Beyond Budapest 2026: Champions Innovate building a grassroots legacy
Friday, May 29, 2026
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Ahead of the UEFA Champions League final, the Champions Innovate programme is already ensuring the event leaves a positive and lasting impact on football in Hungary and beyond.
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Before Paris Saint-Germain and Arsenal take centre stage at the Puskás Aréna on Saturday, one of the final's most meaningful legacies is taking shape at the foundations of the game, with the potential to benefit young players, coaches and communities across Europe. That ambition reflects UEFA’s wider grassroots mission: supporting participation, development and positive experiences for players of all ages and abilities in safe, inclusive and enjoyable football environments.
Throughout the 2025/26 season, UEFA, the Hungarian Football Federation (MLSZ), UEFA grassroots partner EA SPORTS FC and four start-up companies have worked together to enhance grassroots football environments across Hungary, with the shared goal of scaling successful initiatives across Europe. The results were showcased this week at Budapest’s Museum of Ethnography, where the programme’s latest edition reached its conclusion in front of national associations, UEFA partners, senior leadership and footballing legends Giorgio Chiellini, Zoltán Gera, Sami Khedira and Julia Simic.
What is the Champions Innovate programme?
UEFA created Champions Innovate to address modern, meaningful challenges, developing pilot projects in each UEFA Champions League final host country with the aim of delivering a lasting impact on the game.
The initiative debuted in London in 2024 with a sustainability focus, introducing initiatives with Mastercard, PepsiCo and a scheme alongside Just Eat Takeaway that helps fans understand the environmental impact of their food and beverage choices — now in place at UEFA club finals.
In Munich in 2025, the programme brought together start-ups and UEFA Champions League partners adidas and Mastercard to create new opportunities for local residents to play the game, delivering a legacy that continues to benefit casual players.
This season’s focus on grassroots football reflects its central role in UEFA’s development work across its 55 member associations. Through initiatives spanning coach education, Football in Schools and grassroots club development, UEFA works with national associations, schools and communities to improve football experiences and widen access to the game.
The 2026 edition has centred on a simple but important question: how do we create environments and role models that encourage positive behaviours in grassroots football? The theme reflects key priorities across the grassroots game, including supporting coaches, volunteers, teachers and parents, who all play a crucial role in shaping players’ early experiences of football.
"In youth and grassroots football, there is no reason why pressure should exist. It should just be passion and enjoyment. There should be no focus on the result, only on enjoyment and loving the game."
Four start-ups have spent the season piloting solutions, each addressing a different aspect of the grassroots experience while working towards the same goal: making football more inclusive, supportive and enjoyable for those taking part. In this way, Champions Innovate complements UEFA’s wider grassroots work, including the FC Futures programme delivered in partnership with EA Sports FC, which uses innovation, education and football activities to create new opportunities for young people to access and enjoy the game.
"While the UEFA Champions League final celebrates excellence at the highest level, the future of the game is shaped every day at grassroots level," said UEFA executive director of financial sustainability and research Andrea Traverso. "We chose to focus Champions Innovate this season on grassroots football in order to make those environments more positive, inclusive and sustainable.
"Challenges were identified and tested over the past three months with clubs around Hungary, which has become a living laboratory for innovation – developing solutions that are practical, measurable and capable of delivering a lasting legacy well beyond the final itself. Thank you to everybody involved for your trust, cooperation and commitment."
"It's fantastic to see these initiatives which can support grassroots and young players effectively to make sure they have a safe and enjoyable experience within the game."
Who were the key players in 2026?
CoachMate focused on the adults who shape children’s experience of sport, offering tailored tools and guidance for parents, coaches and volunteers. Its aim is to encourage respectful communication and more supportive behaviours around the game, helping create better day-to-day environments for young players.
CoachMate’s pilot has already moved well beyond its original scope, engaging 59 volunteer grassroots coaches working with children aged 4–9 – almost five times its initial target. During the testing period, those coaches used the app to schedule more than 330 practices, 360 practice plans and 20 matches, with early feedback suggesting the platform is helping coaches prepare faster while introducing players to engaging new game-based activities. The pilot has also spread beyond the original testing group, with parents and caregivers downloading the app after word spread through local club networks.
