The year 2016 is expected to be massive for the game of football around the world the same way it has been all these years — action-packed. The major events of the new calendar year constitute the European Championships in France. The Euro is considered the second biggest tournament in football after the FIFA World Cup.
The European Championship — featuring the best football teams of Europe — is scheduled for 10 June to 10 July this year in France.
In the year 2015, football came close to witnessing deadly terrorist attacks in Paris in the closing stages of the year. France were playing Germany at home in Paris when a series of blasts took place on Friday, 13 November. Everyone thought that could affect everyone — players, coaches, football teams around the world, and so on — but nothing could stop the determination of the beautiful game.
European football teams stood together and players, coaches, football legends came forward to show solidarity with the victims and give a strong message that no matter what happens, football will not stop.
There were doubts over the arrangement of the Euro Finals in France in 2016, but the prestigious competition will take place as scheduled.
Also in June is the COPA America Centenario, a special event celebrating 100 years of CONMEBOL and Copa America. The tournament is scheduled to take place from 3 June to 26 June, 2016, in the United States. A total of 16 teams will be participating — from the CONMEBOL confederation and the CONCACAF confederation.
The mother of all competitions in the year will be the Rio Olympics, scheduled to take place in August. While the women's football competition in the summer Olympics gets under way between 3 August and 19 August, the men's competition takes place between 4 August and 20 August.
Apart from these major events, we also have many continental championships taking place over the year. And needless to say, we also have the quintessential club football all year around in the form of the Premier League, La Liga, Bundesliga, Serie A, UEFA Champions League and so on.
Here is the entire list of events happening in 2016 in football:
January
12-23 Jan: AFC U-23 Championships
16 Jan-7 Feb: African Nations Championships
26 Jan-23 April: OFC Champions League
27 Jan-26 November: AFC Champions League
Club football
February
12 Feb-23 October: CAF Champions League
12 Feb-6 November: CAF Confederation Cup
19-21 Feb: CAF Super Cup
Club football
March
3-13 March: CONCACAF Women's U-17 Championship
Club football
April
Club football
May
4-16 May: UEFA Women's U-17 Championship
5-21 May: UEFA European U-17 Championship
18 May: UEFA Europa League final
28 May: UEFA Champions League final
28 May-11 June: OFC Nations Cup
Club football
June
3-26 June: Copa America Centenario
10 June-10 July: European Championships 2016
July
11-24 July: UEFA European U-19 Championship
19-31 July: UEFA Women's U-19 Championship
August
9 Aug: UEFA Super Cup
Club football 2016/17 season
September
15 Sep-2 Oct: AFC U-16 Championship (India)
30 Sep-21 Oct: FIFA U-17 Women's World Cup
Club football
October
13-30 Oct: AFC U-19 Championship
Club football
November
5 Nov: AFC Cup final
19 Nov-3 Dec: FIFA U-20 Women's World Cup
Club football
December
FIFA Club World Cup
Club football
