The Union of European Football Associations (French: Union des Associations Européennes de Football;[3] German: Vereinigung Europäischer Fußballverbände), almost always referred to by its acronym UEFA (
/juːˈeɪfə/ ew-ay-fə) is the[clarification needed] administrative and controlling body for European Association football, futsal and beach soccer.
UEFA represents most of the national football associations of Europe, runs national and club competitions in its area, and controls the prize money, regulations and media rights to those competitions. As a result of the ill-defined boundary of Europe and Asia transcontinental nations such as Turkey, Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, Georgia and Russia are members of the UEFA rather than AFC, as are Israel, Armenia and Cyprus, which lie entirely in Asia (Israel and Kazakhstan are former AFC members). There are members that do not represent sovereign states, such as the Faroe Islands, England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland (Irish FA). However, no unrecognized nations are members of UEFA, with Monaco being the only European member of the United Nations that is not a member of UEFA (or FIFA).
UEFA is the biggest of FIFA's six continental confederations. Of all the confederations, it is by far the strongest in terms of wealth and influence at club level. Virtually all of the world's top players play in European leagues in part due to the salaries available from the world's wealthiest football clubs, particularly in England, Spain, Germany, Italy and France. Many of the world's strong national sides are in UEFA. Of the 32 available spots in the 2010 FIFA World Cup, 13 were allocated to UEFA national teams, and currently top 3 as well as other 9 of the top 20 teams in the FIFA World Rankings are UEFA members. UEFA is nearly as strong in the women's game; in the most recent FIFA Women's World Cup in 2011, five of the 16 places were guaranteed to UEFA members, and 5 of the top 10 teams in the most recent FIFA Women's World Rankings are from UEFA, including 2003 and 2007 World Cup champion Germany.
UEFA was founded on 15 June 1954 in Basel, Switzerland following discussions between the French, Italian and Belgian FAs. The headquarters were in Paris until 1959, when the organization moved to Bern. Henri Delaunay was the first General Secretary and Ebbe Schwartz the president. Its administrative center has been in Nyon, Switzerland, since 1995. It was initially made up of 25 national associations. Currently there are 53 associations (see the bottom of this page or List of UEFA national football teams). UEFA national teams have won ten FIFA World Cups (Italy 4, Germany 3, England, France and Spain one trophy each), and UEFA clubs have won 21 Intercontinental Cups and five FIFA Club World Cups. In the women's game, UEFA sides have won three World Cups (Germany 2, Norway 1) and one Olympic gold medal (Norway).
UEFA, as a representative of the national associations, has had a number of bruising clashes with the European Commission. In the 1990s the issues of television rights and especially international transfers (the Bosman ruling) had to undergo some major changes to remain in line with European law.
The current UEFA President is Michel Platini.
Men's national teams
Women's national teams
1: Official name used by FIFA and UEFA for Bosnia and Herzegovina
2: Official name used by FIFA and UEFA for Ireland
3: Formerly member of AFC (AFC 1954–1974; Joined UEFA in 1994)
4: Formerly member of AFC (AFC 1998–2002; Joined UEFA in 2002)
5: Official name used by FIFA and UEFA for Republic of Macedonia
NB: 
Gibraltar was a provisional member of UEFA between 8 December 2006 and 26 January 2007 until the GFA had its application for full membership rejected.
Competitions
International
The main competition for men's national teams is the UEFA European Football Championship, started in 1958, with the first finals in 1960, and known as the European Nations Cup until 1964. UEFA also runs national competitions at Under-21, Under-19 and Under-17 levels. For women's national teams, UEFA operates the UEFA Women's Championship for senior national sides as well as Women's Under-19 and Women's Under-17 Championships.
UEFA also organizes the UEFA-CAF Meridian Cup with CAF for youth teams.
UEFA launched the UEFA Regions' Cup, for semi-professional teams representing their local region, in 1999.
In futsal there is the UEFA Futsal Championship and UEFA Futsal Under-21 Championship.
Club
UEFA member countries by club competition entry entitlements, 2007/8
UEFA also runs the two main club competitions in Europe (known as UEFA club competitions).
The top-ranked UEFA competition is the UEFA Champions League, which started in the 1992/93 season and gathers the top 1-4 teams of each country's league (the number of teams depend on that country's ranking and can be upgraded or downgraded); this competition was re-structured from a previous one that only gathered the top team of each country (and thus less competitive, held from 1955-1992 and known as the European Champion Clubs Cup or just European Cup).
A second, lower-ranked competition is the UEFA Europa League. This competition, for national knockout cup winners and high-placed league teams, was launched by UEFA in 1971 as a successor of both the former UEFA Cup and the Inter-Cities Fairs Cup (also begun in 1955). A third competition, the Cup Winners' Cup, which had started in 1960, was absorbed into the UEFA Cup in 1999.
In women's football UEFA also conducts the UEFA Women's Champions League for club teams. The competition was first held in 2001, and known as the UEFA Women's Cup until 2009.
The UEFA Super Cup pits the winners of the Champions League against the winners of the UEFA Europa League (previously the winners of the Cup Winners' Cup), and came into being in 1973.[4][5][6]
The UEFA Intertoto Cup was a summer competition, previously operated by several Central European football associations, which was relaunched and recognized as official UEFA club competition by UEFA in 1995.[7] The last Intertoto Cup took place in 2008.
The Intercontinental Cup was jointly organised with CONMEBOL between the Champions League and the Copa Libertadores winners.[8]
Only three teams[9][10] (Juventus, Ajax and Bayern Munich) have won each of the three main competitions (European Cup/UEFA Champions League, UEFA Cup Winner's Cup and UEFA Cup/Europa League),[11] a feat that is no longer possible for any team that did not win the Cup Winners' Cup. There are currently nine teams throughout Europe that have won two of the three trophies; all but one have won the Cup Winners Cup, four require a win in the Champions League and five require a UEFA Europa League win.
Juventus was the first team in Europe to win all UEFA's official championships and cups[12] and, in commemoration of achieving that feat, have received The UEFA Plaque by the Union of European Football Associations on 12 July 1988.[13][14]
Futsal
UEFA's premier futsal competition is the UEFA Futsal Cup, a tournament started in 2001 which replaced the former Futsal European Clubs Championship. This event, despite enjoying a long and well-established tradition in the European futsal community, dating back to 1984, was never recognized as official by UEFA.
See also
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Major non-UEFA competitions
Financial Fair Play
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References
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