How UEFA is helping Europe’s football community in its time of need
UEFA’s HatTrick programme, which invests profits from UEFA EURO tournaments back into European football, begins a new four-year cycle that will see €775.5 million devoted to developing the game
—- When European football was put on hold in the spring, one of UEFA’s first actions was to announce a more flexible use of €236.5m from the HatTrick Programme to helps its 55 member associations to face the challenges of the COVID-19 crisis.
The decision recognised that associations would struggle at domestic level without matchday revenues coming in.
The HatTrick programme is funded by the profits from European Championships since 2004. Despite the postponement of EURO 2020, UEFA moved quickly to reassure national associations that it would still honour the 2020-2024 HatTrick funding cycle to safeguard the game ahead of European football’s return to play.
“The UEFA HatTrick programme is a vital component of European football and its importance has never been clearer to see than during the COVID-19 crisis,” said UEFA President, Aleksander Čeferin. “By lifting the conditions to release HatTrick funds to our associations, we have been able to limit the economic impact of the pandemic and look ahead to the resumption of our competitions.”
“However, we must not stand still as the game returns. We must use HatTrick to continue taking football forwards, providing more opportunities, better infrastructure and higher quality to ensure European football remains as strong as it can possibly be.”
Four more years
HatTrick’s fifth four-year cycle, which officially kicks off today (1 July), will invest a total of €775.5m in European football – a 27 percent increase on the previous cycle. By 2024, the programme will have contributed €2.6 billion of EURO revenue toward the benefit of the game, making it one of the world’s largest sporting solidarity and development initiatives.
HatTrick funding supports European football’s growth and development by targeting three goals:
• Goal 1: increased investment funding
• Goal 2: improved education
• Goal 3: wider knowledge-sharing
To read more, please access the following article: https://www.uefa.com/
############
