UEFA

UEFA was founded on 15 June 1954 in Basel, Switzerland, after several European national associations sought to strengthen cooperation in football following the Second World War. Associations aimed to expand international play, develop refereeing and coaching, and take advantage of emerging broadcast technologies. A pioneering trio – Ottorino Barassi, José Crahay and Henri Delaunay – played key roles in shaping the organisation’s creation and advancing a unified European football structure. Soon after, UEFA launched its first major competitions: the European Champion Clubs’ Cup in 1955 and the European Championship in 1958, both destined to become central pillars of European and global football. Over the decades, UEFA has expanded to 55 member associations and broadened its remit beyond competitions to include governance, development, social responsibility and sustainability. == Running elite competitions ==

UEFA organises many of football's premier competitions, including the UEFA EURO, UEFA Women's EURO, UEFA Champions League, UEFA Women’s Champions League, UEFA Europa League, and the UEFA Youth League, alongside major futsal and youth tournaments. These competitions set benchmarks for sporting quality and global reach, defining the competitive landscape of European football. The organisation also upholds regulatory standards – such as financial sustainability and club licensing – to ensure integrity, stability and fairness across all competitions. == Developing the game at all levels ==

UEFA reinvests 97.5% of its net revenue into football development to strengthen grassroots initiatives, coaching, refereeing, facilities and infrastructure, youth pathways and long-term association capacities across Europe. UEFA promotes solidarity and ensures that all 55 of its member associations benefit from development funding and initiatives. This work is further supported by providing accessible education, governance insights and extensive coverage of the game. == Sustainable football ==

UEFA increasingly integrates sustainability into its wider mission, using the reach and influence of football as a force for social and environmental good. Its programmes focus on inclusion, equality, community impact and responsible governance, extending the organisation’s influence beyond the pitch. The UEFA Foundation for Children contributes significantly to this vision by using football to support vulnerable children around the world, promoting education, inclusion and opportunities for a better future. ==Executive committee==

The UEFA executive committee comprises the UEFA president and up to 19 other members: 16 elected by the UEFA Congress (including at least two female members), two by European Football Clubs and one by the European Leagues. All members hold the same rights and duties President • Aleksander Čeferin Vice-presidents • Armand Duka • Hans-Joachim Watzke • Jesper Møller • Gabriele Gravina, first vice-president • Laura McAllister Members • Petr Fousek • Philippe Diallo • Levan Kobiashvili • Lise Klaveness • Marijan Kustić • Ari Lahti • Rafael Louzán • Armen Melikbekyan • Frank Paauw • Moshe Zuares • Aivar Pohlak • Claudius Schäfer, European Leagues representative • Miguel Ángel Gil Marín, EFC representative • Nasser Al-Khelaifi, EFC representative • David Terrier, FIFPRO Europe representative General secretary • Theodore Theodoridis FIFA Council – European members • Sándor Csányi, UEFA treasurer • Debbie Hewitt, FIFA vice-president • Pascale Van Damme • Dejan Savićević • George Koumas • Răzvan Burleanu • Bernd Neuendorf == List of UEFA office holders ==

;List of presidents of UEFA ;List of secretaries general of UEFA == Members ==

Aspiring future members • : In December 2015, an application was submitted to UEFA to allow Jersey to take part in international matches, following on from Gibraltar's admission two years earlier. In October 2016, Jersey's bid to join UEFA was rejected, but this decision was appealed to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) in June 2017. In September 2017, the CAS ordered the UEFA Congress to hear Jersey's case. In February 2018 a majority of the member associations of UEFA voted against admitting Jersey as a member. Former members == Competitions ==

