Strategic talks in Dubrovnik

The UEFA Executive Committee has decided that further analysis of the future development of Europe's senior national team competitions is required, following discussions at its meeting on Thursday in Dubrovnik. The committee was responding to a report from the two-day UEFA Top Executive Programme (TEP) strategy meeting involving the presidents and general secretaries of UEFA's 54 member associations, which preceded its meeting in the Croatian city.

As the TEP strategy meeting focused on sporting matters, the main item discussed was the ongoing evolution of senior national team competitions beyond 2018. Any proposed revisions will remain within the structure of the existing and agreed international match calendar and will respect the principle of unity across all member associations.

The committee further ratified the member associations' request to retain the current date format of the UEFA European Under-21 Championship final tournament in odd years after 2015. In response to another request by the member associations, the UEFA Executive Committee agreed that the UEFA Club Competitions Committee should make the necessary regulatory changes to allow the best-placed non-qualified domestic championship club to enter the UEFA Europa League from the 2015/16 season, rather than the domestic cup runners-up, should the domestic cup winners also qualify for the UEFA Champions League via the final championship standings.

An update from the Professional Football Strategy Council (PFSC) meeting, which took place earlier on Thursday in Dubrovnik, was also provided to the Executive Committee. In particular, it was brought to their attention that transfer matters and related money flows require transparency and that the existing working group will now address this issue.

The 2014/15 club competitions access list was approved. Consequently, one spot will be granted in both the UEFA Champions League and the UEFA Europa League to teams from Gibraltar, UEFA's newest member association. The dates for the 2014 UEFA Super Cup (Cardiff Stadium) and the 2013–15 UEFA European Under-21 Championship final tournament (Czech Republic) were also confirmed, with matches being held on Tuesday 12 August 2014, and from 17 to 30 June 2015 respectively.

Finally, the Executive Committee approved the latest UEFA Club Licensing and Financial Fair Play benchmarking report published today, which shows that there has been a €600m reduction in aggregate losses reported by Europe's first-division clubs in the 2012 financial year, after six years of escalating losses.

The last UEFA Executive Committee meeting of 2013 is scheduled for 12/13 December in Bilbao, Spain.