UEFA, Governance, and the Control of Club Competition in ...

Chapter 2.The organisational structure of UEFAThrough assessment of UEFA’s structures in the context of changes to the environment andstakeholder network, we can gain an understanding of some of the challenges facing theorganisation at the beginning of the 21 st century. As Sugden and Tomlinson have written in relationto FIFA (1998), whilst the statutory framework cannot shed sole light on the loci of power – theinfluence of personalities and interests, and the realities of human behaviour are, clearly,considerable – nor can we fully appreciate the dominant issues and pressure points on UEFA, andits capacity to govern effectively, without reference to the framework in which it operates.Whilst the European model of football is based on a relatively coherent logic, and verticalhierarchy, within that framework is a complex multi-dimensional milieu, an array of organisations,entities and individuals with frequently diverging interests. The overall framework itself is simpleenough, but the position of these organisations and interests within this framework is hotly debated.It is those debates that will affect the future direction of European football, and it is those debatesthat UEFA must recognise in relation to its organisational structure. Analysis of the governancestructure of UEFA and the governance of European football needs to consider a number of things.These include the role and influence of stakeholders and their integration into the currentorganisational framework; an understanding of how governance and the integration of stakeholdersrelates to the sustainability of the European model of sport, and its key aspects; and the importanceof the management of change.i. The pre-eminence of the national associationsOne can see the European model of sport embodied in the organisational structure and statutes ofUEFA. Like FIFA, 4 UEFA is an International Non-Governmental Organisation (INGO), based inSwitzerland and operating under Article 60 et seq of the Swiss Civil Code. The Code gives UEFAits legal status as an organisation under the following remit: ‘Associations which have a political,religious, scientific, artistic, charitable, social or any other industrial object, acquire the status of aperson as soon as they show by their constitution their intention to have a corporate existence’(Swiss Civil Code, Article 60). The articles as laid out in the UEFA statutes shape the structuralform of UEFA. It is this structure, identified in figure 1, that fundamentally affects the organisationof football in Europe, the composition of competition, and critically the relationship and dynamicsbetween football’s various stakeholders. The statutes are therefore crucial to a thorough andperceptive understanding of UEFA.Since the formation of UEFA on 15 th June 1954, half a century after FIFA, UEFA’smembership has been comprised solely of the national associations, rising from 30 at the birth ofthe organisation to the current 52 national associations. The statutes state:Membership of UEFA is open to national football associations situated in the continent ofEurope, based in a country which is recognised by the United Nations as an independent state,and which are responsible for the organisation and implementation of football-related mattersin the territory of their country. (UEFA, 2004b: article 5)That the membership of UEFA has only ever comprised the national associations has gone a longway to shaping the nature of the organisation, its objectives, ethos and the wider trajectories ofEuropean football governance. Central to the exclusive membership of the UEFA is the notion thatit is only the national associations that can balance the wider interests of the game – thegrassroots/amateur game, as well as semi-professional, professional and elite game, technical andsporting progress, and the breakdown between international and club football:4 See Sugden, J. and Tomlinson, A. (1998) FIFA and the Contest for World Football, Polity, Cambridge.15