Technical appraisal of U21 EURO final tournament

The preparation of a technical report on the final tournament of the UEFA European Under-21 Championship entailed UEFA sending a 'technical team' of experienced coaches and coach educators to the Czech Republic to cover the 15 matches played at four stadiums in two centres at either end of the country.

Their objective was to observe games from a coaching viewpoint and, by pinpointing and analysing the trends and tendencies, to pass on information to coaches involved in youth development in all of UEFA's member associations.

The information is gathered with a view to cascading it right down the grassroots levels of the European game. This is done to provide coaches and coach educators with useful orientation about the mental, physical and technical qualities which today's youth players will need to develop if they aim to become the star performers of the future.

The technical team in the Czech Republic was captained by UEFA chief technical officer Ioan Lupescu at the beginning and end of the tournament and was strong in experience of coaching – at senior and youth levels – and in coach education. In fact, all four observers were members of UEFA's Jira Panel, which specialises in coach education issues.

Dušan Fitzel combined the workload with the role of host and kept a rigorously straight, objective face when the Czech Republic were playing. He has been technical director at the Football Association of the Czech Republic (FAČR) since 2009 after, in chronological order, 11 seasons as a player in the Czech league and two in Cyprus; three years in charge of SK Slavia Praha's U18 and U19 teams from 1995 to 1998; seven seasons as head coach of all Czech youth sides between 1998 and 2005 – winning the UEFA U21 title as assistant in 2002 – and then national coach and technical director of Malta from 2006 until taking his current role.

Ginés Meléndez has earned repute and respect as a youth development guru since joining the Royal Spanish Football Federation (RFEF) in 2002. He was a serial winner of UEFA U17 and U19 competitions until, after lifting the U19 trophy in Romania in 2011, he found to his regret that the roles of technical director and coach education director left him no time for coaching.

Like Meléndez, Peter Rudbæk plays an active role in UEFA's coach education projects. Rudbæk played at Aalborg BK and became head coach at 27, leading the team from 1983 to 1990 and from 2000 to 2002. He was then coach of Viborg FF from 1990 to 1993 and AGF Aarhus from 1993 to 2000. Denmark's coach of the year in 1987 and 1996, he has been technical director of the Danish Football Association (DBU) since 2005.

Dany Ryser was head coach of the Switzerland team which won the FIFA U-17 World Cup in 2009, having taken responsibility for coach education at the Swiss Football Association (SFV-ASF) in 2002 and coached national teams from U15 to U20 level. Ryser earned his UEFA Pro Licence at 29 and began his career in the technical area as player-coach at FC Post Solothurn and FC Deitingen. Switzerland's coach of the year in 2010 is now a UEFA instructor and is active on a wide range of coach-education projects.

In the Czech Republic, the quartet's mission includes picking the man of the match at each fixture and choosing a team of the 11 best players. In previous years they had been asked to name a Select Squad of the tournament's 18 most outstanding performers.