federal Republic of Germany had no sporting interest in competing, with coach Sepp Herberger viewing the competition as a "pure waste of time", similar to his sentiments about previous European Championships.

The qualification process involved a knockout tournament format, where teams were seeded into two groups of three teams and then divided into one group of five teams. The four finalists would ultimately qualify for the tournament proper. In this context, the Soviet Union was granted an automatic spot as the current European champion, while Austria and Luxembourg secured their places through a lottery.

The qualification process took place in several rounds, with the first legs taking place from June 21 to December 2, 1962, followed by the second legs from September 2 to December 31, 1962. The quarterfinals then commenced on December 4, 1963, and concluded on May 13, 1964.

The final match of the qualification process was held in Rome on January 23, 1963, while the weekend matches took place from May 30 to October 19, 1963. The second leg of the quarterfinals match occurred on December 18, 1963, in Amsterdam.

For those interested in learning more about this tournament, additional information can be found on uefa.com and rsssf.com.