UEFA stages alternately a two-year European Women's Championship qualifying competition and a two-year qualifying competition for the FIFA Women's Cup, with each competition split into two divisions depending on the strength of the nation involved.
For the first time in qualifying for UEFA WOMEN'S EURO 2005™, the European élite featured 20 teams - it was formerly 16 - split into four groups of five.
This year England qualified automatically as hosts and were joined by the four group winners Sweden, Denmark, France and Germany, while the remaining three positions were filled by Finland, Italy and Norway and following play-offs involving the four runners-up and the two best third-placed teams.
There was also an incentive for the developing nations to continue to improve, with Austria, Republic of Ireland, Belarus, Greece and Israel earning promotion to the championship groups (five groups of five teams) for 2007 World Cup qualifying.
The eight finalists were divided into two groups of four teams each, with only hosts
Each team plays each of the other teams in its group, using a league system with the traditional points system used to decide the placings.
The winners of Group A will face the Group B runners-up in the semi-final, and vice versa. The winners of these games contest the final, with no third-placed play-off being played.
In 2005, UEFA moved its women's football operations into the professional football and marketing department to maximise the women's game's commercial and sporting potential.
Chief Executive Lars-Christer Olsson said: "I am pleased to say that women's football has been moved from our development division to our professional football and marketing division.
"This reflects the increased emphasis that we are putting on women's football and its future now and in the years to come."
The inaugural European Competition for Women's Football was played in the period between 1982 and 1984, and the tournament was upgraded to a European Championship for the 1989/91 event. Sweden (1984), Norway (1987), Germany (1989 and 1991), and Norway (1993) were crowned European champions in the early years before the Germans triumphed in 1995, 1997 and 2001 - the latter success coming with a 1-0 'golden goal' win against Sweden in the final on home soil in Ulm.