Building the Future
of Club Football
Prior to COVID-19, the focus of the Building the Future of Club Football work stream was on UEFA Club Competitions (UCC) post-2024, the evolution of the FIFA Club World Cup and the harmonisation of the International Match Calendar (IMC).
As COVID-19 struck, we formed part of a working group to get the European game back on track, leading to the following decisions:
We also joined a working group at FIFA level which looked into adjusting the IMC following the postponement of the international release windows from March 2020 to a later date.
Prior to COVID-19, the main focus was on UCC post-2024. After the initial consultation process in summer 2019, we held Platform for Executive Consultation (PEC) meetings in October 2019 to gather further member input and to start building a more concrete vision of reform. Member feedback from the meetings was presented to the Board prior to the arrival of COVID-19 and will form a strong basis as the consultation proceeds into the 2020/21 season.
A key achievement of the past year was the revamp of the UEFA Women’s Champions League; as of the 2020-2021 season, it’ll be transformed from a knock-out-round-only competition into a 16-team format with a group stage. The commercial concept around this new format was subsequently developed by UEFA in close cooperation with us. The reforms to this competition are a significant and crucial step in placing clubs at the heart of women’s football to help develop the game and inspire the next generation of female footballers.
