UEFA — Union of European Football Associations

What is UEFA?

UEFA — in French, its statutory name, the Union des Associations Européennes de Football — describes itself as “the Union of European Football Associations, and the governing body of football in Europe”, working “across its 55 member associations”.^[3] Its statutes set out its legal form in their first article: UEFA “shall be a society entered in the register of companies under the terms of Art. 60 et seq. of the Swiss Civil Code. UEFA shall be neutral, politically and religiously.”^[2]

It is a union of national associations, not of clubs or leagues. Article 5 opens membership to “national football associations situated in the continent of Europe”, in a state recognised by most United Nations members, “and which are responsible for the organisation and implementation of football-related matters in the territory of their country”.^[2] Its official languages are English, French and German (Article 4). The sport it covers is association football — soccer — in its senior, futsal and youth forms: the list of UEFA competitions in Article 49 runs from the club and national-team championships to futsal and youth events.^[2] FIFA’s Statutes list it among the six confederations FIFA recognises, as “Union des associations européennes de football – UEFA”.^[1]

What does UEFA govern or do?

The first objective in the UEFA Statutes is to “deal with all questions relating to European football”, followed by promoting football in Europe “in a spirit of peace, understanding and fair play, without any discrimination”.^[2] Its main instrument is control of international competition on the continent. Article 49(1) reads: “To ensure the good functioning and the protection of the overall interests of European football, UEFA shall have the sole jurisdiction to organise or authorise international competitions in UEFA’s territory or the participation of member associations, or affiliated leagues or clubs in competitions outside of UEFA’s territory.”^[2]

UEFA writes the regulations for its own competitions and enforces them through its disciplinary bodies. The UEFA Disciplinary Regulations, Edition 2024, in force from 2 June 2024, govern “the punishment of disciplinary offences falling within their scope of application”; on doping they provide that it “is punished primarily in accordance with the UEFA Anti-Doping Regulations and subsidiarily in accordance with these regulations” (Article 13).^[6] Disputes go to the Court of Arbitration for Sport: the statutes give the CAS exclusive jurisdiction over disputes between UEFA and associations, leagues, clubs, players or officials, and make its awards “final and binding to the exclusion of jurisdiction of any ordinary court” (Articles 61–63).^[2]

Within each country, the membership article makes the national association the body responsible for football-related matters, and Article 49(1) refers to leagues and clubs as “affiliated”.^[2]

When was UEFA founded and where is it based?

UEFA’s own history records that “On 15 June 1954, Europe’s national associations met in Basel, Switzerland, to rubber-stamp the formation of a pan-European football body”.^[4] The founding date and place rest on UEFA’s own account; no independent source for them was retrieved. The same history traces the seat: in the 1960s “UEFA headquarters moved from Paris to the Swiss capital, Berne”, and “after almost 40 years based in the Swiss capital, UEFA moved to a new home in Nyon”, where the House of European Football “officially opened for business in autumn 1999”.^[4]

The statutes fix the country but not the town. Article 1(2) reads: “UEFA’s headquarters shall be situated in Switzerland.”^[2] The same paragraph leaves the location of the registered office to the Executive Committee; Nyon is named by UEFA’s history, not by the statutes. The edition cited here is the UEFA Statutes, Edition 2024, adopted by the Congress in Paris on 8 February 2024 and in force from 1 July 2024.^[2]

Founding and recognition are separate dates. The date on which FIFA first recognised UEFA as a confederation could not be established from the documents retrieved; the May 2024 FIFA Statutes record the recognition as it stands today.^[1] UEFA’s history page records no change of name.^[4]

How is UEFA recognised?

The recognising act is FIFA’s. Article 22(1) of the FIFA Statutes (May 2024 edition) reads: “Member associations that belong to the same continent have formed the following confederations, which are recognised by FIFA”, and lists CONMEBOL, the AFC, UEFA, CAF, Concacaf and the OFC.^[1] The link runs both ways: under Article 11(2), “Membership is only permitted if an association is currently a member of a confederation.”^[1] UEFA’s own Article 3 states: “UEFA shall be a Confederation recognised by FIFA.”^[2]

Recognition carries duties. Article 22(3) of the FIFA Statutes requires each confederation, among other things, “to comply with and enforce compliance with the Statutes, regulations and decisions of FIFA”, “to organise its own interclub competitions, in compliance with the international match calendar” and “to organise all of its own international competitions in compliance with the international match calendar”; Article 22(4) lets the FIFA Council delegate further duties to confederations by agreement, and Article 22(5) requires each confederation’s statutes and regulations to be notified to FIFA.^[1]

UEFA’s decisions are subject to review by the Court of Arbitration for Sport under Articles 61–63 of its statutes.^[2] Under Article 49, international competitions in UEFA’s territory are organised or authorised by UEFA alone, and Article 5 sets who may join; FIFA’s own membership rule in Article 11(2) makes confederation membership a condition of FIFA membership for every European association.^[2][1]

What does UEFA organise?

Article 49(2) of the UEFA Statutes lists the competitions UEFA organises: the UEFA Champions League, the UEFA Europa League, the UEFA Conference League, the UEFA Super Cup, the UEFA Youth League, the UEFA Futsal Champions League and the UEFA Women’s Champions League for clubs; and, for national teams, the European Championships at senior, youth and futsal level and the UEFA Nations League.^[2]

Club competition predates the national-team championship. UEFA’s history records that “The Champion Clubs’ Cup kicked off in September 1955”, with “the European Championship making its bow in September 1958”.^[4] UEFA records that “The inaugural European Nations’ Cup finals were contested in France”, in 1960, where the USSR beat Yugoslavia 2–1 in the final.^[7]

On 1 October 2026 the 2024 tournament in Germany was the most recent completed edition, and the 2028 edition is the next scheduled.^[8][9]

Who are its members?

UEFA lists 55 member national associations: “We work alongside our 55 member national football associations to develop the game at every level across Europe.”^[5] Its directory, as retrieved on 1 October 2026, names Albania, Andorra, Armenia, Austria, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Belgium, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czechia, Denmark, England, Estonia, the Faroe Islands, Finland, France, Georgia, Germany, Gibraltar, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Israel, Italy, Kazakhstan, Kosovo, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Moldova, Montenegro, the Netherlands, North Macedonia, Northern Ireland, Norway, Poland, Portugal, the Republic of Ireland, Romania, Russia, San Marino, Scotland, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Türkiye, Ukraine and Wales.^[5] England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland are separate members, as are the Faroe Islands and Gibraltar.

Membership and the right to compete are separate. On 28 February 2022 the FIFA Council Bureau and the UEFA Executive Committee decided jointly that “all Russian teams, whether national representative teams or club teams, shall be suspended from participation in both FIFA and UEFA competitions until further notice.”^[10] On 2 May 2022 the UEFA Executive Committee took further decisions “relating to the implications of that decision for its upcoming competitions”, including that “Russia will have no affiliated clubs participating in UEFA club competitions in the 2022/23 season”.^[11] Russia remains listed among UEFA’s 55 members.^[5] No later UEFA decision lifting the suspension could be retrieved.

For Belarus, the UEFA Executive Committee decided on 3 March 2022 that “all Belarusian clubs and national teams competing in UEFA competitions will be required to play their home matches at neutral venues with immediate effect”, and that “no spectators shall attend matches in which the teams from Belarus feature as host.”^[12]