UEFA
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Union of European Football Associations | |
 | |
.JPG) UEFA headquarters in Nyon, Switzerland | |
 | |
| Abbreviation | UEFA |
|---|---|
| Formation | 15 June 1954 |
| Founded at | Basel, Switzerland |
| Type | Football organisation |
| Headquarters | Nyon, Switzerland |
| Coordinates | 46°22′16″N 6°13′52″E / 46.371009°N 6.23103°E |
Region | Europe |
Membership | 55 full member associations |
Official languages | English French German (other main but not official: Italian, Russian, Portuguese, Spanish)[1] |
| Aleksander Čeferin[2] | |
First vice-president | Karl-Erik Nilsson |
Vice-presidents | Zbigniew Boniek Armand Duka David Gill Gabriele Gravina Laura McAllister |
General secretary | Theodore Theodoridis |
Main organ | UEFA Congress |
Parent organization | FIFA |
| Website | uefa.com |
| FIFA confederations |
|---|
 |
| AFC, CAF, CONCACAF |
| CONMEBOL, OFC, UEFA |
The Union of European Football Associations (UEFA /juːˈeɪfə/ yoo-AY-fə; French: Union des associations européennes de football;[a] German: Union der europäischen Fußballverbände)[b] is one of six continental bodies of governance in association football. It governs football, futsal and beach football in Europe and the transcontinental countries of Turkey, Azerbaijan, Georgia and Kazakhstan, as well as the West Asian countries of Cyprus, Armenia and Israel.[3] UEFA consists of 55 national association members. Since 2022, due to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, FIFA and UEFA suspended all Russian national teams and clubs from any FIFA and UEFA competitions.[4][5]
UEFA consists of the national football associations of Europe, and runs national and club competitions including the UEFA European Championship, UEFA Nations League, UEFA Champions League, UEFA Europa League, UEFA Conference League, and UEFA Super Cup, and also controls the prize money, regulations, as well as media rights to those competitions.
Henri Delaunay acted as the first general secretary and Ebbe Schwartz as the first president. The current president is Aleksander Čeferin, a former Football Association of Slovenia president, who was elected as UEFA's seventh president at the 12th Extraordinary UEFA Congress in Athens in September 2016, and automatically became a vice-president of the world body FIFA.[6]
History and membership
[edit]UEFA was officially inaugurated on 15 June 1954 in Basel, Switzerland after consultation between the Italian, French, and Belgian associations.[7] At the founding meeting, 25 members were present. However, six other associations which were not present were still recognised as founding members, bringing the total of founding associations to 31.[8] UEFA grew to more than 50 members by the mid-1990s, as new associations were born out of the fragmentation of the Soviet Union, Yugoslavia and Czechoslovakia into their constituent states. UEFA's main headquarters after its foundation were located in Paris, but moved to Bern in 1960. Finally, they moved to Nyon, Switzerland, in 1995, opening the organisation's current headquarters in 1999.[9]
- Current members
UEFA membership coincides for the most part with recognition as a sovereign country in Europe (48 out of 55 members are sovereign UN member states), although there are some exceptions. One UN member state (Monaco) and one UN General Assembly non-member observer state (Vatican City) are not members. Some UEFA members are not sovereign states, but form part of a larger recognised sovereign state in the context of international law. These include England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales (constituent countries of the United Kingdom), Gibraltar (British Overseas Territory), the Faroe Islands (Danish Realm), and Kosovo (state with limited recognition), however, in the context of these countries, government functions concerning sport tend to be carried at the territorial level coterminous with the UEFA member entity. UEFA have previously declined membership to those deemed as non-sovereign countries like Jersey.[10]