UEFA continental competitions National teams: ;Men • UEFA European Championship • UEFA Nations League • UEFA European Under-21 Championship • UEFA European Under-19 Championship • UEFA European Under-17 Championship • UEFA Futsal Championship • UEFA Under-19 Futsal Championship ;Women • UEFA Women's Championship • UEFA Women's Nations League • UEFA Women's Under-19 Championship • UEFA Women's Under-17 Championship • UEFA Women's Futsal Championship Clubs: ;Men • UEFA Champions League • UEFA Europa League • UEFA Conference League • UEFA Super Cup • UEFA Youth League • UEFA Futsal Champions League ;Women • UEFA Women's Champions League • UEFA Women's Europa Cup Amateur: • UEFA Regions' Cup Defunct National teams: ;Men • UEFA Under-21 Futsal Tournament Clubs: ;Men • UEFA Cup Winners' Cup • UEFA Intertoto Cup Amateur: ;Men • UEFA Amateur Cup UEFA runs official international competitions in Europe and some countries of Northern, Southwestern and Central Asia for national teams and professional clubs, known as UEFA competitions, some of which are regarded as the world's most prestigious tournaments. UEFA is the organiser of two of the most prestigious competitions in international football: The UEFA European Championship and the UEFA Nations League. The main competition for men's national teams is the UEFA European Championship (also known as the Euro), which started in 1958, with the first finals in 1960, and was known as the European Nations Cup until 1964. The UEFA Nations League is the second tournament of UEFA and was introduced in 2018. The tournament largely replaced the international friendly matches previously played on the FIFA International Match Calendar. It will be played every two years. 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. World, Olympic and intercontinental competitions Intercontinental national teams: • CONMEBOL–UEFA Cup of Champions • Women's Finalissima • Futsal Finalissima Defunct • UEFA–CAF Meridian Cup Intercontinental clubs: • UEFA–CONMEBOL Club Challenge • Under-20 Intercontinental Cup Defunct • Intercontinental Champions' Supercup • Intercontinental Cup Beside continental European competitions for national and their junior teams, the UEFA organizes various qualification male and female tournaments among European national and their junior teams for World Cups (organized by FIFA) and Olympics (organized by IOC). UEFA also organised the UEFA–CAF Meridian Cup with CAF for youth teams in an effort to boost youth football. 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 Under-19 Futsal Championship. Despite the existence of UEFA's Futsal and Beach soccer committee, UEFA does not organise any beach soccer competitions. International and club beach soccer competitions for UEFA members are organised externally by Beach Soccer Worldwide. The Italian, German, Spanish, French and Russian men's national teams are the only teams to have won the European football championship in all categories. Club The top-ranked UEFA competition is the UEFA Champions League, which started in 1955 as the European Champion Clubs' Cup (or simply the European Cup) and initially only gathered the top team of each country; this competition has since been expanded to gather 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). 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 began in 1955). A third competition, the UEFA Cup Winners' Cup, which started in 1960, was absorbed into the UEFA Cup (now UEFA Europa League) in 1999. In December 2018, UEFA announced the creation of a third club competition, later named the UEFA Europa Conference League. The competition features 32 teams in 8 groups of 4, with a knockout round between the second placed teams in Europa Conference League and the third placed teams in the Europa League, leading to a final 16 knockout stage featuring the eight group winners. The first edition of the competition was played in 2021–2022. In women's football UEFA also conducts the UEFA Women's Champions League for club teams. The competition was first held in 2001, and was 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 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 recognised as official UEFA club competition by UEFA in 1995. The last Intertoto Cup took place in 2008. The European/South American Cup was jointly organised with CONMEBOL between the Champions League and the Copa Libertadores winners. Only five teams (Juventus, Ajax, Manchester United, Bayern Munich and Chelsea) have won each of the three main competitions (European Cup/UEFA Champions League, European Cup Winners' Cup/UEFA Cup Winners' Cup and UEFA Cup/UEFA Europa League), a feat that is no longer possible for any team that did not win the Cup Winners' Cup. There are currently eight 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 four require a UEFA Europa League win. Until the first staging of the UEFA Europa Conference League in 2022, Juventus of Italy was the only 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. 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 recognised as official by UEFA. There was an attempt to create a Europa League-style second tier women's club competition, which had been in discussion since 2021. In December 2023, the attempt came into a fruition, with the first edition of the competition to be played in 2025–26. In December 2024, the name of the competition, "UEFA Women's Europa Cup", was announced. Current title holders Titles by nation == Sponsors ==

;UEFA national team competitions • Adidas • Alipay • Atos • Carlsberg Group • Engelbert Strauss • Hisense • Visit Qatar ;UEFA Champions League ;;Global sponsors • Bet365 • Crypto.com • FedEx • Heineken • Just Eat Takeaway.com • Mastercard • PlayStation • PepsiCo (Pepsi/Lay's) • Qatar Airways ;;Suppliers and enhanced partners • Adidas • EA Sports • JoyBuy • Oppo • Topps ;UEFA Europa League ;;Global sponsors • Betano • Engelbert Strauss • Enterprise Rent-A-Car • FlixBus • Hankook • Lidl • Just Eat Takeaway.com • Swissquote ;;Suppliers • Decathlon ;UEFA women's football competitions • Adidas • Amazon • Frito-Lay (Lay's) • Vodafone == FIFA World Rankings ==

