UEFA facts for kids
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UEFA headquarters in Nyon, Switzerland
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| Abbreviation | UEFA |
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| Formation | 15 June 1954 |
| Founded at | Basel, Switzerland |
| Type | Football organisation |
| Headquarters | Nyon, Switzerland |
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Region served
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Europe |
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Membership
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55 full member associations |
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Official languages
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English French German (other main but not official: Italian, Russian, Portuguese, Spanish) |
| Aleksander Čeferin | |
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First vice-president
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Karl-Erik Nilsson |
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Vice-presidents
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Zbigniew Boniek Armand Duka David Gill Gabriele Gravina Laura McAllister |
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General secretary
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Theodore Theodoridis |
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Main organ
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UEFA Congress |
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Parent organization
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FIFA |
The Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) is one of the six main groups that manage football around the world. It looks after football, futsal, and beach football in Europe. It also covers some countries that are partly in Asia, like Turkey, Azerbaijan, Georgia, and Kazakhstan. Plus, it includes Cyprus, Armenia, and Israel from West Asia.
UEFA has 55 national football groups as its members. In 2022, due to the conflict in Ukraine, FIFA and UEFA stopped all Russian teams and clubs from playing in their competitions.
UEFA brings together the national football groups of Europe. It organizes big competitions for both national teams and clubs. These include the UEFA European Championship, UEFA Nations League, UEFA Champions League, UEFA Europa League, UEFA Europa Conference League, and UEFA Super Cup. UEFA also handles prize money, rules, and TV rights for these events.
Henri Delaunay was UEFA's first general secretary. Ebbe Schwartz was the first president. The current president is Aleksander Čeferin. He used to be the president of the Football Association of Slovenia. He was chosen as UEFA's seventh president in September 2016. This also made him a vice-president of FIFA, the world football body.
Contents
Discovering UEFA's History and Members
UEFA officially started on June 15, 1954, in Basel, Switzerland. This happened after talks between the football groups from Italy, France, and Belgium. At the first meeting, 25 members were there. Six other groups that were not present were still counted as founding members. This brought the total founding groups to 31. By the mid-1990s, UEFA had more than 50 members. This was because new countries formed from the breakup of the Soviet Union, Yugoslavia, and Czechoslovakia.
UEFA's first main office was in Paris. But it moved to Bern in 1960. In 1995, it moved again to Nyon, Switzerland. They worked from temporary offices there until 1999, while their current main building was being built.
Most UEFA members are recognized countries in Europe. For example, 48 out of 55 members are countries recognized by the UN. However, there are some exceptions. Monaco and Vatican City are not members. Some UEFA members are not independent countries. They are part of a larger country. These include England, Northern Ireland, Scotland, and Wales, which are parts of the United Kingdom. Gibraltar is a British territory. The Faroe Islands are part of Denmark. Kosovo is a state with limited recognition. For these places, sports are often managed at their local level. UEFA has said no to membership for places like Jersey because they are not sovereign states.
Some UEFA members are countries that span across Europe and Asia. These are Azerbaijan, Georgia, Kazakhstan, and Turkey. Others are seen as part of Europe for cultural and political reasons. These include Cyprus and Armenia. Countries that used to be part of the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) also joined UEFA. For example, Israel joined because it was banned from the AFC group in 1974. Kazakhstan also moved from AFC to UEFA.
Some UEFA member groups let teams from outside their main area play in their local leagues. For example, AS Monaco plays in the French League. Welsh clubs like Cardiff City and Swansea City play in the English League. Derry City from Northern Ireland plays in the Republic of Ireland's league. A team from San Marino plays in the Italian League. FC Andorra plays in the Spanish League. The seven teams from Liechtenstein play in the Swiss Leagues. This is because Liechtenstein has no league of its own, only a cup competition.
National teams from UEFA are very successful in the FIFA World Cup. European teams have won 12 out of 22 World Cup titles so far. Italy and Germany each have four titles. France has two titles. England and Spain have each won once. The football groups in these countries also organize "Europe's Big Five" leagues. These are Spain's La Liga, England's Premier League, Germany's Bundesliga, Italy's Serie A, and France's Ligue 1.
On February 28, 2022, UEFA stopped Russia from taking part in competitions. This was because of the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine. The Russian Football Union tried to fight this ban but lost. However, on September 26, 2023, the ban was lifted for the Russia national under-17 football team. This allowed them to play in the 2024 UEFA European Under-17 Championship. UEFA said that banning children from competitions goes against their right to develop. This lifting of the ban also applied to all underage teams, both boys and girls. But the football groups of Ukraine, England, and Sweden did not agree. They threatened to boycott matches against Russia.