Some UEFA members are transcontinental states (Azerbaijan, Georgia, Kazakhstan and Turkey) and others are considered part of Europe both culturally and politically (Turkey, Cyprus and Armenia). Countries which had been members of the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) were also admitted to the European football association, such as Israel (because it had been banned from the AFC group in 1974) and Kazakhstan. Involving clubs, some UEFA member associations allow teams from outside their association's main territory to take part in their "domestic" competition, for example, AS Monaco in the French League, Welsh clubs Cardiff City or Swansea City in the English League, or Derry City, situated in Northern Ireland, plays in the Republic of Ireland-based League of Ireland.[11][12]
On 28 February 2022, due to the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine and in accordance with a recommendation by the International Olympic Committee (IOC), the UEFA suspended the participation of Russia.[13][14] The Russian Football Union unsuccessfully appealed the UEFA ban to the Court of Arbitration for Sport, which upheld the ban.[15][16] On 26 September 2023 the ban was lifted for the Russia U-17 team enabling them to complete in the 2024 Euro U-17 with UEFA saying "by banning children from our competitions, we not only fail to recognise and uphold a fundamental right for their holistic development but we directly discriminate against them". The lifting of the ban also applied to all teams, men and women, of underage players.[17] This was rejected by the FA of Ukraine, England, and Sweden, with all three threatening to boycott matches against Russia.[18]
- Europe's Big Five
Five of the UEFA national teams, Germany, Italy, France, England and Spain, have won 12 FIFA World Cup titles out of 22 tournaments for Europe. The national associations of these five countries, are also responsible for organizing the so-called «Europe's Big Five», consisting of Spain's La Liga, England's Premier League, Germany's Bundesliga, Italy's Serie A and France's Ligue 1.[19]
Executive committee
[edit]UEFA executive committee is composed of;[20]
| Vice-presidents
Members | General secretary Deputy general secretary Treasurer Head of club competitions and calendar Head of national competitions
|
List of UEFA office holders
[edit]- List of presidents of UEFA
| Secretary general | Nationality | Term |
|---|---|---|
| Ebbe Schwartz |  Denmark | 1954–1962 |
| Gustav Wiederkehr |  Switzerland | 1962–1972 |
| Sándor Barcs |  Hungary | 1972–1973 (acting) |
| Artemio Franchi |  Italy | 1973–1983 |
| Jacques Georges |  France | 1983–1990 |
| Lennart Johansson |  Sweden | 1990–2007 |
| Michel Platini | France | 2007–2015 |
| Ángel María Villar |  Spain | 2015–2016 (acting) |
| Aleksander Čeferin |  Slovenia | 2016–present |
- List of secretaries general of UEFA
| Chief Executive |
| Secretary general | Nationality | Term |
|---|---|---|
| Henri Delaunay | France | 1954–1955 |
| Pierre Delaunay | France | 1955–1960 |
| Hans Bangerter | Switzerland | 1960–1989 |
| Gerhard Aigner |  Germany | 1989–1999 |
| 1999–2003 | ||
| Lars-Christer Olsson | Sweden | 2003–2007 |
| Gianni Infantino | Switzerland Italy | 2007 |