"Champions Innovate is a great thing to be a part of," said CoachMate founder Leigh Kenyon. "We are very values-led and fully believe in everything that it stands for. We believe that kids deserve a positive experience in sport – great experiences provide great life outcomes – so we are proud to offer a solution that replaces traditional methods, which can help federations to deliver their methodologies in an easy-to-use and accessible way."
Futbolea centred its pilot on listening to the grassroots community itself. By gathering feedback from players, parents and coaches after sessions and matches, its platform turns individual experiences into actionable insight, enabling clubs to identify challenges and improve their environments.
Futbolea has built early momentum by establishing a network of 14 active clubs and engaging more than 250 registered users, including players, family members and coaches. The platform achieved an 85% coach registration rate, while its initial club outreach delivered a 30% conversion rate from contacted to subscribed clubs in just one week. Just as importantly, the quality of engagement has been strong: one in three active users is already using the open text fields to provide detailed reflections on matchday atmosphere, behaviour and facilities, giving clubs a richer picture of the environment they are creating.
"Before starting Champions Innovate, we had the dream of building a better world through football, and when we sent the application for the programme, there was a team at UEFA that believed in us and saw the opportunity," explained Futbolea founder Javier Villaescusa Alarcón. "I want to thank them for taking the chance on us and investing the time – we can build a better game and a better world, and it has been a blessing to be part of Champions Innovate alongside these other start-ups."
Paceteq explored how coaching communication affects enjoyment and retention. Its AI-based solution analyses coaches' interactions with players and provides feedback to help create more engaging and supportive sessions.
Paceteq has made significant progress in turning coaching behaviour into something measurable, with the pilot’s app platform now around 75% complete and its AI assessment framework fully built. Developed with input from UEFA grassroots experts, the system analyses coaching communication across three pillars – teaching methodology, values and inclusion, and game development – and is now moving into real-world testing with Hungarian club Buda Juniors.
"Football is such a big game and such a big environment, so just being part of this means a lot to us," said Paceteq founder Alexander Bodo. "It's great to know that we can have an impact and help to shape positive environments by making use of the data."
The Well HQ addressed the challenge of teenage girls dropping out of football by training mentors to support players with practical, science-based guidance around health, wellbeing and sport. The aim is to help more girls stay active and confident within the game.
The Well HQ’s pilot is translating education into action at club level, with five "wellbeing champions" from clubs around Budapest inducted into the programme and actively using the platform. Early changes are already visible: one club has agreed to provide free sanitary products in girls’ toilets, while another is planning a menstrual cycle education workshop for players. Those first steps are helping clubs to address the cultural and practical barriers that can affect girls’ confidence, wellbeing and long-term participation in football.
"Champions Innovate has been a really fantastic experience," said The Well HQ founder Dr Emma Ross. "Not only have we been able to connect with grassroots football, but we've been really able to push the agenda for creating positive environments for women and girls. The more we can do to keep girls in the game, the more girls and women we will have playing football and engaging with the sport for the rest of their lives."
Together, the four pilots align closely with the MLSZ’s grassroots strategy, which emphasises enjoyment, inclusion and retaining players through their key teenage years.
"We have learned a lot in the past few months and have been able to see development with a different perspective," said Andras Gáncsos, MLSZ head of grassroots football. "This is where football starts and we want to ensure everybody can enjoy the game in a positive environment. Our mission is to keep as many people as we can in the game for as long as possible so that football is truly a part of their life."
EA Sports FC social impact lead Jennifer Schofield believes the Champions Innovate programme can make a crucial impact for coaches across Europe. "We are so proud of our partnership with UEFA, which is all about taking impact beyond screens and using the power of our video game to grow football at a grassroots level," she said. "Coaches are the primary touch point for young players, and one coach can impact hundreds of children, so by helping coaches to create better sessions, the Champions Innovate initiative will help more young people to stay involved with football for longer and reach their potential within the game."
The start-ups' work also reflects the wider ambition of Champions Innovate: creating tangible local value around the UEFA Champions League final while developing ideas that can be scaled across European football. That ambition sits at the heart of UEFA’s wider grassroots work, from strengthening local clubs and supporting coaches to creating opportunities for children and communities across the continent.
Each of the start-ups presented their findings at the Champions Innovate showcase, attended by UEFA partners, senior leadership and former players. The real value of the programme, however, lies beyond the event itself – in how these initiatives continue to improve grassroots football environments in Hungary and, potentially, across Europe.