What does UEFA do for football development?
Wednesday, February 7, 2024
Article summary
UEFA reinvests net revenue from its top competitions into five development programmes. Each offers support to our 55 member associations that together support the entire football pyramid.
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UEFA HatTrick development programme – direct funding support
Redistributes men’s EURO net earnings to associations for investment in development and infrastructure projects as:
• Lump sums for each association every four years to invest according to strategic priorities.
• Annual payments to help cover association running costs, governance projects, national team travel expenses, participation in UEFA youth women’s, futsal and amateur competitions.
• Annual incentive payments for which associations can apply to implement a range of UEFA development initiatives (e.g. anti-match-fixing, coaching, club licensing, elite youth player development, grassroots and women’s football, good governance, refereeing and social responsibility).
Solidarity payments - direct funding from UEFA club competitions
Each season, UEFA allocates a percentage of income from its top club competitions for distribution among non-participating clubs.
• Men’s Champions League, Europa League and Europa Conference League: payments earmarked exclusively for investment in youth development programmes and/or local community schemes. In 2022/23, the amount available for solidarity payments was equivalent to 4% of the three competitions’ cumulative gross revenue.
• Women’s Champions League: payments used for development only. Associations represented by at least one club are eligible for UEFA solidarity funds to distribute equally among non-participating clubs. In 2022/23, this was equivalent to 20% of the total amount available.
UEFA Academy – personal development support
Runs educational and research programmes to help administrators, players and specialists develop careers in a range of football-related activities.
Courses include communications, corporate social responsibility, finance, governance and law. In 2022/23, 922 students representing 456 organisations from across the global football community – confederations, associations, leagues and clubs – graduated from 19 UEFA Academy courses.
UEFA Grow – strategic development support
Offers on-demand strategic skills that help associations to align development projects with both their own priorities and UEFA’s strategic goals, ensuring a measurable return on investment.
Grow’s support offers a range of business-critical expertise: identifying football development trends, exploring business opportunities, supporting strategic growth, assessing football’s social impact and strengthening professional networks.
UEFA Assist - strategic development and direct funding support
Shares the experience and know-how of European football with our five sister confederations – the AFC (Asia),
CAF (Africa), Concacaf (North and Central America), CONMEBOL (South America) and the OFC (New Zealand
and South Pacific island nations), including their regional and member associations.
Support focuses on building capacity by sharing knowledge and funding education programmes; organising
youth competitions; funding small-scale, high-impact infrastructure projects; and encouraging UEFA member associations to work with counterparts in other confederationson development projects.