UEFA's national associations are providing "champions" to UEFA to help bring about efficient management of European football.

Sharing and solving
The "champions", representing UEFA's 53 member associations, are helping share knowledge with, and solve problems faced by fellow associations of part of an ambitious programme set up under the auspices of UEFA's HatTrick assistance scheme for its member countries. A keynote meeting in Nyon, Switzerland saw the associations come together under the banner of the KISS (Knowledge & Information Sharing Scenario) programme, which was launched in 2005.

KISS banner
KISS aims to enhance professionalism in the national associations by addressing critical issues and problems more efficiently. The process is based on several main pillars. These include seminars and workshops on specific subjects, such as marketing, communication & media, TV & media rights, event management and legal matters.

Expert network
The aim of the Nyon session was to initiate exchanges among national associations, whereby problems faced by some are addressed with the help of others who have already found solutions. In addition, a network of experts - selected from UEFA, the national associations and the wider European football family - was set up to support the associations in their quest for better practices.

Critical challenges
During the session, critical challenges were identified which will now be addressed during knowledge-sharing sessions, either in the form of workshops or on-line distant meetings. The project is pioneering, as state-of-the-art tools are being used to facilitate the exchanges. These tools include sophisticated (and user-friendly) on-line meeting platforms and e-learning modules, as well as methods to allow associations to easily implement the lessons they learn during the exchanges.

Various models
Association representatives told UEFA that they now have a concrete and powerful leverage to help their associations to evolve in various domains. As one member said: "We will now be able to compare various models with a view to organising our internal tasks more efficiently, and to choose the most appropriate model."