HatTrick assistance throughout Europe

Development projects
At its most recent meeting in Cyprus, UEFA's newly-formed HatTrick Board, comprising Mathieu Sprengers (Netherlands, chairman), Geoffrey Thompson (England), Marios Lefkaritis (Cyprus), Lars-Christer Olsson (UEFA Chief Executive), Markus Studer (deputy UEFA chief executive) and Hanspeter Jenni (UEFA finance director), approved a series of projects that will help football's development in many UEFA member countries.

Three elements
The HatTrick programme was launched in August 2003 and will run until 2008. It aims to assist UEFA's member associations with the funding of projects designed to develop and improve football infrastructures in general. There are three main elements to the programme: direct financial support in the form of one-off grants, payments for the construction of mini-pitches as part of the UEFA Golden Jubilee celebrations, and assistance with education courses.

These are the projects approved at the Cyprus meeting:

Belarus
- purchase of a scoreboard and video surveillance systems at the Gomel Central stadium
- installation of a floodlight system at the Borisov city stadium
- construction of new Belarus Football Federation headquarters (financed jointly with FIFA)
- purchase and installation of an artificial pitch to be installed at the NOC training complex in Minsk (financed jointly with the Belarus NOC)

Czech Republic
- upgrading of the working conditions at the association headquarters

Georgia 
- improvement of the infrastructure at the Lagodekhi and Mtskheta training centre
- organisation of referee and coaching education courses over the next four years

Israel
- installation of a close-circuit television system at the Ramat-Gan stadium

Slovakia
- completion of the training centre at Senec

Slovenia 
- construction of a minimum nine artificial pitches
- installation of a floodlight system at the FC Celje stadium
- modernisation of a training centre for the national youth teams

Turkey
- construction of a training centre at Kusadasi

24 projects
Fifteen countries have so far requested a contribution from UEFA under the HatTrick scheme. They have presented 24 different projects which have an overall cost of €14.1m. In addition, the Georgian Football Federation submitted a project for the construction of eleven mini-pitches in the frame of the Jubilee Mini-pitch project. As a result of the HatTrick Board's approval, these pitches will be installed across the country in each of Georgia's regional associations.

Jubilee project
Georgia's request comes under UEFA's scheme to mark its Golden Jubilee, whereby it will give assistance to its member associations to help each country construct mini-pitches. UEFA is making funds available to each association, and the immediate objective is to have at least one grassroots pitch in use in each of the 52 countries before the end of 2004.