On the occasion of an important European sports event, organized in Germany, Romfilatelia introduces on Friday, June 14th, the philatelic issue Romania at the European Football Championship 2024 in Germany, consisting of two postage stamps, a philatelic block of two imperforated stamps and a First Day Cover.
The postage stamp with the face value of Lei 4.60 shows a common phase, in which a goalkeeper confidently catches a ball sent into his goalpost defender’s space.
The postage stamp with the face value of Lei 13 illustrates a dynamic sequence of picking up a ball from the air and executing a goal kick or a long pass.
The idea of the sport of all continents, as football is considered, is symbolized by a ball whose surface is drawn and coloured with a planiglobe.
The image of the First Day Cover suggests the effort and confidence with which a goalkeeper catches the ball in a composition where the globe appears as a presence reminiscent of the continental and world competitions that have as their scope: football.
The European Football Championship is the main round-ball sports tournament organized by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA). The competition, challenged by the national teams of the UEFA member countries, designates the continental champion of Europe. It is the second most watched football tournament in the world after the FIFA World Cup.
For the first time, the competition was inaugurated in 1960, with the presence of 4 teams, out of the 17 registered.
In 1980, the participation in the final tournament was extended to 8 teams, the host of the competition being Italy. The final, refereed by the Romanian Nicolae Rainea, was won by the RFG 2-1 (opponent Belgium).
In the history of UEFA competitions, Germany and Spain have won 3 editions each, followed by Italy and France, with two editions each. Spain has the merit of being the winner of two consecutive editions, 2008 and 2012.
The national football team of Romania was present for the first time at the European Football Championship in 1984 (qualifying under the leadership of Mircea Lucescu), managing to win the head of the preliminary group that included Sweden, Czechoslovakia, Italy and Cyprus. The final tournament in which Romania participated together with the teams of Spain, FRG and Portugal had the Spanish team as the winner of the trophy, whom defeated the French team in the final match.
Romania has registered 6 appearances at the final tournament of the World Football Championship, achieving the best result in 2000 when it was present in the quarter-finals, losing the match against Italy.
EURO 2024 will be held in Germany, between June 14th and July 14th. It is the third time that Germany has hosted the competition (the first time in 1988 and the second time in 2020, when four games were played in Munich).
This year’s competition includes Romania in group E, alongside the teams of Belgium, Slovakia and Ukraine. The debut match will take place on June 17th this year, when our team shall meet the national team of Ukraine, at the stadium in Munich. The match against Belgium is scheduled for July 22nd, in Cologne, and the last match against Slovakia’s national team will be played at the stadium in Frankfurt.
The opening of the competition will take place in Munich with the Germany-Scotland match.
Participating in EURO 2024, after an eight-year absence, according to some analyses by specialists in the field, Romania is rated with real chances to move on from group E.
Starting from the wise thinking that no group is easy, considering that a particularly important moment for the Romanian football and the national team is the qualification for EURO 2024, we hope that the youth and ambition of our players will contribute to achieving results meant to bring moments of happiness and satisfaction among all Romanian football lovers.
Go Romania!
Romfilatelia thanks the representatives of the Romanian Football Federation for the collaboration in the development of this postage stamp issue.
