UEFA•direct aims to maintain proud legacy

A new era has started within UEFA's communications activities. The European body's official publication uefadirect has been given a new look and new design to keep up with the times – and, fittingly, the revamp comes with the publication of the 100th edition.

UEFA•direct, as the publication will now be known, is a window on UEFA's activities and policies, as well as a popular focal point for coverage of the work undertaken by UEFA's 53 member associations across Europe. Committee meetings, conferences, seminars, workshops and courses are covered alongside European competitions, finals and tournaments, and the UEFA president and general secretary put across their points of view on prominent issues in editorial columns.

Over more than five decades, UEFA's official publications have reflected the broad palette of European football activities. The first publication, the Official Bulletin, appeared in May 1956 under the leadership of then UEFA general secretary Pierre Delaunay, and early editions featured committee minutes and other important administrative information.

By the start of the 1970s, the Bulletin – published in UEFA's three official languages, English, French and German – had grown in size and expanded the number of readers, having begun including news from UEFA member associations. Under the editorship of long-serving UEFA head of press, U Rudolph Rothenbühler, the Bulletin became a quarterly publication, supplemented by a bimonthly newsletter, UEFA Information, containing results and information for media.

Changing times and advances in technology meant a changing outlook on disseminating UEFA information. May 1991 saw the launch a new four-page organ, UEFA Flash, which contained monthly updates on UEFA's activities, while the Bulletin continued to provide more general news in its quarterly format.

In May 2002, uefadirect was born. Merging UEFA Flash and the Bulletin, the magazine has become an indispensible source of news for the European football community, journalists and football enthusiasts keen to find out about UEFA and the game on this continent.

"The changes to the publication come at an appropriate moment," says André Vieli, chief editor of UEFA•direct. "We are adapting to new trends, as well as new structures within UEFA, and are also looking to develop new synergies between UEFA•direct and the UEFA.com website."

The essential aim of UEFA•direct will basically remain the same, however. "The first idea is to portray UEFA's activities and to reflect the activities of the UEFA member associations," Vieli adds. "Each association has the opportunity through this channel to show just what they are doing. It's an ideal platform, because we allow the associations to choose what they want to speak about, and when."

The production process between each issue takes an entire month. "There's very little dead time," Vieli explains. "Once one edition is published, we move straight on to the next one. We define the content first, while maintaining a certain flexibility if we need to cover a particular event or activity. As we produce the magazine in the three official languages, time is obviously needed for translation and, subsequently, to check the texts with an eagle eye. And then, finally, the last week is taken up with printing the new edition.

Football continues to evolve at a rapid pace – and UEFA•direct will continue to reflect these changes, while also maintaining the high standards demanded of a sporting body's official organ. "We'll be thinking about the content as we go on," says Vieli. "Should we have more dossier-style material, the number of pages [currently 24], the topics to be covered ... nothing is set in stone." An exciting and creative period lies ahead for UEFA•direct.