UEFA diary: February
Wednesday, 22 December 2004
uefa.com chief writer Mark Chaplin casts an eye back on what happened within
European football's governing body during 2004.

2 February
Sweden head the UEFA Fair Play rankings, based on all UEFA competition
matches played at club and national team level between 1 June and 31 December
2003. The rankings leaders at the end of the season will receive an
additional place in the qualifying round of the 2004/05 UEFA Cup. Thirteen
countries are in contention for three UEFA Cup berths in the Fair Play
rankings.

5 February
UEFA Chief Executive Lars-Christer Olsson, attending his first UEFA Executive
Committee meeting as UEFA CEO in succession to Gerhard Aigner, says that
ticket sales for UEFA EURO 2004? are progressing in an encouraging manner,
with the national associations receiving a massive number of requests from
fans wishing to attend games. "I would say that we have never had such smooth
preparations for a [UEFA] European Championship as we have had this time -
primarily because of the good work and joint ventures undertaken with the
Portuguese association and government," Mr Olsson adds. In addition, it is
announced that the Atatürk Olympic stadium in Istanbul and the José
Alvalade stadium in Lisbon will stage the 2005 UEFA Champions League and UEFA
Cup finals respectively.

13 February
Europe is setting the pace in women's football thanks to recent successes -
but more can still be done to make women want to play the game and to boost
the appeal of the women's sector, especially through grassroots training,
coaching and promotion. European women's national-team coaches make the call
at their inaugural UEFA forum in Nyon, Switzerland. UEFA is encouraged to
place continual emphasis on marketing and promotion of the women's game and
to bring coaches and coach educators together for regular seminars. Emphasis
could also be given to ensuring that young football players aged between 12
and 16 are given the proper training to develop their techniques.

17 February
Europe's major clubs say they will continue to give full support to national
team football, and welcome the opportunity of further dialogue with the
football authorities on the issue of compensation to clubs for the release of
players for national team tournaments. "All the clubs are of the opinion that
it is fair to ask confederations - including UEFA and FIFA - to compensate
clubs for the release of players for international tournaments," says
European Club Forum chairman Karl-Heinz Rummenigge after the meeting. "The
clubs will continue to give full support to national team football, but we
hope that it will be possible to find a practical solution which is fair to
all parties."

17 February
UEFA confirms that its ambitious club licensing system, which will come into
force at the start of the 2004/05 season, will be implemented as planned with
five key criteria. A UEFA statement says: "With regard to financial criteria,
UEFA confirmed to the clubs that for the 2004/05 season they must prepare an
annual statement for the financial year 2003, to be audited by independent
and qualified auditors, and that they must prove not to have any overdue
payables towards other clubs with regard to transfer activities, nor any
overdue payables towards their employees."

26 February
It is announced that the former President of UEFA and current Honorary
President of European football's governing body, Jacques Georges, has died at
the age of 87. Mr Georges was President of UEFA from 1984-90. Mr Georges
presided over an eventful period for European football, including the Heysel
stadium disaster in Brussels in 1985, following which UEFA took various
measures designed at improving safety and security at major football matches.
"This is a very sad day for all of us," says current UEFA President Lennart
Johansson. "He led UEFA and European football through some troubled waters in
the 1980s and into a new era."

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