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The Union of European Football Associations, almost always referred to by the abbreviation UEFA
(pronounced you-AY-fuh), is the administrative and controlling body for European football. It represents the national football associations of Europe, running nine national and four club
competitions in Europe, controlling the prize-money, regulations and media rights to those competitions. It is one of the six
continental confederations of FIFA.
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 twenty-five national associations; currently there are 52
associations.
UEFA General Secretaries: (called Chief Executive since December 1999) Henri Delaunay; Pierre
Delaunay; Hans Bangerter (1960 - 1989); Gerhard Aigner.
UEFA Presidents: Ebbe Schwartz; Gustav Wiederkehr; Artemio Franchi; Jacques Georges; Lennart Johansson.
UEFA, as a representative of the national associations, has had a number of bruising clashes with the EU. 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.
Competitions
International
The main competition for national teams is the European Football Championship, started in 1958 and
known as the European Nations Cup until 1964. UEFA also runs national competitions at Under-21, Under-19 and Under-17 levels.
National
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. 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.
Member Federations
External Link
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