Understanding UEFA's Executive Committee
UEFA's Executive Committee is a group of leaders who make important decisions.
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Vice-presidents
Members
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General secretary
Deputy general secretary
Treasurer
Head of club competitions and calendar
Head of national competitions
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UEFA's Exciting Competitions
UEFA organizes many international football competitions in Europe. Some countries in Northern, Southwestern, and Central Asia also take part. These events are called UEFA competitions. Many of them are seen as the most important football tournaments in the world.
UEFA runs two of the biggest competitions for men's national teams. These are the UEFA European Championship and the UEFA Nations League. The European Championship, also known as the Euro, started in 1958. The first finals were in 1960. It was called the European Nations Cup until 1964. The UEFA Nations League is a newer tournament. It started in 2018. This competition mostly replaced friendly matches between countries. It is played every two years.
UEFA also organizes national team competitions for younger players. These are for players Under-21, Under-19, and Under-17. For women's national teams, UEFA has the UEFA Women's Championship. It also runs Women's Under-19 and Women's Under-17 Championships.
World and Intercontinental Matches
UEFA also helps organize qualifying tournaments for European teams. These teams then go on to play in the FIFA World Cup (organized by FIFA) and the Olympic Games (organized by IOC). These are for both men's and women's national teams.
UEFA used to organize the UEFA–CAF Meridian Cup with CAF for youth teams. This was to help young players develop. In 1999, UEFA started the UEFA Regions' Cup. This is for semi-professional teams that represent their local areas. In futsal, there is the UEFA Futsal Championship and UEFA Under-19 Futsal Championship. Even though UEFA has a Futsal and Beach Soccer committee, it does not organize beach soccer competitions. Other groups manage international and club beach soccer events for UEFA members.
The men's national teams from Italy, Germany, Spain, France, and Russia have won the European football championship in all age groups.
Top Club Competitions
The most important UEFA club competition is the UEFA Champions League. It started in the 1992/93 season. The top 1 to 4 teams from each country's league play in it. The number of teams depends on the country's ranking. This competition was changed from an older one that only included the top team from each country. That older competition was held from 1955 to 1992 and was called the European Champion Clubs' Cup.
A second, slightly lower-ranked competition is the UEFA Europa League. This competition is for winners of national cup tournaments and other high-placed league teams. UEFA started it in 1971. It replaced the old UEFA Cup and the Inter-Cities Fairs Cup. A third competition, the UEFA Cup Winners' Cup, began in 1960. It was combined with the UEFA Cup (now Europa League) in 1999.
In December 2018, UEFA announced a new third club competition. It was later named the UEFA Europa Conference League. This competition has 32 teams divided into 8 groups of 4. There is a knockout round for second-placed teams from this league and third-placed teams from the Europa League. This leads to a final knockout stage with 16 teams, including the eight group winners. The first Europa Conference League was played in 2021–2022.
For women's football, UEFA also has the UEFA Women's Champions League for club teams. This competition first took place in 2001. It was known as the UEFA Women's Cup until 2009.
The UEFA Super Cup is a match between the winners of the Champions League and the Europa League. It started in 1973. Before, it was between the Champions League winners and the Cup Winners' Cup winners.
The UEFA Intertoto Cup was a summer competition. It was run by several Central European football groups. UEFA officially recognized it in 1995. The last Intertoto Cup was in 2008.
The European/South American Cup was organized with CONMEBOL. It was played between the winners of the Champions League and the Copa Libertadores.
Only five teams have won all three main European club competitions. These are Juventus, Ajax, Manchester United, Bayern Munich, and Chelsea. This achievement is no longer possible for new teams because the Cup Winners' Cup no longer exists. Eight other teams in Europe have won two of the three trophies.
Until the UEFA Europa Conference League started in 2022, Juventus of Italy was the only team in Europe to win all of UEFA's official championships and cups. To celebrate this, they received The UEFA Plaque from UEFA on July 12, 1988.
UEFA's top futsal competition is the UEFA Futsal Cup. This tournament started in 2001. It replaced the older Futsal European Clubs Championship. That event had a long history, going back to 1984, but UEFA never officially recognized it.
There have been talks since 2021 about creating a second-tier women's club competition, similar to the Europa League.
