Liechtenstein visit to UEFA headquarters

The new president of the Liechtenstein Football Association (LFV), Hugo Quaderer, has visited the House of European Football in Nyon.

Mr Quaderer and the LFV general secretary Roland Ospelt held talks with UEFA President Michel Platini and senior UEFA national association officials about football developments in the principality of some 37,000 inhabitants, which is situated between Austria and Switzerland.

Elected in March, Mr Quaderer was a member of the Liechtenstein government from 2005 to 2013 and, among his duties, served as sports minister. He is presently chief executive of a media company in Liechtenstein, and has been involved with football since his youth.

"It's obviously a great pleasure and an honour to be invited to UEFA and to meet Michel Platini," Mr Quaderer told UEFA.com. "I very much appreciated his down-to-earth and informal way of exchanging views. We spoke about a number of things – for example, how UEFA is organised, which interests me in particular as a new association president – as well as about the various projects that we are undertaking in Liechtenstein."

Founded in 1934, the LFV joined the game's European and world governing bodies UEFA and FIFA in 1974. The senior national men's team has taken part in UEFA European Championship and FIFA World Cup qualifying tournaments since 1994, and the association has over 1,900 registered footballers of both sexes and all age groups.

Seven senior clubs from the principality compete in the Swiss league system. FC Vaduz, FC Balzers, FC Triesen and FC Schaan were all founded in 1932, and are joined by FC Ruggell (1958), FC USV Eschen-Mauren (1963) and FC Triesenberg (1972). Vaduz, the capital's club, are presently in the Swiss top flight, the Super League. The seven clubs field their first and reserve teams in the Liechtensteiner Cup, which the LFV has organised every year since 1946.

Liechtenstein boasts an excellent national venue in the Rheinpark Stadium in Vaduz, built to FIFA and UEFA specifications and opened in 1998 with a capacity of 6,127 covered seats.

The principality has already enjoyed the honour of staging European final rounds. In 2003, UEFA entrusted the LFV with hosting the UEFA European Under-19 Championship. Five years later, the UEFA Executive Committee held a meeting in Vaduz, and appointed Liechtenstein as hosts of the 2010 UEFA European Under-17 Championship.

Liechtenstein's geographical position also brought a welcome contribution to UEFA EURO 2008 through several events marking the tournament held in Austria and Switzerland.

A smaller national association such as the LFV welcomes the infrastructure and sporting support given by UEFA as part of its comprehensive HatTrick assistance programme. "This support is ideal for us, and we are able to utilise the funding in useful ways," Mr Quaderer explained. "We are extremely grateful – without such funding, we would not be able to organise the association in the way that it is set up at the moment."

The LFV president gave three examples of his association's future plans and targets. "Firstly, from a sporting point of view, the [forthcoming] UEFA Nations League will be a challenge," he said, "because we will have the opportunity to measure ourselves against teams of a similar level.

"Secondly, we are starting development work in women's football. We have just participated in a UEFA Under-16 development tournament [in Montenegro], and we will continue our work, with the possibility of forming a national women's team in the future. Thirdly, we would like to establish a technical centre in Liechtenstein, with its own training installations. We hope we can achieve this project in the next three or four years."

Football in Liechtenstein is built on solid, sound foundations, and Mr Quaderer and his team have realistic targets for the future. One particular wish is that at least one player from Liechtenstein in each youth age group goes on to become a professional footballer. "If we can achieve this," the LFV president says, "it would be a huge success for us."