History about "UEFA"

 

The Union of European Football Associations (French: Union des Associations Européennes de Football, also referred to by its acronym UEFA is the administrative body for association football in Europe. Fifty-three national associations are members.

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

UEFA was founded in 1954 in Basel, Switzerland. Henri Delaunay was the first General Secretary and Ebbe Schwartz the first president. The current president is Michel Platini. Its headquarters are in Nyon, Switzerland.

Men's national teams

Albania Azerbaijan Bulgaria Denmark Finland Greece Israel Liechtenstein Malta Northern Ireland Romania Serbia Sweden Wales

Andorra  Belarus Croatia England France Hungary Italy Lithuania Moldova Norway Russia Slovakia Switzerland

Armenia Belgium Cyprus Estonia Georgia Iceland Kazakhstan Luxembourg Montenegro Poland San Marino Slovenia Turkey

Austria Bosnia-Herzegovina Czech Republic Faroe Islands Germany Republic of Ireland Latvia Macedonia Netherlands Portugal Scotland Spain Ukraine

Women's national teams

Albania Azerbaijan Bulgaria Denmark Finland Greece Israel Liechtenstein Malta Northern Ireland Romania Serbia Sweden Wales

Andorra  Belarus  Croatia  England  France  Hungary  Italy Lithuania Moldova  Norway  Russia  Slovakia  Switzerland

Armenia  Belgium  Cyprus  Estonia  Georgia  Iceland  Kazakhstan  Luxembourg  Montenegro  Poland  San Marino  Slovenia  Turkey

Austria Bosnia-Herzegovina  Czech Republic Faroe Islands  Germany  Republic of Ireland  Latvia  Macedonia  Netherlands  Portugal  Scotland  Spain  Ukraine

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

NB:  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.

Former members

• Saarland Football Union 1954 - 1956
• German Football Association (GDR) 1954 - 1990

Competitions

International

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 organizes 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.

Club

Association football

 

UEFA member countries by club competition entry entitlements, 2007/8

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.

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. 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.

Only three teams (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), 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 and, in commemoration of achieving that feat, have received The UEFA Plaque by the Union of European Football Associations on 12 July 1988.

Futsal

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.