UEFA Grassroots Newsletter – with youngsters in mind

Hundreds of thousands of children dream of lifting one of European football's top prizes, and the latest edition of the UEFA Grassroots Newsletter describes how the continent's premier club and national-team competitions have been used to boost youngsters' interest in the game.

Final fun
Manchester and Moscow provided the settings for the finales to last season's UEFA Cup and UEFA Champions League tournaments, and though both venues were focused on ensuring that the main event passed off flawlessly, they also used the occasion to promote grassroots football. UEFA President Michel Platini witnessed 130 girls and boys participating in the climax to the UEFA Cup Final 2008 Manchester 3v3 competition, as Rangers FC and FC Zenit St. Petersburg prepared for their own showdown at the City of Manchester Stadium. Meanwhile, the Champions Festival was held in the shadow of the Kremlin on Red Square in the build-up to Manchester United FC's penalty shoot-out defeat of Chelsea FC. While the possibility of glimpsing the trophy United would lift at the Luzhniki Stadium helped draw big crowds, the thousands who flocked to the festival also saw a keenly-contested Young Champions tournament for boys and girls aged between ten and 16.

Centre stage
UEFA EURO 2008™ naturally attracted all the headlines over the summer, though while the spotlight was turned on the 16 competing nations, thousands of youngsters also took centre stage by featuring in an array of UEFA-sponsored events. Nearly 13,000 children aged from six to ten competed in 40 one-day tournaments in the run-up to the main competition, while the highly successful EUROSCHOOLS 2008 project ended in September after encouraging pupils from Austria, Switzerland and Liechtenstein to adopt one of UEFA's 53 member countries and learn not only about its footballing history, but also its culture, society and language.

Star attraction
After leading his country to the European crown last summer, Spain goalkeeper Iker Casillas joined a growing band of past and present stars involved in promoting grassroots football as he played with youngsters in Peru, while back in Europe, the growing success of the UEFA Grassroots Charter means the game's foundations are solid. Thirty-three national associations have now put pen to paper, committing themselves to providing basic grassroots infrastructure and training programmes, while Finland and Ukraine joined the élite group of five-star associations at the vanguard of the project.

Finnish work 
The newsletter casts a close eye over the sterling grassroots work of the Football Association of Finland, highlighting the All Stars umbrella programme which ensures both budding Jari Litmanens, and those who play purely for pleasure, can find their niche within the sport. Finland was also a major contributor to making the fifth UEFA Summer of Grassroots Football a record-breaking success. Originally a one-off project, the concept has grown rapidly with 4.6 million children involved this year, more than two million up on 2007. Among the events that took place, Moldova's Football – Ambassador for Peace project highlighted the role football can have in bringing people together as 1,200 children of different origins played alongside each other, while Down Syndrome Ireland teamed up with the country's Summer Soccer Schools to give handicapped children an opportunity to show off their skills.

Click here to read the latest UEFA Grassroots Newsletter:
http://www.uefa.com/multimediafiles/download/publications/uefa/uefamedia/78/02/29/780229_download.pdf