New assistance scheme launched

European football family
The scheme, unveiled at the Ordinary UEFA Congress in Rome in March, is aimed at helping all 52 UEFA member associations and, in turn, encourage the European football family to carefully tend the roots of the game.

Four-year period
UEFA has committed €85m to its associations via the HatTrick scheme. The sum will cover a four-year period between 1 August this year and 31 July 2008, and the funds will come from UEFA's projected revenue from the UEFA EURO 2004™ final tournament in Portugal.

Association grants
Starting from this month, associations will be able to apply for grants of up to €1.7m to help improve their football structures. The grants will target stadium construction and renovation, training centres, artificial turf, association premises and overall education.

Solidarity payments
Further assistance involves yearly solidarity payments from 2004 through to 2008. Every year, each association will receive between €338,000 and €675,000, with a maximum of €2.7m over four years. The UEFA Incentive Scheme aims to encourage the implementation of the UEFA club licensing system from the 2004/05 season, as well as participation in youth and women's competitions.

Pitch support
The second part of the scheme is aimed at promoting football at the broadest possible level by building mini-pitches. The aim is to create practice areas, with the objective of having at least one grassroots pitch in use in each of the 52 countries before the end of 2004. In addition, funds have been set aside to offer specific courses and assistance corresponding to associations' needs.

Board of six
A six-member board will deal with requests - the board comprises three UEFA Executive Committee members and three UEFA directors, with Executive Committee members taking the chairmanship and vice-chairmanship. The board may also ask for advice from experts, either members of the UEFA Assistance Programmes Committee or external experts.

EEAB work
The HatTrick scheme is a development of the work undertaken over the past ten years by the East European Assistance Bureau (EEAB), which has supported the development of football in the countries which emerged following the break-up of the former Soviet Union, as well as in Albania, Bosnia-Herzegovina and F.Y.R. Macedonia.

Help and guidance
The EEAB's help has seen the emergence of brand-new stadiums and facilities, returfed pitches, new or refurbished association premises and the development of many talented young footballers in the countries which it has served. The integration of these countries has been achieved through the sterling work not only of officials in the countries themselves but also a dedicated team at UEFA, who now turn their attention to an even wider assistance campaign.

Improvement and development
UEFA Chief Executive Gerhard Aigner believes that the new HatTrick programme should help significantly in supporting football's grassroots. "UEFA's principle has always been to put the money made by its major competitions back into football," he said in a recent edition of the official UEFA publication uefadirect. "The new assistance programme not only remains true to this principle, but will also ensure that the money is really spent on developing football and improving its infrastructures.

New projects
"All aspects of the HatTrick programme are compatible with these criteria - whether it be grants to cover participation in youth and women's competitions, encouraging the creation of mini-pitches as part of UEFA's golden jubilee, contributing to new projects that meet the requirements laid down in a charter, or financial assistance to set up a club licensing system, a measure which itself is intended to strengthen football."