| David Taylor |  Scotland | 2007–2009 |
| Gianni Infantino | Switzerland Italy | 2009–2016 |
| Theodore Theodoridis |  Greece | 2016–present |
Members
[edit]| Code | Association | National teams | Founded | FIFA affiliation | UEFA affiliation | IOC member |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ALB |  Albania | 1930 | 1932 | 1954 | Yes | |
| AND |  Andorra | 1994 | 1996 | 1996 | Yes | |
| ARM |  Armenia | 1992 | 1992 | 1992 | Yes | |
| AUT |  Austria | 1904 | 1905 | 1954 | Yes | |
| AZE |  Azerbaijan | 1992 | 1994 | 1994 | Yes | |
| BLR |  Belarus | 1989 | 1992 | 1993 | Yes | |
| BEL |  Belgium | 1895 | 1904 | 1954 | Yes | |
| BIH |  Bosnia and Herzegovina | 1920 | 1996 | 1998 | Yes | |
| BUL |  Bulgaria | 1923 | 1924 | 1954 | Yes | |
| CRO |  Croatia | 1912 | 1992 | 1993 | Yes | |
| CYP |  Cyprus | 1934 | 1948 | 1962 | Yes | |
| CZE |  Czech Republic | 1901 | 1907 | 1954 | Yes | |
| DEN | Denmark | 1889 | 1904 | 1954 | Yes | |
| ENG |  England | 1863 | 1905 | 1954 | No[c] | |
| EST |  Estonia | 1921 | 1923 | 1992 | Yes | |
| FRO |  Faroe Islands | 1979 | 1988 | 1990 | No[d] | |
| FIN |  Finland | 1907 | 1908 | 1954 | Yes | |
| FRA | France | 1919[e] | 1904[f] | 1954 | Yes | |
| GEO |  Georgia | 1990 | 1992 | 1992 | Yes | |
| GER | Germany | 1900 | 1904 | 1954 | Yes | |
| GIB |  Gibraltar | 1895 | 2016 | 2013 | No[c] | |
| GRE | Greece | 1926 | 1927 | 1954 | Yes | |
| HUN | Hungary | 1901 | 1906 | 1954 | Yes | |
| ISL |  Iceland | 1947[g] | 1947 | 1954 | Yes | |
| ISR |  Israel[h] | 1928 | 1929 | 1994[i] | Yes | |
| ITA | Italy | 1898 | 1905 | 1954 | Yes | |
| KAZ |  Kazakhstan[j] | 1994 | 1994 | 2002 | Yes[k] | |
| KOS |  Kosovo | 2008 | 2016 | 2016 | Yes | |
| LVA |  Latvia | 1921 | 1922 | 1992 | Yes | |
| LIE |  Liechtenstein | 1934 | 1974 | 1974 | Yes | |
| LTU |  Lithuania | 1922 | 1923 | 1992 | Yes | |
| LUX |  Luxembourg | 1908 | 1910 | 1954 | Yes | |
| MLT |  Malta | 1900 | 1959 | 1960 | Yes | |
| MDA |  Moldova | 1990 | 1994 | 1993 | Yes | |
| MNE |  Montenegro | 1931 | 2007 | 2007 | Yes | |
| NED |  Netherlands | 1889 | 1904 | 1954 | Yes | |
| MKD |  North Macedonia | 1926 | 1994 | 1994 | Yes | |
| NIR |  Northern Ireland | 1880 | 1911 | 1954 | No[c] | |
| NOR |  Norway | 1902 | 1908 | 1954 | Yes | |
| POL |  Poland | 1919[l] | 1923 | 1954 | Yes | |
| POR |  Portugal | 1914 | 1923 | 1954 | Yes | |
| IRL |  Republic of Ireland | 1921 | 1923 | 1954 | Yes | |
| ROU |  Romania | 1909 | 1923 | 1954 | Yes | |
| RUS |  Russia | 1912 | 1912 | 1954 | Yes | |
| SMR |  San Marino | 1931 | 1988 | 1988 | Yes | |
| SCO | Scotland | 1873 | 1910 | 1954 | No[c] | |
| SRB |  Serbia | 1919 | 1921 | 1954 | Yes | |
| SVK |  Slovakia | 1938 | 1994 | 1993 | Yes | |
| SVN | Slovenia | 1920 | 1992 | 1992 | Yes | |
| ESP | Spain | 1909 | 1904 | 1954 | Yes | |
| SWE | Sweden | 1904 | 1904 | 1954 | Yes | |
| SUI |  Switzerland | 1895 | 1904 | 1954 | Yes | |
| TUR |  Turkey | 1923 | 1923 | 1962 | Yes | |
| UKR |  Ukraine | 1991 | 1992 | 1992 | Yes | |
| WAL |  Wales | 1876 | 1910 | 1954 | No[c] |
Former members
[edit]| Association | Year | Note |
|---|---|---|
.svg){kind=small} Saarland | 1954–1956 | [m] |
 East Germany | 1954–1990 | [n] |
 Soviet Union | 1954–1991 | [o] |
| Czechoslovakia | 1954–1993 | [p] |
 →  Yugoslavia→ Serbia-Montenegro | 1954–2003 2003–2006 | [q] |
Competitions
[edit]UEFA continental competitions
[edit]Defunct
| National teams:
| Clubs:
| Amateur:
|
UEFA runs official international competitions in Europe and some countries of Northern, Southwestern and Central Asia for national teams and professional clubs, known as UEFA competitions, some of which are regarded as the world's most prestigious tournaments.