Current Champions in UEFA Competitions
Here are the current champions in UEFA's main competitions:
| Competition | Year | Champions | Title | Runners-up | Next edition | ||
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| Intercontinental (UEFA–CONMEBOL) | |||||||
| Cup of Champions | 2022 |  Argentina |
2nd |  Italy |
2025 | ||
| Women's Finalissima | 2023 |  England |
1st |  Brazil |
2026 | ||
| UEFA–CONMEBOL Club Challenge | 2023 |  Sevilla |
1st |  Independiente del Valle |
2024 | ||
| Under-20 Intercontinental Cup | 2023 | Boca Juniors |
1st |  AZ |
TBD | ||
| Futsal Finalissima | 2022 |  Portugal |
1st | Spain |
2026 | ||
| Men's national teams | |||||||
| European Championship | 2020 | Italy |
2nd |  England |
2024 | ||
| Nations League | 2022–23 | Spain |
1st |  Croatia |
2024–25 | ||
| U-21 Championship | 2023 | England |
3rd | Spain |
2025 | ||
| U-19 Championship | 2023 | Italy |
4th | Portugal |
2024 | ||
| U-17 Championship | 2023 |  Germany |
4th |  France |
2024 | ||
| Futsal Championship | 2022 | Portugal |
2nd |  Russia |
2026 | ||
| U-19 Futsal Championship | 2023 | Portugal |
1st | Spain |
2025 | ||
| Women's national teams | |||||||
| Women's Championship | 2022 | England |
1st |  Germany |
2025 | ||
| Women's Nations League | 2023–24 |  Spain |
1st |  France |
2025–26 | ||
| Women's U-19 Championship | 2023 | Spain |
5th | Germany |
2024 | ||
| Women's U-17 Championship | 2023 | France |
1st | Spain |
2024 | ||
| Women's Futsal Championship | 2023 | Spain |
3rd |  Ukraine |
2027 | ||
| Men's club teams | |||||||
| Super Cup | 2023 | Manchester City |
1st | Sevilla |
2024 | ||
| Champions League | 2022–23 | Manchester City |
1st | Inter Milan |
2023–24 | ||
| Europa League | 2022–23 | Sevilla |
7th | Roma |
2023–24 | ||
| Europa Conference League | 2022–23 | West Ham United |
1st | Fiorentina |
2023–24 | ||
| Youth League | 2023–24 |  Olympiacos |
1st | Milan |
2024–25 | ||
| Futsal Champions League | 2023–24 | Palma Futsal |
2nd | Barcelona |
2024–25 | ||
| Women's club teams | |||||||
| Women's Champions League | 2022–23 | Barcelona |
2nd | VfL Wolfsburg |
2024 | ||
| Women's Second Competition | 2025–26 | ||||||
| Men's amateur teams | |||||||
| Regions' Cup | 2023 | Galicia |
1st |  Belgrade |
2025 | ||
UEFA's Sanctions and Rules
UEFA can put rules and bans on national football groups and clubs. These are called sanctions. They happen when rules are broken or for other reasons.
Lithuania: In 1990, rules were put in place. This was because the Lithuanian Football Federation left the Soviet Union's football group.
FR Yugoslavia: From 1992 to 1998, bans were put in place. This was due to the Bosnian War.- Russia: In 2022, bans were put in place. This was because of the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Belarus: In 2022, bans were also put in place. This was for supporting Russia in the Ukraine conflict.
Rules for Clubs
Albania: In 1967, special rules were put on the 1966–67 Albanian Superliga. This was because of its political situation.- England: From 1985 to 1991, English football clubs were banned from European competitions for five years. This was due to serious fan behavior.
- Italy: In 1974–1975, rules were put on SS Lazio because of its fans. Italy was not allowed to send Lazio to the European Cup, even though they had qualified.
- Netherlands: In 1990–1991, rules were put on AFC Ajax because of its fans. The Netherlands was not allowed to send Ajax to the European Cup, even though they had qualified.
Images for kids
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UEFA member countries by club competition entry entitlements, 2009/10
More About UEFA
Awards and Rankings
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Awards:
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Qualifications:
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Match:
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UEFA Meetings
- UEFA congress
Fair Play in Money
- UEFA Financial Fair Play Regulations
UEFA's Ranking System
- UEFA coefficient
UEFA Leaders
Related Football Groups
- Timeline of football
- List of association football competitions
- International Federation of Association Football (FIFA)
- Asian Football Confederation (AFC)
- Confederation of African Football (CAF)
- Confederation of North, Central American and Caribbean Association Football (CONCACAF)
- Confederation of South American Football (CONMEBOL)
- Oceania Football Confederation (OFC)
Future Competitions
- Proposals for a European Super League in association football – A plan for a single big European Football League that UEFA leaders have been involved in.
