February 13 – UEFA has renewed its Memorandum of Understanding with South American confederation Conmebol covering collaboration across a number of areas from education to refereeing and new competitions.
In what is a reinvigoration of an MoU signed in 2012, the two regional bodies will form four joint committees focussed on competitions, development, women’s football and refereeing.
A UEFA press release said “ad-hoc commissions could also be formed to discuss other areas of cooperation when necessary.”
First fruit of the new MoU will be a referees’ exchange programme which will see match officials from both organisations take charge of games on each others’ continents. This could happen as early as the group stages of the Copa America and 2020 Euros.
The two confederations are also looking into the possibility of staging “European/South American intercontinental matches, for a variety of age groups and for both women’s and men’s”. The discussions would likely become a clear rival to FIFA’s own plans for international competition expansion.
A joint development strategy for Women’s football in individual national associations (including commercial development), as well as potential future mutual recognition of coaching qualifications, will also be discussed.
“UEFA and CONMEBOL have a long history and tradition together, notably through epic and thrilling competitions such as the Artemio Franchi Trophy and the Intercontinental Cup,” said UEFA president Aleksander Čeferin.
“Today’s agreement marks a first step in allowing UEFA and Conmebol to closely cooperate so that we can share expertise and knowledge for the development of the game on both continents.”
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