UEFA is the organiser of two of the most prestigious competitions in international football: The UEFA European Championship and the UEFA Nations League. The main competition for men's national teams is the UEFA European Championship (also known as the Euro), which started in 1958, with the first finals in 1960, and was known as the European Nations Cup until 1964. The UEFA Nations League is the second tournament of UEFA and was introduced in 2018. The tournament largely replaced the international friendly matches previously played on the FIFA International Match Calendar. It will be played every two years.
UEFA also runs national competitions at Under-21, Under-19 and Under-17 levels. For women's national teams, UEFA operates the UEFA Women's Championship for senior national sides as well as Women's Under-19 and Women's Under-17 Championships.
World, Olympic and intercontinental competitions
[edit]| Intercontinental national teams: Defunct | Intercontinental clubs: Defunct
|
Beside continental European competitions for national and their junior teams, the UEFA organizes various qualification male and female tournaments among European national and their junior teams for World Cups (organized by FIFA) and Olympics (organized by IOC).
UEFA also organised the UEFA–CAF Meridian Cup with CAF for youth teams in an effort to boost youth football. UEFA launched the UEFA Regions' Cup, for semi-professional teams representing their local region, in 1999. In futsal there is the UEFA Futsal Championship and UEFA Under-19 Futsal Championship. Despite the existence of UEFA's Futsal and Beach soccer committee, UEFA does not organise any beach soccer competitions. International and club beach soccer competitions for UEFA members are organised externally by Beach Soccer Worldwide.
The Italian, German, Spanish, French and Russian[r] men's national teams are the only teams to have won the European football championship in all categories.
Club
[edit]
The top-ranked UEFA competition is the UEFA Champions League, which started in 1955 as the European Champion Clubs' Cup (or simply the European Cup) and initially only gathered the top team of each country; this competition has since been expanded to gather the top 1–4 teams of each country's league (the number of teams depend on that country's ranking and can be upgraded or downgraded).
A second, lower-ranked competition is the UEFA Europa League. This competition, for national knockout cup winners and high-placed league teams, was launched by UEFA in 1971 as a successor of both the former UEFA Cup and the Inter-Cities Fairs Cup (also began in 1955). A third competition, the UEFA Cup Winners' Cup, which started in 1960, was absorbed into the UEFA Cup (now UEFA Europa League) in 1999.
In December 2018, UEFA announced the creation of a third club competition, later named the UEFA Europa Conference League. The competition features 32 teams in 8 groups of 4, with a knockout round between the second placed teams in Europa Conference League and the third placed teams in the Europa League, leading to a final 16 knockout stage featuring the eight group winners. The first edition of the competition was played in 2021–2022.[24]
In women's football UEFA also conducts the UEFA Women's Champions League for club teams. The competition was first held in 2001, and was known as the UEFA Women's Cup until 2009.
The UEFA Super Cup pits the winners of the Champions League against the winners of the Europa League (previously the winners of the Cup Winners' Cup), and came into being in 1973.[25][26][27]
The UEFA Intertoto Cup was a summer competition, previously operated by several Central European football associations, which was relaunched and recognised as official UEFA club competition by UEFA in 1995.[28] The last Intertoto Cup took place in 2008.
