DBU president visits UEFA

The president of the Danish Football Association (DBU), Jesper Møller, has visited the House of European Football in Nyon.

Mr Møller, who was elected as president in March 2014, was accompanied by DBU general secretary Claus Bretton-Meyer, and held talks with UEFA President Michel Platini and senior UEFA national association officials which focused on European football developments and the healthy relationship between UEFA and the Danish body.

Founded on 18 May 1889, the Dansk Boldspil-Union (DBU) was the first national football association on mainland Europe. Football had been introduced to Denmark by British expatriates who arrived from 1847 to build the railways, and the sport rapidly became popular. Denmark would go on to take a pioneering role in the European game, with one of the country's outstanding football administrators, Ebbe Schwartz, becoming the first President of UEFA in 1954. The Danes won the silver medal in the 1960 Olympic Games football tournament.

The country gradually emerged as a strong soccer nation, with its youth development policies breeding a host of fine players, including striker Allan Simonsen, who was crowned European Footballer of the Year in 1977. By the 1980s, the Danish national team was playing a major role on the world stage. Their stylish, entertaining performances would be rewarded in 1992 when Denmark won the UEFA European Championship held in Sweden – against the odds, after being invited into the tournament at the last minute when UEFA decided that Yugoslavia would not be allowed to take part in the wake of United Nations sanctions.

A conveyor belt of superb Danish players have performed with distinction on the international front in addition to Simonsen – to name but a few, Søren Lerby, Frank Arnesen, Morten Olsen, Peter Schmeichel, Preben Elkjær and Michael Laudrup, elected as the all-time greatest Danish player in 2007, and chosen by the DBU as Denmark's most outstanding player over 50 years to celebrate UEFA's Golden Jubilee in 2004.

Last autumn, Denmark received a huge footballing boost when Copenhagen was appointed by the UEFA Executive Committee as one of the 13 cities that will host matches at UEFA EURO 2020 – the EURO for Europe. Copenhagen will stage three group games and one round of 16 match during the tournament.

A lawyer by profession, Jesper Møller was an enthusiastic footballer as a youngster at Frem Skørping, but he made his mark as an administrator, joining the board at Aalborg BK in 1993 and becoming chairman of their amateur division in 2000. In 1998, Møller was brought onto the DBU board. In 2004, he became the association's vice-president, before taking the helm last spring.

"It's important to come to UEFA," he told UEFA.org, "because for the national associations, UEFA is one of our most important partners, and the visit is also about networking – it's good for Claus Bretton-Meyer, as a new general secretary, to see the faces of the people he is involved with. Personally, I'm extremely honoured to come and meet Michel Platini, and because I like football, I also like the opportunity to be able to talk football with him."

Mr Møller welcomed UEFA's invaluable assistance to its member associations, in particular through the HatTrick assistance programme. The DBU president's predecessor Allan Hansen is chairman of the UEFA HatTrick Committee and a member of the UEFA Executive Committee. "It's very important to us that we have UEFA's help, because we are a very small country," he reflected. "UEFA assists us in many ways – and with Denmark having provided the first UEFA President, this makes the [relationship] special. Through UEFA's help, we can do a lot of things, for example, in terms of infrastructures and grassroots football.

"I'm concentrating on bringing the Danish FA closer to the clubs," Mr Møller added of current and future projects. "We are also looking to become a greater part of society in Denmark – to contribute to areas such as health, and involving more women in football, especially as leaders. We have an obligation to ensure that football can be played everywhere, in particular by children. We are also discussing with our league about how we can continue to develop talented players and improve the clubs in this important area."

The 1992 European triumph and the chance to hold UEFA EURO 2020 matches are seen by Jesper Møller as ample proof that one should "never say never". "Nineteen ninety-two was a dream come true, and it shows that, in football, everything is possible. We have just had a small club coming into our first league – Hobro IK – no one could have believed that five years ago. EURO 2020 ... everybody said it was impossible, but it's happened. We're so proud because this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for Denmark and for the Danish FA." The Danes love their football ... and have great moments to look forward to.