The UEFA intelligence centre
Article summary
Our intelligence centre delivers data-driven analysis and insights that shape policymaking and decision-taking across multiple aspects of European football.
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Since it was created in 2017, the UEFA intelligence centre has established itself as the most comprehensive research hub in the game. Each season, both our own organisation and numerous football stakeholders, including associations, domestic leagues and clubs, count on the centre's data and analysis services to facilitate evidence-based planning and policymaking.
In the aftermath of the global pandemic, for example, the centre's predictive data modelling was crucial in guiding our response to football’s financial crisis. More recently, an analysis based on more than 2,300 players capped for their national Under-17 teams between 2014 and 2016 provided the European Club Association with a deeper understanding of career pathways from national youth-level football to domestic leagues, UEFA club competitions and senior national sides.
The centre’s reports and benchmarking analyses have also made a significant contribution to enhancing transparency around the governance of European clubs.
European Club Football Landscape report
Since its first edition in 2009, our European Club Football Landscape report – our annual club licensing benchmarking publication – has become the point of reference for on- and off-field trends. For the 2023/24 season, the report was split, for the first time, into two specific publications:
- European Club Talent and Competition Landscape: competitive strength and growing popularity of the game.
- European Club Finance and Investment Landscape: revenues and spending
Benchmarking report on European club football
Making data count for football
The intelligence centre applies its expertise and knowledge to apply technical, scientific, financial and commercial data to a range of topics:
Commercial
- Media and commercial rights
Financial
- Club and national association finances
- Club ownership
- Transfer activity
Scientific
- Demographics
Technical
- Competition formats
- Player and head coach data
- Sporting results
- Stadium profiles
Types of support
Our intelligence centre provides tailor-made services for a range of stakeholders.
Member associations and leagues
- Country-specific reports providing insights into sporting, commercial and governance matters, which can be used to guide potential competition or structural reforms.
European Club Association
- Analysis of youth players provides a deeper understanding of player pathways through club and national team age groups.
UEFA Club Financial Control Body (CFCB)
- The mapping of club ownership and investments supports the CFCB's monitoring of clubs' compliance with our regulations.
UEFA medical community
- Analytics combining injury and competition data to better understand how to protect the health of players.
UEFA technical observers
- Customisation of player tracking metrics and expansion of the match statistics database to cover more than 200 European domestic league and cup competitions.