uefa

The Union of European Football Associations, almost always referred to by the acronym UEFA (pronounced you-AY-fuh), is the administrative and controlling body for European football (soccer)football. It represents the national football associations of Europe, running nine national and four club competitions in Europe (all European nations plus Russia, Turkey, Israel, Georgia (country)Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan), controlling the prize-money, regulations and media rights to those competitions. It is one of the six continental confederations of FIFA. Of the confederations, it is by far the strongest in terms of wealth and influence over the global game. Virtually all of the world's top players play in European leagues because of the salaries available from the world's wealthiest football clubs, particularly in FA Premier LeagueEngland, Serie AItaly, La LigaSpain and Bundesliga (football)Germany. Many of the world's strongest national sides are in UEFA. Of the 32 available spots in the Football World Cup 20062006 World Cup, 14 are allocated to UEFA national teams.UEFA was founded on June 15, 1954 in Basel, Switzerland following discussions between the French Football FederationFrench, Italian Football FederationItalian and Belgian Football AssociationBelgian FAs. The headquarters was in Paris until 1959 when the organisation moved to Bern. Henri Delaunay was the first General Secretary and Ebbe Schwartz the president. Its administrative centre since 1995 is in Nyon, Switzerland. It was initially made up of twenty-five national associations; currently there are 52 associations.UEFA, as a representative of the national associations, has had a number of bruising clashes with the European Commission. In the 1990s the issues of television rights and especially international transfers (the Bosman ruling) have had to undergo some major changes to remain in line with European law.

UEFA General Secretaries - Called Chief Executive since December 1999:

Henri Delaunay

Pierre Delaunay

Hans Bangerter (1960 - 1989)

Gerhard Aigner

Lars-Christer Olsson

UEFA Presidents -

Ebbe Schwartz

Gustav Wiederkehr

Artemio Franchi

Jacques Georges

Lennart Johansson (1990-)

Competitions -

International - The main competition for men's national teams is the European Football Championship, started in 1958, with the first finals in 1960, and known as the European Nations Cup until 1964. UEFA also runs national competitions at European Under-21 Football ChampionshipUnder-21, European Under-19 Football ChampionshipUnder-19 and UEFA U-17 ChampionshipUnder-17 levels. For women's national teams, UEFA operates the UEFA Women's Championship for senior national sides and the UEFA Women's Under-19 Championship at under-19 level.UEFA also organises the UEFA/CAF Meridian Cup with Confederation of African FootballCAF for youth teams.In futsal there is the UEFA Futsal Championship.

Club - UEFA also runs the two main club competitions in Europe: the UEFA Champions League, for national league champions, was first held in 1955, and was known as the European Champion Clubs Cup until 1991; and the UEFA Cup, for national knockout cup winners and high-placed league teams, was launched by UEFA in 1971 as a successor to the Inter-Cities Fairs Cup (also begun in 1955). A third competition, the Cup Winners' Cup, started in 1960 and was absorbed into the UEFA Cup in 1999. Only four teams have Grand Slam (UEFA)won each of the three competitions, a feat that is no longer possible for any team that did not win the Cup Winners' Cup. There are currently ten teams throughout Europe that have won two of the three trophies; of these, six require a win in the Champions League and four require a UEFA Cup win. The European Super CupUEFA Super Cup, which pits the winners of the Champions League against the winners of the UEFA Cup (previously the winners of the Cup Winners' Cup), came into being in 1973.The UEFA Intertoto Cup is a summer competition, previously operated by several Central European football associations, which was relaunched by UEFA in 1995 as a qualifying competition for the UEFA Cup. Recently, UEFA launched the UEFA Regions Cup, for semi-professional teams. UEFA also conducts the UEFA Women's Cup for women's club teams.In futsal there is the UEFA Futsal Cup.The European/South American Cup was jointly organised with CONMEBOL between the UEFA Champions LeagueChampions League and the Copa Libertadores de AméricaCopa Libertadores winners.

UEFA World Cup Qualifiers - The following UEFA members have competed in the Football World CupFIFA World Cup (totals do not include Football World Cup 2006 (qualification UEFA)qualification for the 2006 Football World Cup2006 World Cup)
''+ = team and national federation no longer exist''

15 appearances: Germany national football teamGermany (incl. 10 as West Germany), Italy national football teamItaly

11: Belgium national football teamBelgium, England national football teamEngland, France national football teamFrance, Spain national football teamSpain

10: Sweden national football teamSweden

9: Hungary national football teamHungary, Russia national football teamRussia (incl. 7 as the former USSR national football teamUSSR)

8: Czech Republic national football teamCzech Republic (incl. 7 as former Czechoslovakia national football teamCzechoslovakia), Scotland national football teamScotland

7: Austria national football teamAustria, Bulgaria national football teamBulgaria, Netherlands national football teamNetherlands, Romania national football teamRomania, Switzerland national football teamSwitzerland, Serbia and Montenegro national football teamSerbia & Montenegro (incl. 6 as former Yugoslavia national football teamSFR Yugoslavia and 1 as FR Yugoslavia)

6: Poland national football teamPoland

3: Denmark national football teamDenmark, Ireland national football teamIreland, Northern Ireland national football teamNorthern Ireland, Norway national football teamNorway, Portugal national football teamPortugal

2: Croatia national football teamCroatia, Turkey national football teamTurkey

1: East Germany national football teamEast Germany+, Greece national football teamGreece, Israel national football teamIsrael (qualified when member of Asian Football ConfederationAFC), Slovenia national football teamSlovenia, Wales national football teamWalesTo date, the following eleven nations have qualified for the 2006 World Cup: Germany (16th appearance), Italy (16th), England (12th), France (12th), Sweden (11th), the Netherlands (8th), Poland (7th), Portugal (4th), Croatia (3rd), Serbia and Montenegro (2nd), and Ukraine (1st). Three more berths are still open.

See also -

UEFA Jubilee Awards

UEFA Golden Jubilee Poll

European football records

External links -

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