LONDON — From Spain winning its first title in 44 years to Diego Maradona taking over as coach of Argentina, football featured a wave of major changes throughout 2008. Off the field, the game wrestled again with problems of violence, racism and corruption and faced new challenges from the global financial crisis.

As Italy, France, Brazil and Argentina struggled, Spain proved itself the most consistent team in the game by winning a hugely enjoyable European Championship with a simple yet attractive way of playing.

"This is a happy day for Spain," 69-year-old coach Luis Aragones said after the 1-0 victory over Germany in the final in Vienna. "We've won this tournament in a brilliant way. I think everyone who loves football wants to see ... players who create winning combinations, who attack the penalty area and score goals."

The Spaniards, who ended the year as the No. 1 team in the FIFA rankings with Brazil and Argentina down in fifth and sixth place and France not even in the top 10, followed their Euro 2008 triumph with four straight World Cup qualifying victories to put themselves almost halfway toward reaching the 2010 tournament in South Africa.

Meanwhile, Maradona made headlines again — this time, not for drug abuse, obesity or ailing health.

Like five-time World Cup winner Brazil, Argentina could not keep up with runaway leader Paraguay in qualifying and that led to the end for Alfio Basile.

Struggling to get the best out of its talented lineup, Argentina sent for its greatest ever player. Maradona took over as coach and won his first game, 1-0, over Scotland in Glasgow.

"What made things happen is that I succeeded in making the players get over their fear of losing and that's what we needed to do," Maradona said. "We played for the people, the shirt and the light blue and white of Argentina."

England, which didn't even qualify for Euro 2008, was transformed by coach Fabio Capello from no-hopers to possible contenders for the 2010 World Cup.

The former AC Milan, AS Roma, Juventus and Real Madrid coach took over a week into the year and had England five points clear of its rivals in World Cup qualifying after winning its first four group games for the first time ever.

"They said this was the impossible job, instead it has been a pleasant year," Capello said as he looked back on his first job as a national team coach. "It has been very positive. I am satisfied."

England's revival was reflected in the impact and success of the Premier League.

Manchester United, Chelsea and Liverpool made it to the semifinals of the Champions League, and United edged the Blues on penalties in Moscow in the first final between two English teams.

Man United fought off Chelsea to win the Premier League title to make it 22 trophies in 22 years for veteran manager Alex Ferguson. Cristiano Ronaldo, who scored 42 goals for the club last season, is now cleaning up the player of the year titles.

But United wasn't the only Manchester team making news.

Facing corruption charges in Thailand, Manchester City owner Thaksin Shinawatra sold the club to a wealthy United Arab Emirates business group.

While the issue of foreign owners taking over clubs became thorny, especially in English football, UEFA for the first time threatened to penalize clubs if they continue to allow huge debts to build up, warning that their Champions League places may be taken away.

While the worldwide financial downturn presented new problems to debt-ridden clubs, including the danger of big sponsors pulling out, riots, deaths and bribery scandals continued to mar the game in 2008.

Rangers fans attacked police in Manchester in May at the UEFA Cup final, which was won by Zenit St. Petersburg. Racist trouble at Atletico Madrid's Champions League match against Marseille in September prompted UEFA to force the Spanish team to play a game behind closed doors.

In Italy, a Lazio fan was accidentally shot by a police officer during rioting in Tuscany, and a Parma fan was run down and killed by a bus carrying Juventus followers.

While football awaited the fallout from the economic meltdown toward the end of the year, bribery scandals continued to erupt — especially in Romania, where Steaua Bucharest was docked seven points by the national league for trying to fix a match.

Before the height of the credit crunch, Manchester City's Abu Dhabi United Group bought Brazilian star Robinho, who was expecting to go to Chelsea, for a British record transfer fee of 32.5 million pounds ($50 million; euro36.4 million).

Robinho left Real Madrid, which won the Spanish league for the second year in a row, and thrilled English football fans with his dribbles and goals.

But Madrid went into a slump in the second half of the year, costing coach Bernd Schuster his job in early December. The German was replaced by Juande Ramos, who was a major flop in England with Tottenham.

Barcelona revived under former midfielder Pep Guardiola, who took over as coach from Frank Rijkaard in June.

Brazil coach Dunga, whose team is second but six points behind the Paraguayans in World Cup qualifying, kept his job despite the jeers of the home fans. The supporters were lifted by a 6-2 victory over Portugal in a friendly in November.

Although Argentina, inspired by Lionel Messi, overcame a club vs. country dispute to win the Olympic gold medal for the second time in a row, the club champions of South America came from Ecuador.

Liga de Quito beat Brazil's Fluminense in a penalty shootout to become the first club from Ecuador to win the Copa Libertadores in a year when several unheralded teams in Europe also caught the spotlight.

Hoffenheim, which has a population of fewer than 3,300 and languished in the German third division two seasons ago, led the Bundesliga standings 15 games into this season.

Hull City gained promotion to the top flight of English football for the first time in its 104-year history and climbed to third after surprising victories at Arsenal and Tottenham. Anorthosis Famagusta became the first team from Cyprus to qualify for the Champions League.

Some of the powerhouse teams, however, changed managers despite comparatively successful seasons.

Inter Milan won its third straight Italian league title but still changed coaches, with Jose Mourinho replacing Roberto Mancini. Chelsea, despite coming so close in both the Premier League and Champions League, hired 2002 World Cup winning coach Luiz Felipe Scolari, who has restored attractive football to Stamford Bridge.

Another successful Italian coach, Giovanni Trapattoni, took charge of Ireland and Marcello Lippi, who stepped down after guiding Italy to its fourth World Cup triumph two years ago, returned after Roberto Donadoni's flop at Euro 2008. Mexico fired playing great Hugo Sanchez and appointed Sven-Goran Eriksson but is still laboring to reach the next World Cup.

One of the game's biggest names, David Beckham, is returning to Europe — but only on loan.

After the Los Angeles Galaxy flopped again in Major League Soccer and saw Columbus Crew take the title, Beckham needed competitive football to keep in contention for the England squad. He has joined AC Milan on loan until just before MLS starts up in March.

Ronaldinho found himself unwanted by Barcelona and Brazil but, after joining Milan in July and playing at the Olympics, started scoring regularly for his new club.

Defending champion Egypt beat Cameroon 1-0 in the final to win its sixth African Cup of Nations title in Ghana. The other big story in the region was South Africa's race to get venues, transport and infrastructure in place for the 2010 World Cup. FIFA insisted there was no "Plan B."

Poland and Ukraine were warned they could lose the co-hosting rights to the Euro 2012 championship unless they speed up work on stadiums and infrastructure.

UEFA announced a new-look and even bigger UEFA Cup to be called the Europa League, decided to increase the European championship from 16 to 24 teams and experimented with four linesmen instead of two.