[1] In 1957 in West Berlin, a European Championship was staged by the International Ladies Football Association.

[2][3] Four teams, representing West Germany, the Netherlands, Austria, and the eventual winners, England, played the tournament at the Poststadion,[2][3] at a time when women's football teams were officially forbidden by the German Football Association, a ban that was widely defied.

[4] The FICF, which eventually merged into the Italian Football Federation, organised a European tournament in Italy in 1969 for women's national teams, a tournament won by the home team, Italy, who beat Denmark 3–1 in the final.

Sue Lopez, a member of England's squad, contended that a lack of female representation in UEFA was a contributory factor:[7] In 1971, UEFA had set up a committee for women's football, composed exclusively of male representatives, and by the time this committee folded in 1978 they had failed to organise any international competitions.

[7]At a conference on 19 February 1980 UEFA resolved to launch its own competition for women's national teams.

[9] The first UEFA-run international tournament began only in 1982, when the 1984 European Competition for Women's Football qualification was launched.

In 2022, England won UEFA Women's Euro 2022, becoming the country's first senior association football team of either gender to win a major tournament since the men's team won the 1966 FIFA World Cup.