UEFA

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Union of European Football Associations
Logo of UEFA
UEFA member associations are in red
Formation	15 June 1954
Type	Sports organization
Headquarters	Nyon, Switzerland
Membership	53 national associations
President	Michel Platini
Website	http://www.uefa.com/

The Union of European Football Associations, almost always referred to by the acronym UEFA (pronounced [juː'eɪfə] (you-AY-fuh) or [uː'eɪfə] (oo-Ay-fuh) or ['wɛfə]), is the administrative and controlling body for European football. It represents the national football associations of Europe, runs Europe-wide national and club competitions, and controls the prize money, regulations and media rights to those competitions. Several national football associations which are geographically in Asia or mostly in Asia belong to UEFA rather than the Asian Football Confederation. These nations are Israel, Cyprus, Armenia, Georgia, Turkey, Kazakhstan, Russia and Azerbaijan (Israel and Kazakhstan are former AFC members). Cyprus chose to be classed as a European football nation — it had the choice of Europe, Asia and Africa.

UEFA is one of the biggest of six continental confederations of FIFA. Of all 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 in part due to the salaries available from the world's wealthiest football clubs, particularly in England, France, Italy, Spain and Germany. Many of the world's strongest national sides are in UEFA. Of the 32 available spots in the 2006 FIFA World Cup, 14 were allocated to UEFA national teams, and currently 15 of the top 20 teams in the FIFA World Rankings are UEFA members.

UEFA was founded on June 15, 1954 in Basel, Switzerland following discussions between the French, Italian and Belgian 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 25 national associations. Currently there are 53 associations (see the bottom of this page or List of UEFA national football teams).

The current UEFA President is Michel Platini.

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.

1 UEFA Presidents
2 UEFA Chief Executives
3 Competitions
- 3.1 International
- 3.2 Club
4 UEFA World Cup Qualifiers
5 See also
6 References
7 External links

[edit] UEFA Presidents

Ebbe Schwartz (1954–1962)
Gustav Wiederkehr (1962–1972†)
Artemio Franchi (1972–1983†)
Jacques Georges (1983–1990)
Lennart Johansson (1990–2007)
Michel Platini (2007–present)

[edit] UEFA Chief Executives

Called General Secretaries before December 1999:

Henri Delaunay (1954–55)
Pierre Delaunay (1955–60)
Hans Bangerter (1960–89)
Gerhard Aigner (1989–2003)
Lars-Christer Olsson (2003–2007)
Gianni Infantino (2007 interim)
David Taylor (2007-Present)

[edit] Competitions

[edit] 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. 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 and the UEFA Women's Under-19 Championship at under-19 level.

UEFA also organises the UEFA/CAF Meridian Cup with CAF for youth teams.

In futsal there is the UEFA Futsal Championship.

[edit] Club

UEFA also runs the two main club competitions in Europe: the UEFA Champions League was first held in 1955, and was known as the European Champion Clubs Cup (or just European 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 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; all have won the Cup Winners Cup and six require a win in the Champions League and four require a UEFA Cup win.

The UEFA 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 Champions League and the Copa Libertadores winners.

[edit] UEFA World Cup Qualifiers

Women's Qualifiers [1]

The following UEFA members have competed in the following FIFA World Cups. Names marked in bold represent occasions when a UEFA member won the tournament:

1930 - Belgium, France, Romania, Yugoslavia
1934 - Austria, Belgium, Czechoslovakia, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Netherlands, Romania, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland
1938 - Belgium, Czechoslovakia, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Romania, Sweden, Switzerland
1950 - England, Italy, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Yugoslavia
1954 - Austria, Belgium, Czechoslovakia, England, France, Hungary, Italy, Scotland, Switzerland, Turkey, West Germany, Yugoslavia
1958 - Austria, Czechoslovakia, England, France, Hungary, Northern Ireland, Scotland, Sweden, USSR, Wales, West Germany, Yugoslavia
1962 - Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, England, Hungary, Italy, Spain, Switzerland, USSR, West Germany, Yugoslavia
1966 - Bulgaria, England, France, Hungary, Italy, Portugal, Spain, Switzerland, USSR, West Germany
1970 - Belgium, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, England, Italy, Romania, Sweden, USSR, West Germany (plus Israel, who qualified as member of AFC)
1974 - Bulgaria, East Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Poland, Scotland, Sweden, West Germany, Yugoslavia
1978 - Austria, France, Hungary, Italy, Netherlands, Poland, Scotland, Spain, Sweden, West Germany
1982 - Austria, Belgium, Czechoslovakia, England, France, Hungary, Italy, Northern Ireland, Poland, Scotland, Spain, USSR, West Germany, Yugoslavia
1986 - Belgium, Bulgaria, Denmark, England, France, Hungary, Italy, Northern Ireland, Poland, Portugal, Scotland, Spain, USSR, West Germany
1990 - Austria, Belgium, Czechoslovakia, England, Republic of Ireland, Italy, Netherlands, Romania, Scotland, Spain, Sweden, USSR, West Germany, Yugoslavia
1994 - Belgium, Bulgaria, Germany, Greece, Republic of Ireland, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Romania, Russia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland
1998 - Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Denmark, England, France, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Romania, Scotland, Spain, Yugoslavia FR
2002 - Belgium, Croatia, Denmark, England, France, Germany, Republic of Ireland, Italy, Poland, Portugal, Russia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Turkey
2006 - Croatia, Czech Republic, England, France, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Serbia and Montenegro, Spain, Switzerland, Sweden, Ukraine

Total appearances by team (out of 18)

16:
Germany (incl. 10 as West Germany)
Italy
12:
England
France
Spain
11:
Belgium
Sweden
10:
Serbia (incl. 8 as Yugoslavia⁺, 1 as Yugoslavia⁺ and 1 as Serbia & Montenegro⁺)
9:
Czech Republic (incl. 8 as Czechoslovakia⁺)
Hungary
Russia (incl. 7 as USSR⁺)
8:
Netherlands
Scotland
Switzerland
7:
Austria
Bulgaria
Poland
Romania
4:
Portugal
3:
Denmark
Republic of Ireland
Northern Ireland
Norway
Croatia
2:
Turkey
1:
East Germany^⁺
Greece
Israel (qualified when member of AFC)
Slovenia
Wales
Ukraine

⁺ = team and national federation no longer exist

NOTE: FIFA considers Germany to carry West Germany's record. The same goes for Serbia, Serbia and Montenegro ⁺, Montenegro and Yugoslavia; Czech Republic and Czechoslovakia; and Russia and the USSR. ^[1]
Montenegro applied for membership in UEFA and FIFA on 30 June 2006, was admitted to UEFA on 26 January 2007, and is currently slated to be admitted to FIFA in May 2007.