Overview Team of the Year == Major tournament records ==

Legend • '''''' – Champions • '''''' – Runners-up • '''''' – Third place • '''''' – Fourth place • QF – Quarter-finals (1934–1938, 1954–1970, and 1986–present: knockout round of 8) • R3 – Round 3 (2026–present: knockout round of 16) • R2 – Round 2 (1974–1978: second group stage, top 8; 1982: second group stage, top 12; 1986–2022: knockout round of 16; 2026–present: knockout round of 32) • R1 – Round 1 (1930, 1950–1970 and 1986–present: group stage; 1934–1938: knockout round of 16; 1974–1982: first group stage) • Q — Qualified for upcoming tournament • – Qualified but withdrew • – Did not qualify • – Did not enter / Withdrew / Banned •  – Hosts For each tournament, the flag of the host country and the number of teams in each finals tournament (in brackets) are shown. FIFA World Cup FIFA Women's World Cup Olympic Games Men's tournament Women's tournament UEFA European Championship UEFA Women's Championship FIFA U-20 World Cup FIFA U-20 Women's World Cup FIFA U-17 World Cup FIFA U-17 Women's World Cup FIFA Futsal World Cup FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup Former tournaments FIFA Confederations Cup == Sanctions ==

Against associations • Lithuania, in 1990 sanctions were imposed due to the secession of the Lithuanian Football Federation from the Football Federation of the Soviet Union • FR Yugoslavia, in 1992–1998 sanctions were imposed due to the Bosnian War (as part of the Yugoslav Wars) • Russia, in 2022 sanctions were imposed due to the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine. • Belarus, in 2022 sanctions were imposed due to supporting Russia in its invasion of Ukraine. Against clubs • Albania, in 1967 special sanctions were imposed against 1966–67 Albanian Superliga due to its political background • England, in 1985–1991 sanctions were imposed against English association football clubs due to the Heysel Stadium disaster by suspending their participation in continental competitions for five years • Italy, in 1974–1975 sanctions were imposed against SS Lazio due to its fans, Italy was restricted from the European Cup to which Lazio qualified • Netherlands, in 1990–1991 sanctions were imposed against AFC Ajax due to its fans, the Netherlands were restricted from the European Cup to which Ajax qualified == Corruption and controversy ==

Dissatisfied fans across Europe have referred to the organisation as UEFA mafia, including in Russia's top league, in Bulgaria's top league, and in a Champions League group stage match held in Sweden. The term has also been covered for its use outside of stadiums, for example during a protest in Kosovo outside an EU building following the Serbia v Albania (UEFA Euro 2016 qualifying) match. F.C. Copenhagen supporters displayed banners around the city, with slogans such as "UEFA MAFIA – THE PANDEMIC OF FOOTBALL", when UEFA ordered their 2019–20 Europa League round of 16 return leg be played behind closed doors, despite reduced capacity being allowed by the Danish government. Following the 2015 FIFA corruption case, the then-president of UEFA, Michel Platini, was also involved in the case. Swiss prosecutors accused FIFA president Sepp Blatter of making a "disloyal payment" of $2m (£1.6m) to Mr Platini. Swiss attorney general, , stated: "We didn't interview Mr Platini as a witness, that's not true. We investigated against him in between as a witness and an accused person". Both Platini and Sepp Blatter were banned from football-related activity. Platini appealed to Court of Arbitration for Sports, which lowered the six-year ban to four years. He further appealed to Swiss courts and the European Court of Human Rights but the courts rejected his appeals. In 2019 UEFA's decision to host Europa League Cup final in Baku, Azerbaijan left one of the finalists, Arsenal, with a decision to withdraw their Armenian player Henrikh Mkhitaryan out of the competition due to safety concerns, and there has been long-standing debates about the extent to which the elite clubs or UEFA itself should exert the most influence on the game. UEFA's decision to partner with blockchain company Chiliz in February 2022 was criticised and described as 'incomprehensible' by fan groups across Europe. In July 2025, UEFA sanctioned Crystal Palace F.C. and Olympique Lyonnais for breaching its multi-club ownership rules, due to overlapping ownership by John Textor's Eagle Football Group. Palace, who had qualified for the UEFA Europa League as FA Cup winners, were instead placed in the UEFA Europa Conference League, while Lyon retained the Europa League spot. The Court of Arbitration for Sport rejected Palace's appeal in August 2025. == See also ==