March 6 – UEFA held its first regional summit under the UEFA GROW theme last week in Tbilisi, Georgia, with the aim of boosting participation in football and the growth of the game across eastern Europe.
Delegates from 14 countries – Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Estonia, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Latvia, Lithuania, Moldova, Poland, Russia, Romania, Turkey and Ukraine – heard that while half of the total population of UEFA’s territory comes from their countries the percentage of population that are registered players is “dramatically lower” than in the rest of the UEFA territory.
Association presidents and general secretaries were joined by representatives from government sports and education ministries, as well as delegates from the Council of Europe.
The meeting emphasised the need for associations to increase their level of interaction with governments over the need for grassroots programmes, and to align more closely with government policies to achieve this end.
On their end, UEFA committed to increase support for national associations with “better data to demonstrate the ‘business case’ for investment in grassroots, while working to create a positive effect on policy at the highest European Union/Council of Europe levels.”
“The objectives of the summit were to fully understand the participation challenges faced by our national associations in Eastern Europe – to find solutions together so that more people in the region will get the opportunity to play our game right across Eastern Europe,” said UEFA’s national associations director Zoran Lakovic,
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