2025 in review: Developing football throughout Europe and beyond
Wednesday, December 17, 2025
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We continued to invest in the development of the game across Europe and the world in 2025, highlighted by the launch of the UEFA Together programme and a landmark year for UEFA Grow, which has been offering strategic support to our national associations for the past 10 years.
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Our efforts to drive the game forward extend far beyond our competitions and into communities all over Europe and beyond.
In 2025, we celebrated the impact of several established programmes, while launching others that ensure more people can enjoy the benefits of the beautiful game.
Developing the game as a team
In January, we launched our new intercontinental programme, UEFA Together, which is delivering impactful, strategically driven projects with each of our five sister confederations around the world: AFC (Asia), CAF (Africa), Concacaf (North and Central America), CONMEBOL (South America) and the OFC (New Zealand and South Pacific island nations).
UEFA Together builds on the existing collaboration established by forerunner UEFA Assist, sharing knowledge and expertise across continents, and creating new strategic partnerships between European national associations and members of the other confederations.
"UEFA Together marks the beginning of a new era of collaboration between UEFA, our sister confederations and their member associations."
UEFA Together’s first major project took place in Tanzania, where we joined forces with CAF to deliver the inaugural Under-17 Girls Integrated Football Tournament for more than 100 talented players, along with crucial health education sessions and a grassroots event which introduced another 100 girls to the beautiful game.
Other examples of UEFA Together’s work for women in football comes in Asia, through the AFC-UEFA Women’s Football Programme, and in South America, where the UEFA-CONMEBOL Women in Football Leadership Programme is preparing the next generation of female leaders.
Elsewhere, we’ve collaborated with the OFC to deliver a boys’ Under-15 development tournament in Auckland, New Zealand, while four of our national associations headed to Curaçao for the Concacaf Youth Summit, using their expertise to support the development of the region’s up-and-coming footballing talent.
We also staged the UEFA Friendship Cup, providing young players from all over the world, and their coaches, a taste of international football, as well as educational sessions and the opportunity to experience other cultures off the field.
Ten years of UEFA Grow
October marked the 10th birthday of UEFA Grow, which offers all 55 of our national associations tailored strategic support aligned with their priorities, helping them build stronger foundations and deliver a measurable return on investment.
Whether it’s improving long-term planning, unlocking new financial opportunities or providing tailored benchmarking tools, the Grow programme has helped our members across Europe boost participation, increase commercial revenues and strengthen their governance structures.
"UEFA Grow came at a crucial moment for us," explains Marco Casagrande, Football Association of Finland general secretary. "We were in the middle of strategic planning, and the pilot involvement offered us a professional, forward-looking dialogue that helped shape the future of Finnish football."
The annual Grow conferences also allow national association staff to create networks and share insights across the continent, and the 2025 editions – Marketing and Commercial Affairs in Athens in March, and Financial and HR Management in Rome in May – highlighted emerging challenges such as the adoption of artificial intelligence and the need to create sustainable infrastructure.
2025 in review
A stronger grassroots game
As always, growing football at the grassroots level was a strong focus in 2025, and the UEFA Grassroots Conference in April united all 55 of our national associations, alongside counterparts from FIFA, AFC, Concacaf and CONMEBOL in our collective mission to strengthen our sport’s foundations.
Hosted by the Polish Football Association in Sopot, the event’s core message was simple: putting the player first.
More than an exchange of ideas, the conference was also an opportunity celebrate our latest group of UEFA Grassroots Award winners, with projects in Germany, Norway, Poland, Switzerland and Denmark honoured for their work with a special €10,000 prize from Awards partner EA SPORTS FC.
The 2024/25 UEFA Grassroots Awards winners
Best Professional Club: VfL Bochum (Germany)
Best Amateur Club: Smørås IL (Norway)
Best Disability Initiative: A part of the team (Denmark)
Best Participation Initiative: Play More Football (Switzerland)
Best Education Initiative: Mobile Academy of Young Eagles (Poland)
Since 2020, our Football in Schools programme has reached more than seven million children across Europe, and in September, a special event in Tirana celebrated that impact as more than 100 Albanian schoolkids took part in a special tournament alongside UEFA president Aleksander Čeferin and footballing legends like Luís Figo.
UEFA Football in Schools: the match-winning stats
7.6 million children introduced to football
111,000 teachers trained
41,500 schools engaged
15,500 volunteers participated
4,400 festivals and events
830 school-to-club links created
55 national associations distributing funding
By 2028, we will have invested €22 million into the initiative, helping children and young people from every European footballing nation to enjoy the beautiful game.
Also launched in 2020, UEFA Playmakers uses Disney's storytelling magic to introduce girls to football in a fun and engaging way. In September, the inaugural Playmakers Conference at UEFA HQ celebrated the programme’s impact, so far reaching more than 160,000 girls across 46 of our national associations.
Unstoppable momentum for women’s football
Women’s EURO 2025 was the highlight of the year for our competitions, driving the women’s game to new heights both on and off the field. Development of the game across Europe was boosted by a record prize money pot of €41 million (+156% from 2022) and a total club benefits package of €9 million (+100% from 2022).
In host nation Switzerland, the ‘Here to Stay’ legacy plan, with €11 million in funding behind it, is already driving record numbers of female players, coaches and referees in the country, while debutants Poland and Wales have used the tournament as a springboard to increase participation and investment.
September saw the start of a new era in our women’s club competitions, with the introduction of the league phase in an expanded Women’s Champions League and the inaugural season of the Women’s Europa Cup. Not only does this mean more players than ever can play European football every season, but it also provides greater development opportunities for current and future female referees.
"This will be a good opportunity for younger referees to develop. There will be more matches, and more incentives for them to get to the highest level," said Ivana Martinčić, referee for the 2025 UEFA Women’s Champions League final.
The new system will further benefit European women’s football through a record financial distribution system that will benefit clubs across the continent – even those who aren’t participating.
At UEFA, we are also investing in the next generation of elite female coaches through the fourth cohort of the UEFA coach mentor programme, which kicked off in January by pairing 11 of the continent’s most promising coaches with a mentor to guide them through the next 18 months and beyond.
The mentor programme is part of the UEFA Coach Development Programme for Women, which has helped more than 1,600 women gain a coaching licence since 2016, with more than 20,000 female coaches now holding a C, B, A or Pro Licence in Europe.