An Interview with David Taylor, General Secretary, UEFA, pp. 155-160

Troels Troelsen

UEFA is the sports governing body for football (soccer) in Europe with 53 national associations as members of a democratic organization. UEFA is also the most important member of FIFA, which is the international governing body for football. UEFA organizes all European Championships and Youth Championships, as well as two trans-European playoffs every year between the best teams from the national leagues. The better teams from the 53 national leagues are, with some playoffs for the positions, playing in these two leagues. And the better the teams from a national league are performing, the more teams qualify the following year. Up to a certain maximum though, this is a political matter to decide upon. The most important league is UEFA Champions League (ChL), the “second league” is named UEFA Cup. Additionally UEFA governs soccer in Europe, developing programs, law, lobbyism etc.