Awards go to 20 organisations recommended by UEFA member associations supporting deprived children
On 24 May, the Board of Trustees of the UEFA Foundation for Children met at the Grand Hôtel in Stockholm under the stewardship of its chairman, José Manuel Durão Barroso.
The agenda for that meeting included a number of important items of business, such as the approval of new members of the Board of Trustees and the 2017 UEFA Foundation for Children Awards.
New members of the Board of Trustees:
The Board of Trustees is composed of between 5 and 15 natural persons or representatives of legal entities. They are elected by existing members of the Board of Trustees and serve renewable four-year terms of office. At the meeting in Stockholm, four new members were elected by the necessary two-thirds majority of the members of the Board of Trustees, as required by the Organisational Regulations of the UEFA Foundation for Children, joining the five existing members.
The four new members are:
- Ms Fiona May, former long jumper and a member of the UEFA Fair Play and Social Responsibility Committee;
- Ms Esther Gascón Carbajosa, the new general secretary of the Royal Spanish Football Federation;
- Ms Nathalie Iannetta, UEFA’s chief adviser on governmental and social matters;
- Mr Elkhan Mammadov, the general secretary of the Association of Football Federations of Azerbaijan and a member of the UEFA Fair Play and Social Responsibility Committee.
2017 UEFA Foundation for Children Awards:
For the 2017 UEFA Foundation for Children Awards, a decision was taken to place Europe’s national associations at the heart of the decision-making process. The associations were asked to nominate projects, which had to satisfy the following eligibility criteria: recipients had to be based in the country of a UEFA member association; they had to respect and comply with the Ethics Code of the UEFA Foundation for Children; they had to be registered with the relevant national authorities; and they had to fulfil all necessary legal and financial obligations.
This initiative was a resounding success, with a total of 23 member associations nominating eligible projects. With three of those associations having already received financial support from the foundation in the past, the Board of Trustees decided to share the €1m prize money equally (€50,000) between the organisations nominated by the 20 remaining associations, which are listed in the table below:
| Nominating association | Recipient organisation |
| German Football Association | Integration durch Sport und Bildung e.V. |
| Danish Football Association | The Mary Foundation |
| Football Association of Moldova | Concordia |
| Football Association of the Czech Republic | Sportovní |
| Football Association of Slovenia | Youth health and summer resort Debeli Rtic |
| Scottish Football Association | The Scottish Football Partnership Trust |
| Estonian Football Association | SPIN |
| Football Association of Finland | Icehearts of Finland |
| Irish Football Association | Cancer Fund for Children |
| Swiss Football Association | Just for Smiles |
| Cyprus Football Association | Monadika Xamogela (Unique Smile) |
| Croatian Football Federation | World Roma Organization |
| Football Federation of Armenia | Grant Life |
| Hellenic Football Federation | Mazi gia to Paidi |
| Hungarian Football Federation | Janos Farkas Foundation |
| Italian Football Federation | Crazy For Football |
| Portuguese Football Federation | CAIS – Associação de Solidariedade Social |
| Romanian Football Federation | Policy Center for Roma and Minorities |
| Russian Football Union | Football for Kids |
| Royal Belgian Football Association | Plan Belgique |
2017 call for projects:
This year, applicants will be able to submit details of their projects between mid-August and mid‑September 2017, once the selection criteria have been determined.
The next meeting of the Board of Trustees will take place on 2 October 2017 in Nyon.