UEFA Direct 202 – Embracing football’s social responsibility

Edition No. 202 of UEFA’s official quarterly publication casts the spotlight on a series of recent events and activities highlighting football’s ever-growing sense of social responsibility.

Season finale

Enthusiasts who closely follow the beautiful game will also find in-depth reviews of the climax to last season’s various European club and national team competitions, which saw winning teams lift UEFA trophies in 12 different European cities between March and July.

“Football brings people together”

In his UEFA Direct column, UEFA General Secretary Theodore Theodoridis highlights how UEFA’s competition finals serve to unite people across the continent.

“From the global audience watching the men’s Champions League final at Istanbul’s Atatürk Olympic Stadium to the record crowds following the Regions’ Cup final tournament in Galicia,” Theodoridis says, “UEFA’s competition finals have once again demonstrated our sport’s enduring ability to bring people together from all walks of life.”

“Of course, popularity brings influence,” he adds. “While it’s unrealistic to believe any sport can single-handedly change society for the better, a community that unites millions of people regardless of ethnicity, gender, age or nationality is a great starting point.”

“The final months of the 2022/23 season have demonstrated how European football is making significant progress in delivering on its enormous potential for social good.”

Driving social and environmental sustainability

UEFA Direct devotes particular attention to the UEFA Respect forum in Frankfurt in June. This European football ‘first’ examined how football can become a driving force for social and environmental sustainability.

Next summer’s UEFA EURO 2024 took special pride of place at the forum, and UEFA Direct highlights the tournament’s potential for leaving a lasting legacy, not only for football but wider society as well.

Celebrating European football’s grassroots movement

UEFA’s annual Grassroots Awards reward excellence across Europe in this crucial sector of the game.

UEFA Direct highlights the 2022/23 winners, all of whom provided outstanding proof of how football associations and clubs throughout the continent make an important difference to local communities.

Elsewhere in UEFA Direct 202

• Switzerland – proud hosts of the 2025 UEFA Women’s EURO

• Unity EURO Cup: The tournament for refugee players promotes inclusion through the universal language of sport

• Voices of experience: A stellar line-up of former players and elite coaches join UEFA’s new Football Board

• Football fact-finding: UEFA’s Research Grant Programme supports the development of the European game

• UEFA Foundation: UEFA President Aleksander Čeferin visits a project in Uganda which is changing young people’s lives

• The Technician: The future of goalkeeping and goalkeeper coaching

• UEFA member associations: News and views from all four corners of Europe

UEFA Direct is also available to read in French and German.