Get ready for the 2023/24 UEFA Grassroots Awards, in partnership with EA SPORTS FC
Tuesday, April 23, 2024
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Each year, we celebrate the clubs, associations and projects making a difference in community football with the UEFA Grassroots Awards. This week, we announce the winners of the 2023/24 edition.
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Five UEFA Grassroots Awards winners will be announced this week, each having made outstanding contributions to their communities and to developing football across Europe. This year, EA SPORTS FC has become the official partner for the Awards, supporting each winner with a prize of €10,000 to further contribute to the fantastic work being carried out.
The 2023/24 awards will be presented in five categories, covering all aspects of grassroots football:
- Best professional club
- Best amateur club
- Best education initiative
- Best disability initiative
- Best participation initiative
Without a strong grassroots game, the elite levels of football couldn't exist. The UEFA Grassroots Awards are an opportunity to recognise and celebrate the individuals and organisations that provide both that platform and opportunities for millions of people from all walks of life to play football across Europe.
The 2023/2024 winners as they are announced
Last year, awards were presented to clubs and initiatives from Cyprus, Denmark, Finland, France, Moldova and Poland. This year's winners again call from all corners of the European football map. Be sure to come back to UEFA.com later this week to learn more about each of the winners.
What are the UEFA Grassroots Awards?
The UEFA Grassroots Awards are annual awards given to national associations, clubs and projects that have made outstanding contributions to the game across Europe. Winners are selected by UEFA's Development and Technical Assistance Committee following recommendations from UEFA's Grassroots Panel. Since their launch in 2010, 142 UEFA Grassroots Awards have been presented to winners from 42 UEFA member associations.
Grassroots football in Europe
As the foundation of the game, grassroots football is at the heart of UEFA's mission. Not only is it vital to the long-term health and growth of football, it is also a vehicle for positive impact on wider society.
UEFA believes that grassroots football should be a safe environment and experience for all involved, and that it is open to everyone irrespective of age, ability, ethnicity, nationality, religion, sex, sexual orientation or any other personal trait.
We are engaged with a range of partnerships and development programmes and tools – such as the UEFA Grassroots Charter and UEFA C diploma for grassroots coaches – to help individuals and organisations grow, develop and support grassroots football across Europe.
EA SPORTS FC
This year, the UEFA Grassroots Awards will be presented in partnership with EA SPORTS FC, as part of the broader partnership between the UEFA Grassroots programme and EA SPORTS FC FUTURES.
FC FUTURES is EA SPORTS' grassroots initiative to meaningfully invest in community-level football on a global scale, inspiring the love of football and growing the game through purpose-driven initiatives.
An ambition of FC FUTURES is to democratise access to online training practices, and UEFA and EA SPORTS FC have collaborated to deliver this. The FC FUTURES ACADEMY is an online, free-to-access library of drills, translated into six languages, that combines EA SPORTS FC 24 Skill Games footage and expert knowledge from UEFA coaches to create bitesize videos for players and coaches to use in their real-life training sessions. By blurring the lines between the physical and digital worlds of football, it hopes to provide an innovative way to drive participation in the game.