A new dawn for UEFA Direct

There is an exciting new look and feel about UEFA's official magazine, UEFA Direct.

Following consultations with internal and external stakeholders, UEFA Direct has been revamped to strengthen the focus on the diverse nature of European football and to further highlight UEFA's mission to nurture the game throughout the continent.

UEFA Direct is more than doubling its number of pages, from 24 to 52, and will continue to be printed ten times a year in English, French and German. Importantly, the magazine targets not only the European football family but also the media and interested football enthusiasts, who will certainly find much to attract them.

UEFA's chief of communications and media, Pedro Pinto, says UEFA Direct has been relaunched with the aim of further engaging its audience and keeping readers in touch with the work done by UEFA and, in particular, the associations to protect, promote and develop football in Europe.

"We really want to highlight [associations'] victories, on and off the field, and also to feature the profiles of the people who accomplish them," he said.

As before, association news and activities will still form a key strand of the publication's output alongside entertaining and informative stand-alone features.

"We will aim to use a larger number of creative images to reflect the diversity of football cultures around Europe, while simultaneously producing an increased number of dynamic graphics which contain insightful facts and figures on how the sport we love is growing and flourishing on our continent," added Pinto.

Specialist supplements – The Technician, UEFA Medicine Matters and the UEFA Grassroots Newsletter – will continue to be a feature in the magazine in order to spotlight the specific areas of the organisation's portfolio of activities.

Starring in the latest edition of the new-style UEFA Direct:

• Iceland's quiet revolution: The remarkable development work that has resulted in a place at UEFA EURO 2016

• EURO history: From four to 24 – the various expansions of Europe's premium national team competition over the years

• Vicente del Bosque: Insight and opinions from the Spain coach, who is interviewed in the latest UEFA Technician supplement

• Club licensing – ten years on: Number-crunching from a decade of bringing financial stability to European club football

• UEFA Futsal EURO 2016: How and why the event in Serbia smashed records and set new benchmarks

• Referees: Europe's top match officials are primed for upcoming challenges

Alongside the printed version, which will be sent out to the football family and media, each edition of UEFA Direct will be available to read on UEFA.org in English, French and German.