HatTrick help continues

Coverciano centre
At its meeting in Nyon, the UEFA HatTrick Board approved support amounting to €1.6m for a project to renovate the Italian Football Federation training centre for national teams at Coverciano.

Improving facilities
The main objective of the renovation plan is to modernise sports infrastructures, including the provision of artificial-turf pitches, and to modernise and improve accommodation facilities. Coverciano was built in 1958, and this is the first major refurbishment. The centre is the training base for all Italian national sides, including women's and military teams, and a place where UEFA regularly holds seminars.

Hungarian headquarters
Another €1.6m from the HatTrick investment fund will go towards the construction of a new headquarters for the Hungarian Football Federation (MLSZ) in the south-west of the capital Budapest. With this construction, the MLSZ will in particular offer better working conditions for its staff.

Mini-pitches
The HatTrick board also approved UEFA contributions of €657,000 each for the installation of 64 mini-pitches in Scotland and 40 mini-pitches in F.Y.R. Macedonia.

40 projects
A total of 40 projects costing more than €56m have so far been approved by the board under the UEFA HatTrick investment scheme. The HatTrick programme was launched in August 2003 and will continue until 2008. Its objective is to assist UEFA's member associations with the funding of projects designed to develop and improve their footballing infrastructures.

Three main elements
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.