The UEFA European Football Championship is the most prestigious competition in all of Europe. Since 1960 where the tournament was first held in France, there have been 14 European Football Championships culminating with EURO 2012 hosted by Poland and Ukraine. This was the third time the European championship was co-hosted by two different nations (2000 - Belgium/Netherlands and 2008 - Austria/Switzerland), but only the first time it was hosted by two "struggling nations." This was, however, a part of UEFA president Michel Platini's plan to get European countries with lower international prestige a chance to succeed. Leading into the EURO 2012 competition, the people and media throughout the world were still skeptical as to how this joint hosting venture would pan out. As far as UEFA is concerned, financially, it was a success!
There is a total of 575 clubs that are going to share the benefits of UEFA EURO 2012, according to the new memorandum of understanding which was signed between UEFA and the European Club Association (ECA) in March of this year. Yesterday was when UEFA finalized the calculation of the amounts to be paid to UEFA member associations for them to pass on to those of their clubs which contributed to the success of UEFA EURO 2012 and national team football in Europe. This year there are 575 clubs that will benefit, which is a huge increase when compared to the distribution after the UEFA EURO 2008, when 180 clubs only received payments.
After analyzing this year`s financials UEFA made 100 million euros available for distribution, with 40 million reserved for clubs that released players during qualifying matches. The other 60 million euros will go to the clubs that released players for the final tournament in Poland and Ukraine. Clubs receive an equal share per player released for each qualifying match, and a fixed amount per player per day for the final tournament, weighted with the FIFA categorization of clubs for training compensation.
In order to be eligible for a share of the benefits from UEFA EURO 2012 clubs were asked to fill in, sign and return a club application form to UEFA, in which they agreed in particular to support national team competitions and to comply with the FIFA regulations on the release of players. This succesful partnership between the ECA and UEFA was evident during the UEFA EURO 2012 competition, and culminated with the financial success that UEFA and the ECA are experiencing now. UEFA President Michel Platini has stated that this system is proving to be ideal, with clubs peacefully releasing players to play in international play, knowing that they will later be financially compensated.
The top six clubs participating in the benefits of UEFA EURO 2012 are:
1) FC Bayern München €3,095,393 2) Real Madrid CF €2,996,585 3) FC Barcelona €2,210,202 4) Manchester City FC €2,069,465 5) Juventus €2,023,012 6) Liverpool FC €1,972,376
The plan for UEFA EURO 2016 in France is to target a total amount of 150 million euros available for distribution.
No comments:
Post a Comment