The European/South American Cup was jointly organised with CONMEBOL between the Champions League and the Copa Libertadores winners.[29]
Only five teams[30][31] (Juventus, Ajax, Manchester United, Bayern Munich and Chelsea[s]) have won each of the three main competitions (European Cup/UEFA Champions League, European Cup Winners' Cup/UEFA Cup Winners' Cup and UEFA Cup/UEFA Europa League),[32] a feat that is no longer possible for any team that did not win the Cup Winners' Cup. There are currently eight teams throughout Europe that have won two of the three trophies; all but one have won the Cup Winners' Cup, four require a win in the Champions League and four require a UEFA Europa League win.
Until the first staging of the UEFA Europa Conference League in 2022, Juventus of Italy was the only team in Europe to win all UEFA's official championships and cups[33] and, in commemoration of achieving that feat, have received The UEFA Plaque by the Union of European Football Associations on 12 July 1988.[34][35]
UEFA's premier futsal competition is the UEFA Futsal Cup, a tournament started in 2001 which replaced the former Futsal European Clubs Championship. This event, despite enjoying a long and well-established tradition in the European futsal community, dating back to 1984, was never recognised as official by UEFA.
There was an attempt to create a Europa League-style second tier women's club competition, which began in discussion in 2021.[36] In December 2023, the attempt came into a fruition, with the first edition of the competition to be played in 2025–26.[37]
Current title holders
[edit]
Titles by nation
[edit]| Nation | Men | Women | Futsal | Total | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Euro | NL | U21 | U19 | U17 | Euro | NL | U19 | U17 | Men's | U19 | Women's | ||
| Spain | 4 | 1 | 5 | 12 | 9 | – | 1 | 6 | 5 | 7 | 2 | 3 | 55 |
| Germany[t] | 3 | – | 3 | 6 | 4 | 8 | – | 6 | 8 | – | – | – | 38 |
| France | 2 | 1 | 1 | 8 | 3 | – | – | 5 | 1 | – | – | – | 21 |
| England | – | – | 3 | 11 | 2 | 1 | – | 1 | – | – | – | – | 18 |
| Italy | 2 | – | 5 | 4 | 2 | – | – | 1 | – | 2 | – | – | 16 |
| Portugal | 1 | 1 | – | 4 | 6 | – | – | – | – | 2 | 1 | – | 15 |
| Russia[u] | 1 | – | 2 | 6 | 3 | – | – | 1 | – | 1 | – | – | 14 |
| Netherlands | 1 | – | 2 | – | 4 | 1 | – | 1 | – | – | – | – | 9 |
| Sweden | – | – | 1 | – | – | 1 | – | 3 | – | – | – | – | 5 |
| Czech Republic[v] | 1 | – | 1 | 1 | 1 | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | 4 |
| Serbia[w] | – | – | 1 | 3 | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | 4 |
| Slovakia[v] | 1 | – | 1 | 1 | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | 3 |
| Bulgaria | – | – | – | 3 | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | 3 |
| Hungary | – | – | – | 3 | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | 3 |
| Poland | – | – | – | 1 | 1 | – | – | – | 1 | – | – | – | 3 |
| Turkey | – | – | – | 1 | 2 | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | 3 |
| Austria | – | – | – | 2 | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | 2 |
| Denmark | 1 | – | – | – | – | – | – | 1 | – | – | – | – | 2 |
| Norway | – | – | – | – | – | 2 | – | – | – | – | – | – | 2 |
| Republic of Ireland | – | – | – | 1 | 1 | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | 2 |
| Belgium | – | – | – | 1 | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | 1 |
| Greece | 1 | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | 1 |
| Romania | – | – | – | 1 | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | 1 |
| Scotland | – | – | – | 1 | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | 1 |
| Switzerland | – | – | – | – | 1 | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | 1 |
| Ukraine | – | – | – | 1 | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | 1 |
Sponsors
[edit]- UEFA national team competitions
- UEFA Champions League
Note: The UEFA Champions League sponsors are also sponsors of the UEFA Super Cup and the UEFA Youth League.
- UEFA Europa League
Note: The UEFA Europa League sponsors are also sponsors of the UEFA Conference League.
- UEFA women's football competitions
FIFA World Rankings
[edit]Overview
[edit]
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