National team competitions
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We use the power of our national team competitions to drive football development and inspire positive social change.
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The pride that both football and non-football fans take from watching their flagship team prosper has always made our national team competitions far more than just football tournaments. They inspire young boys and girls to dream of playing for their country, boosting participation rates across the continent. They attract sponsors and media, generating revenue that we channel to every level of the football pyramid. And, they reach new audiences, young and old, increasing our sport's potential to help tackle global social issues such as climate change and online abuse.
None of this is down to chance. We work tirelessly with our stakeholders, host cities and countries to organise competitions that leverage the popularity of national team football to promote the game’s development.
Competitiveness
Men's national team football
Like two halves of a football match, the formats of our senior men's national team competitions look different but share a common goal: to raise the competitiveness and visibility of the game in across the continent.
On the one side, our qualifiers for the EURO and the FIFA World Cup offer players from smaller associations the opportunity to measure themselves against the strongest teams, while fans can witness first-hand the world's best players. On the other, by grouping teams of similar standards together, the Nations League delivers more competitive matches.
Since its introduction in 2016, the Nations League has brought a dynamic new dimension to the men’s international game. Closer contests, the jeopardy of promotion and relegation... the format has given national teams at all levels fresh opportunities. In the first three editions, a total of 33 national teams earned promotion. In total, eight have earned two promotions since 2018, including Georgia (League D to B) and Scotland (League C to A). By reaching EURO 2024, both are perfect examples of the National League ripple effect in action.
Georgia's first-ever appearance in a major international tournament came courtesy of direct qualification for the EURO play-offs as one of the best performing Nations League sides – another example of how we use our competitions to open the door for associations aspiring to step up a level.
In 2024, the fourth edition of the Nations League will build on the competition’s sporting and commercial success, with a new knockout round linking the league phase with the finals played in June 2025, as well as home-and-away promotion/relegation play-offs. The prospect of exciting matchups will not only further enhance competitiveness but also increase the excitement for fans and interest from media and commercial partners – a vital source of revenue for member associations.
Women's national team football
In 2022, learning from the success of the men's Nations League, we unveiled plans for a new two-phase format for women's national team football , based on our Women’s European Qualifiers and the Women’s Nations League, that leads to qualification for the Women's EURO or the FIFA Women's World Cup. Like the men's competition, better-balanced groups within a three-tier league system using promotion/relegation are helping to raise the competitive balance across the European women's game.
"I see huge advantages in playing important matches, big matches that can make a difference. It’s good for women’s football in general, it’s good for football in the countries involved, good for the development of the players."
Reinvestment
We ensure that the financial success of our national team competitions touches every level of Europe's football pyramid structure.
Thanks to our UEFA HatTrick development programme, introduced in 2004, all our member associations receive an average of €194 million each season to invest in football development projects – from the largest to the smallest nation. HatTrick also helps some associations cover the costs of entering teams in our youth, women’s, futsal and amateur competitions.
On top of HatTrick, our centralisation of commercial rights for men’s Nations League matches, European, Qualifiers for UEFA EURO 2020 and the 2022 FIFA World Cup and men’s senior national team friendlies generated €1.911 billion for associations over the 2018–22 period – almost double the revenue redistributed during the pre-centralisation and pre-2014–18 Nations League period. This has been a vital source of income as European football slowly recovers from the financial hit of the pandemic.
In 2022, our introduction of a first-ever club benefits programme for the Women's EURO in England shared more than €4.3 million across 221 clubs from 17 different European associations that had released players to contribute to the tournament's success. Each club was encouraged to use the funds for developing women's football.
Women’s football
Women's EURO 2022
As early as 2019, UEFA identified the Women's EURO as a key driver of its Time for Action women's football strategy, destined to accelerate progress against objectives crucial for developing the game. Everything was done to deliver a game-changing tournament for women's football.
Our initial support of €300,000 provided a catalyst for stakeholders and partners, led by the English Football Association, to invest more than €3 million in host city legacy programmes designed to attract a new generation of players, coaches and referees, encourage more girls and women to play football for fun, and connect the game with clubs and communities.
Commercial partnerships and our own direct investment in women's football doubled the minimum rewards for participating teams, laying the foundations for a new revenue distribution model that represented a milestone in the professionalisation of women’s football.
Minimum standards for women's national teams
Our introduction of a minimum standards framework for women’s national teams in June 2022 has set the first-ever pan-European benchmark for good governance, coaching, medical care, training, player welfare, accommodation and remuneration.
To ensure the framework delivers on the real-life requirements of European female footballers, we consulted 35 national team captains, plus representatives from associations and FIFPRO Europe. Associations can apply for €100,000 per season through our HatTrick programme to support roll-out.
"This is a starting point to raise the bar across all women’s national teams. Having the best possible conditions on and off the pitch is absolutely vital for players to perform and, in return, bring success to their national teams."
Social impact
Thanks to their global visibility and popularity, our national team competitions have tremendous potential to inspire positive social change through public awareness campaigns or innovative sustainability initiatives, such as reducing the environmental impact of our matches and tournaments.
EURO 2024's competition regulations include an environmental, social and governance (ESG) strategy. Among various initiatives designed to reduce the tournament's environment impact, match venues are divided into three clusters – North/North-East, West and South – to reduce travel distances for teams and fans. Women's EURO 2025, to be hosted by the Swiss Football Association, will also focus on reducing its carbon footprint.
Most recently, we teamed up with the European Commission to produce a television ad campaign about climate change that was shown at all our men’s and women’s club and national team competitions. In #EveryTrickCounts, former Ballon d’Or winner Luís Figo, Italy’s Gianluigi Buffon and French duo Delphine and Estelle Cascarino use an array of footballing tricks to show how simple changes to our daily routines can help slow global warming.
Host venue legacy
For national associations and public authorities, the opportunity to host one of our national team finals can be a significant catalyst for change – for the national game and for wider society. They put cities and countries on the map as a major sporting venue and kick-start football, social and economic development. We work with everyone involved in running our final tournaments to deliver a lasting legacy.
The Georgian Football Federation (GFF) leveraged its co-hosting of the 2023 European Under-21 Championship finals with Romania to develop sporting infrastructure for both amateur and professional footballers. Drawing on our HatTrick development funding, the GFF invested government support for the finals in the renovation of Tbilisi’s Meskhi Stadium and the Shengelia Arena in the western city of Kutaisi, as well as the creation of five training centres across the country.
From organising accreditation for journalists and photographers to helping fans find their way to the stadium, the often hidden roles of volunteers are essential to the successful hosting of any UEFA competition. The long-term benefits are multiple – both for the football community and the individuals themselves.
Some 19,000 people responded to the German Football Association's (DFB) pan-European recruitment campaign for EURO 2024, expressing interest in no fewer than 25 different areas of activity. The DFB estimates the value of volunteers' contribution to German amateur football to be in the millions of euros.
Inter-continental
A series of showdowns between UEFA and South American Football Confederation, CONMEBOL, competition winners underlines the power of football to bridge continents. Following an extension of an existing memorandum of understanding between our two confederations in 2021, we now jointly stage both a men's and women's Finalissima.
The first brought together the reigning EURO and Copa América champions in 2022, while the Women's EURO winners played the Copa América Femenina titleholders in 2023. Equivalent intercontinental clashes take place between the best futsal national teams and youth club sides.
Finalissima's success has helped to deepen our historic cooperation with CONMEBOL, paving the way for an operational agreement on mutual recognition of coaching qualifications and competencies, and a technical agreement for coach development.