Big interview
in. A case in point is the ‘Time for Action’ scheme, which conscripts Disney characters to encourage girls to play, and funds scholarships for women to train as coaches. Given UEFA is well on the way to doubling Europe’s squad of female players by 2024, you have to think it’s money well spent.
The prize pot for the women’s Euros has doubled since 2017 to €16m.
93.5%
The percentage of UEFA’s €3.5bn gross revenue that’s expected to be invested back into European football.
UEFA 10
football associations and clubs. “Our accounting unit deals on a day-to-day basis with pure accounting or payment-related matters,” he says. “The exchange with our 55 member associations is greater, because we do a lot of exchanging and learning from each other. We also organise courses and educational programmes to help and support our member associations.” This is occasionally supplemented by more direct interventions. In 2019, for instance, Koller was sent to Dublin to oversee the finances of the Irish FA after it emerged that the association’s chief executive gave his employers a dubious €100,000 loan. As this last intercession implies, Koller also needs to be conscious about UEFA’s ethical responsibilities. “Football nowadays might generate millions in income, with millions of fans following our competitions right across the globe,” he says. “However, what we must always keep in mind is the educational and social value of our sport.” That’s probably truer for UEFA than some of its peers. As recently as November 2021, Michel Platini, the body’s ex-boss, was charged with fraud, misappropriation, criminal mismanagement and forgery. And, to be fair, there are signs that the organisation is conscious of its obligations beyond Koller’s fine words. That’s perhaps most clear in the wake of Covid, with UEFA working to bolster clubs who lost out on ticket sales and sponsorships. At the same time, Koller and his team are obviously aware that the footballing culture epitomised by Yorkie is gone forever. In particular, Koller underlines UEFA’s ‘HatTrick’ programme, which uses commercial events to fund good causes. Euro 2020 was no exception: €645m of the proceeds from the competition went towards youth and women’s football, among other underfunded areas. Women’s football, especially, is enjoying far more attention than could ever have been imagined in 2002. Apart from upping the prize money for the upcoming women’s Euros to €16m (twice the pot last time), UEFA is encouraging more women to get stuck
Golden boots Not that all UEFA’s financial arrangements are necessarily so wholesome. It may have filled the body’s coffers, for instance, but the body’s deal with Socios was sternly rebuked by some fan groups. Football Supporters Europe, to give just one example, dismissed Socios as “crypto-mercenaries,” adding that monetising fan engagement went against the spirit of football. Similar agreements have been criticised too. In 2016, UEFA was attacked after partnering with a number of Chinese and Azeri companies, both countries with dispiriting humanitarian records. And while the body said it had asked suppliers to respect UN principles, UEFA similarly declined to reveal the specifics of the contracts, citing confidentiality agreements. In a sense, these tensions are inevitable. Especially with the rise of China as a soccer hotspot – no less a figure than President Xi himself has said he wants to turn the People’s Republic into a “football power” – UEFA will find it ever harder to keep its portfolio totally clean. That’s before you consider the increasingly frantic waltz between global sport and politics. With UEFA assailed for banning rainbow flags during Euro 2020 matches in St Petersburg and Baku, citing local rules, it’s plain the organisation will continue to face similar conundrums in future. And though he somewhat hedges on a solution, Koller is anyway aware of the problem. What UEFA needs, he argues, is to reach “a balance between topics where football can make a direct impact, and those areas where our influence is more indirect”. Equally important, Koller continues, is to appreciate that football is popular everywhere – even, he could have added, in places with laws that Western liberals find distasteful. If he doesn’t come down decisively on either side of the debate, meanwhile, Koller equally understands that he’ll likely play a bigger role in deciding how UEFA weighs ethics and profit. “We’re a political institution,” he explains, “and people tend to be over-keen to find new ideas and development areas. Therefore, the finance division is also the financial conscience of the organisation.” That’s doubly true given broader shifts in Koller’s job description. Like countless other CFOs, he’s increasingly expected to mix old-fashioned accounting with advising colleagues on business development. It helps that Koller is clearly enamoured with UEFA as an institution. With a cosmopolitan international team at his side, and a love of football in his heart, he’s never found it hard to be a motivated manager. Hopefully by the time the next Euros roll around, in 2024, Gareth Southgate will be able to say the same. ●
Finance Director Europe /
www.ns-businesshub.com
UEFA
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77
