UEFA

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Union of European Football Associations UEFA Euro 2008

UEFA member associations are in green
Formation	15 June 1954
Type	Sports organisation
Headquarters	Nyon, Switzerland
Membership	53 national associations
Official languages	English, German, French
President	Michel Platini
Website	http://www.uefa.com/

The Union des associations européennes de football, or Union of European Football Associations in English, is the administrative and controlling body for European football. It is almost always referred to by its acronym UEFA (pronounced [juːˈeɪfə] (you-AY-fuh), /uːˈeɪfə/ (oo-AY-fuh), or /ˈwɛfə/ (WEF-fuh))[you-a-far].

UEFA represents the national football associations of Europe, runs Europewide 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 (AFC). These nations are Armenia, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Turkey, Israel, Cyprus, 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 or 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, Germany, Italy and Spain. 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 14 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 organization moved to Bern. Henri Delaunay was the first General Secretary and Ebbe Schwartz the president. Its administrative center 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).

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.

The current UEFA President is Michel Platini.

1 Competitions
- 1.1 Continental
- 1.2 Club
2 UEFA World Cup Participation
3 See also
4 References
5 External links

[edit] Competitions

[edit] Continental

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 organizes the UEFA/CAF Meridian Cup with CAF for youth teams.

In futsal there is the UEFA Futsal Championship.

[edit] Club

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

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 but not recognized by UEFA ^[1]). A third competition, the Cup Winners' Cup, started in 1960 and was absorbed into the UEFA Cup in 1999.

Only three teams ^[1] (Juventus FC, AFC Ajax and FC Bayern Munich) have won each of the three competitions ^[1], 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, six require a win in the Champions League and four require a UEFA Cup win.

Juventus is the only team in Europe to win all UEFA's official championships and cups ^[1].

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 ^[1].

The UEFA Intertoto Cup is a summer competition, previously operated by several Central European football associations, which was relaunched and recognized as European official competition by UEFA in 1995 ^[1] 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 Participation

The following UEFA members have competed in the following FIFA World Cups. Cells with a gold background represent occasions when a UEFA member won the tournament; silver background represent occasions when a UEFA member were runners-up; bronze background represent occasions when a UEFA member finished in third place. Teams are sorted by number of appearances:

Team	1930	1934	1938	1950	1954	1958	1962	1966	1970	1974	1978	1982	1986	1990	1994	1998	2002	2006	Total
Italy		•	•	•	•		•	•	•	•	•	•	•	•	•	•	•	•	16
Germany¹		•	•		•	•	•	•	•	•	•	•	•	•	•	•	•	•	16
England				•	•	•	•	•	•			•	•	•		•	•	•	12
France	•	•	•		•	•		•			•	•	•			•	•	•	12
Spain		•		•			•	•			•	•	•	•	•	•	•	•	12
Belgium	•	•	•		•				•			•	•	•	•	•	•		11
Sweden		•	•	•		•			•	•	•			•	•		•	•	11
Serbia²	•			•	•	•	•			•		•		•		•		•	10
Czech Republic³		•	•		•	•	•		•			•		•				•	9
Hungary		•	•		•	•	•	•			•	•	•						9
Russia⁴						•	•	•	•			•	•	•	•		•		9
Netherlands		•	•							•	•			•	•	•		•	8
Scotland					•	•				•	•	•	•	•		•			8
Switzerland		•	•	•	•		•	•							•			•	8
Austria		•			•	•					•	•		•		•			7
Bulgaria							•	•	•	•			•		•	•			7
Poland			•							•	•	•	•				•	•	7
Romania	•	•	•						•					•	•	•			7
Portugal								•					•				•	•	4
Croatia^†																•	•	•	3
Denmark													•			•	•		3
Republic of Ireland														•	•		•		3
Northern Ireland						•						•	•						3
Norway			•												•	•			3
Turkey					•												•		2
East Germany⁺										•									1
Greece															•				1
Israel*									•										1
Slovenia^†																	•		1
Ukraine^‡																		•	1
Wales						•													1
Total	4	12	12	6	12	12	10	10	9*	9	10	14	14	14	13	15	15	14	32

¹ Made 10 appearances as West Germany⁺ from 1950 to 1990
² Made 8 appearances as Yugoslavia⁺ from 1930 to 1990, 1 as Yugoslavia FR⁺ from 1994 to 2002, and 1 as Serbia & Montenegro⁺ in 2006
³ Made 8 appearances as Czechoslovakia⁺ from 1930 to 1994
⁴ Made 7 appearances as USSR⁺ from 1930 to 1990
^† Was part of Yugoslavia⁺ from 1930 to 1990
^‡ Was part of USSR⁺ from 1930 to 1990
* Israel qualified as a member of AFC
⁺ team and national federation no longer exist

NOTE: FIFA considers Germany to carry West Germany's record; Serbia to carry Serbia and Montenegro, Yugoslavia FR, and Yugoslavia's records; Czech Republic to carry Czechoslovakia's record; and Russia to carry USSR's record.^[2]
Montenegro applied for membership in UEFA and FIFA on 30 June 2006, was admitted to UEFA on 26 January 2007, and was admitted to FIFA on 31 May 2007.

Women's Qualifiers [1]