2014: keeping football's core values

UEFA celebrated its 60th birthday in 2014, and adhered as firmly as ever to its key mission – "Football First". The European body's activities, policies and measures are helping the football family to look forward to the future with confidence, and ensure that the core values that keep the game alive are in safe hands.

UEFA EURO 2020, the "EURO for Europe", took fuller shape in Geneva in September, when the UEFA Executive Committee appointed the 13 associations to stage the tournament across the continent, with England hosting the semi-finals and final in London. "We are bringing the EURO to [the fans'] doors," said UEFA President Michel Platini. "People are starting to understand that it is a good thing to give it to countries who would never host a [whole] EURO or would never participate in such an event, to be able to host four games and be part of the big festival of European football."

UEFA EURO 2016 draws near, and preparations for the final tournament in France are progressing smoothly. The tournament mascot was unveiled – Super Victor is his name. The match schedule was decided, and a fascinating qualifying competition is well under way, featuring the 'Week of Football' concept in which games are spread out from Thursday to Tuesday, shining the spotlight on more teams on the road to the finals. The year also brought forth the new UEFA Nations League, which will start in 2018 and bolster the status of national-team football. The concept and format of the competition were approved in 2014.

Financial fair play continues to have a positive impact, and the signs are that the measures are producing the desired effect. The results obtained during the first year of the full implementation of the measures have been encouraging, and recent figures show a significant decrease in the aggregate net losses of top European clubs from €1.7bn to €0.8bn over two years. Designed to ensure the game's long-term financial stability, financial fair play is now an established part of the football landscape.

Fighting match-fixing remains a top priority for UEFA. At the Ordinary UEFA Congress in Astana, Kazakhstan in March, the European associations approved an 11-point resolution aimed at tackling this dangerous threat to the game. In May, UEFA and the European Union law enforcement agency Europol signed a memorandum of understanding reinforcing mutual cooperation. The UEFA Executive Committee approved a code of conduct in September which aims to promote the highest standards of conduct in the organisation, playing and officiating of the game. UEFA introduced several new measures, and its extensive betting fraud detection system monitored thousands of matches across Europe. Disciplinary measures demonstrate that UEFA will severely punish those who harm football's integrity.

The campaign against racism and the fight for diversity in football took on fresh dimensions in 2014. A Respect Diversity conference in Rome in September, attended by key stakeholders, raised awareness of how to deal with all aspects of racism and discrimination in football, and Dutch legend Clarence Seedorf was unveiled as the UEFA Global Ambassador for Diversity and Change in December. Matchday three in UEFA's club competitions in October provided its annual high-profile platform for the campaign, and UEFA's Captains of Change programme to foster and further promote diversity within the management of football in Europe kicked off in the autumn.

Women's football is making huge strides forward, with impressive technical and tactical prowess on the field matched by sterling development work behind the scenes. In particular, UEFA is leading a drive to bring more women into senior positions in football, and launched its ambitious Women in Football Leadership Programme (WFLP) in the spring.

The accent on youth remained strong in 2014, heralding the launch of a new youth development programme to both foster the nurturing of homegrown players at national level and ensure the introduction of football in schools. The success of the inaugural UEFA Youth League in 2013/14 has led to the competition being made permanent and expanded to include more teams from 2015/16.

Football plays an invaluable social role, and UEFA's heart beats soundly. In March, Michel Platini announced the forthcoming establishment of a UEFA foundation to help children in need throughout Europe and around the world. An important element of UEFA's mission is to contribute to football activities in other parts of the world, and the body has continued this year to demonstrate its solidarity, underpinned by a series of memorandums of understanding and activities. At the end of the year, UEFA also commemorated the 1914 Christmas Truce, when soldiers of opposing sides in the First World War set aside hostilities to play football on a field in Flanders.

The relationship with Europe's national associations has remained a cornerstone of UEFA's work since its foundation in 1954, and 54 national associations are now under UEFA's umbrella. The HatTrick assistance programme celebrated ten remarkable years of work in 2014, and the UEFA Executive Committee gave the green light in March to the financial distribution scheme of the HatTrick IV programme, with €600m earmarked for the associations to support their activities and fund long-term investment. Meanwhile, the quest for dialogue with football stakeholders bore impressive fruit as UEFA interacted with the European authorities – reflected in a keynote cooperation agreement with the European Commission in October – clubs, leagues, players' representatives and the fans.

UEFA's 60th birthday year was an ideal time for the European body to take stock. "What exactly did our founding fathers have in mind when they established this institution of ours?" Michel Platini asked at the UEFA Congress. "They had two major objectives: to develop football across the continent, and to ensure that as many people as possible benefit from its role in society. Today, the time has come to refocus on those two fundamental objectives."

2014 was a year when UEFA reflected proudly on six decades of achievement, but underlined its determination never to stand still amid a football environment that remains in constant evolution. "The world is changing, and we are privileged witnesses," Mr Platini told the Astana Congress. "In our own way, we are helping to write history. A history that, for us, is 60 years old: 60 years of football; 60 years of passion; 60 years of joy, drama and emotion; 60 years of innovation, but also of respect for tradition; 60 years of incredible drama and charming anecdotes; 60 years of stories great and small; and 60 years of UEFA developing and establishing its authority as a role model in the organisation of football in Europe."