Club licensing and FFP focus in Yerevan

Club licensing and financial fair play were at the forefront of 16 UEFA member associations' minds as the Football Federation of Armenia (FFA) hosted the first UEFA Club Licensing and Financial Fair Play Regional Workshop of the year in Yerevan.

The regional workshops provide an ideal platform for an exchange of ideas and experiences in relation to domestic club licensing. Bringing together smaller groups of licensors enables frank and open discussions on the future development of the system and, as such, the regional workshops are a vital part of the continual dialogue and consultation between the UEFA club licensing and financial fair play unit and the member associations.

FFA executive committee member Eduard Ghazaryan opened the two-day event by stressing the importance of the meeting, which was attended by 30 representatives from Armenia, Andorra, Austria, Belarus, Georgia, Israel, Kazakhstan, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Moldova, Northern Ireland, Russia, Switzerland and Ukraine.

Following an update on the latest activities of the UEFA club licensing and financial fair play unit, the focus for the remainder of the first day centred on discussions about potential amendments to the 2012 edition of the UEFA Club Licensing and Financial Fair Play Regulations. The session also presented member associations with the opportunity to consider proposals aimed at improving and strengthening the current set of regulations.

The second day began with a presentation from the FFA's licensing manager, Artur Azaryan, who explained how the club licensing system works in Armenia, while highlighting the main results and achievements attained since the system was introduced. This was followed by a presentation from Arturs Gaidels, licensing manager of the Latvian Football Federation (LFF), who described how the club licensing core process in Latvia is managed via an online IT solution. This initiated discussions among the participants on potential improvements to the system, concluding two days of exchanges and sharing of best practices on a variety of club licensing matters.

Two further club licensing and financial fair play regional workshops, covering the remaining 38 UEFA member associations, will take place in Bulgaria in March and in Slovenia in June.