UEFA

The Union of European Football Associations (French: Union Européenne de Football Association,^[3], literally "European Union of Association Football", also referred to by its acronym UEFA (pron.: /juːˈeɪfə/ ew-AY-fə)) is the administrative body for association football in Europe and, partially, Asia. It is one of six continental confederations of world football's governing body FIFA. UEFA consists of fifty-three national associations members.

UEFA represents the national football associations of Europe, runs nation and club competitions, and controls the prize money, regulations and media rights to those competitions.

UEFA was founded on June 15, 1954 in Basel after consultation between Italian, French, and Belgian associations. Initially the European football union was accounted for 25 members which later doubled by the early 1990s. Not all sovereign countries of Europe are members of UEFA, yet all of those are micro states. Several countries that geographically located in Asia were also admitted to the European football association, particularly Israel and Kazakhstan that in the past were members of the Asian football association.

Until 1959 the main headquarters were located in Paris, and later in Bern. Since 1995 UEFA headquarters transferred to Nyon, Switzerland. Henri Delaunay was the first General Secretary and Ebbe Schwartz the first president. The current president is Michel Platini.

National teamsEdit

For menEdit

For womenEdit

1: Official name used by FIFA and UEFA for Bosnia and Herzegovina
2: Official name used by FIFA and UEFA for Ireland
3: Formerly member of AFC (AFC 1954–1974; Joined UEFA in 1994 due to the fact that several AFC teams refused to play against them)
4: Formerly member of AFC (AFC 1998–2002; Joined UEFA in 2002)
5: Official name used by FIFA and UEFA for Republic of Macedonia
6:22x20px Gibraltar was a provisional member of UEFA between 8 December 2006 and 26 January 2007 until the GFA had its application for full membership rejected. Gibraltar was again made a provisional member as of 1 October 2012.^[4]

Former membersEdit

• Saarland Football Union 1954 - 1956
• German Football Association (GDR) 1954 - 1990
• Football Federation of the Soviet Union 1954-1991, in 1992 became Russian Football Union.

CompetitionsEdit

InternationalEdit

The main competition for men's national teams is the UEFA European Football Championship, started in 1958, with the first finals in 1960, and known as the European Nations Cup until 1964. It is also called UEFA or the EURO. 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.

UEFA also organized the UEFA-CAF Meridian Cup with CAF for youth teams. In an effort to boost youth soccer.

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 Futsal Under-21 Championship.

ClubEdit

Association footballEdit

UEFA also runs the two main club competitions in Europe (known as UEFA club competitions).

The top-ranked UEFA competition is the UEFA Champions League, which started in the 1992/93 season and gathers 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); this competition was re-structured from a previous one that only gathered the top team of each country (and thus less competitive, held from 1955–1992 and known as the European Champion Clubs Cup or just European Cup).

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 begun in 1955). A third competition, the Cup Winners' Cup, which had started in 1960, was absorbed into the UEFA Cup in 1999.

In women's football UEFA also conducts the UEFA Women's Champions League for club teams. The competition was first held in 2001, and 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 UEFA Europa League (previously the winners of the Cup Winners' Cup), and came into being in 1973.^[5][6][7]

The UEFA Intertoto Cup was a summer competition, previously operated by several Central European football associations, which was relaunched and recognized as official UEFA club competition by UEFA in 1995.^[8] The last Intertoto Cup took place in 2008.

The Intercontinental Cup was jointly organised with CONMEBOL between the Champions League and the Copa Libertadores winners.^[9]

Only three teams^[10][11] (Juventus, Ajax and Bayern Munich) have won each of the three main competitions (European Cup/UEFA Champions League, UEFA Cup Winner's Cup and UEFA Cup/Europa League),^[12] a feat that is no longer possible for any team that did not win the Cup Winners' Cup. There are currently nine 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 five require a UEFA Europa League win.

Juventus was the first team in Europe to win all UEFA's official championships and cups^[13] and, in commemoration of achieving that feat, have received The UEFA Plaque by the Union of European Football Associations on 12 July 1988.^[14][15]

FutsalEdit

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 recognized as official by UEFA.

See alsoEdit

CompetitionsEdit

ResolutionsEdit

Major non-UEFA competitionsEdit

Financial Fair PlayEdit

• UEFA Financial Fair Play Regulations

Related articlesEdit

• Timeline of football
• Richest football clubs
• List of Presidents of UEFA

ReferencesEdit

External linksEdit

• UEFA homepage
• Union of European Football Association, Soccerlens.com. Retrieved: 9 October 2010.

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