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Kevin Lamour

Kevin Lamour was born in France on 15 September 1980.

A football fan for as long as he can remember but, by his own admission, not the most gifted of players, Kevin spent his childhood and teenage years in his native Brittany supporting his Stade Plabennecois and then FC Gouesnou team-mates from the bench as a model substitute and dedicated water carrier. Realising very early on that his future did not lie on the pitch, he took the wise decision to devote himself to his studies. With a law degree, a diploma from the Grenoble Institute of Political Studies, a master’s in political and social communication from the Sorbonne and a master’s in the study of comparative politics from Sciences Po Paris under his belt, he joined UEFA in 2007 within the president’s office.

Since then, he has represented UEFA on FIFA’s Israel-Palestine Monitoring Committee, taken part in the UEFA Captains of Change programme (designed to promote diversity at management level in European football) and volunteered for the UEFA Foundation for Children. Now Deputy General Secretary, he joined the UEFA Foundation for Children board of trustees on 22 November 2017

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Aleksander Čeferin

Aleksander Čeferin, born in Ljubljana (Slovenia) on 13 October 1967, is married with three children.

A graduate of Ljubljana University's law faculty, Aleksander Čeferin went on to work for his family's law firm, and developed a special interest in representing professional athletes and sports clubs. He later took over from his father as company director.

He first took a formal interest in local football in 2005 through his work with the executive board of KMN Svea Lesna Litija, one of Slovenia's most successful futsal clubs. A member of the executive committee of amateur side FC Ljubljana Lawyers since 2005, he served as a member at NK Olimpija Ljubljana from 2006-11.

In 2011, Aleksander Čeferin was elected as Football Association of Slovenia president. He also served as a second and third vice-chairman of the UEFA Legal Committee from 2011 to 2016.

Aleksander Čeferin was elected as UEFA's seventh president at the 12th Extraordinary UEFA Congress in Athens in September 2016, and automatically became a vice-president of the world body FIFA.

He came into office with a clear vision for the future, which focussed on the further protection, promotion and development of European football, putting the game first and safeguarding its interests. He pledged to work for unity and dialogue among the European football community. He has also underlined that UEFA must be a “social fair play” body which promotes respect, diversity and inclusion, and shows no tolerance for racism, sexism, homophobia or any form of discrimination.

On November 22, 2017, Aleksander Čeferin, was elected as the new chairman of the UEFA Foundation for Children at the board of trustees’ meeting held at the UEFA’s headquarters in Nyon, Switzerland.

At the 43rd Ordinary UEFA Congress, held on February 7, 2019 in Rome, Italy, he was unanimously re-elected as UEFA President for the period 2019-23.

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Kairat Boranbayev

Kairat Boranbayev, born on 22 September 1966, is a Kazakh businessman and president of FC Kairat Almaty.

He graduated from the Kazakh State Institute of Physical Culture  in 1989, and began his career working as a physical education teacher. He then went on to obtain a master’s in law and a doctorate in pedagogy from the Al-Farabi Kazakh National University .

From 1993 to 2000 he worked in various management positions within government and businesses in Kazakhstan.

Between 2000 and 2009 he held an equally diverse range of positions. In 2000, he was appointed executive director of KazTransGas, of which he became deputy director general for external economic relations in April 2002. Meanwhile, from 2000 to 2002, he was commercial director of Intergas Central Asia.

In 2006, he was appointed chairman of the board of KazRosGas, a business which processes  and transports natural gas sourced in Kazakhstan.

He then expanded the scope of his work by getting involved in social activities and promoting healthy lifestyles throughout Kazakhstan, as a result of which he was elected president of the Kostanai Boxing Federation in April 2009.

He became chairman of the supervisory committee of FC Kairat Almaty in 2012 and two years later was appointed CEO of the Almaly asset management company.

In 2015 Mr Boranbayev was appointed as the President of National Paralympic Committee of Kazakhstan.

Kairat Boranbayev has been the 2nd Vice-Chairman of the Fair Play and Social Responsibility Committee since July 2017, and a member of the board of trustees of the UEFA Foundation for Children since 22 November 2017.

 

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Esther Gascón Carbajosa

Esther Gascón was born in Bilbao, a northern Spanish city with a long football tradition. After graduating in law at the University of Deusto in 1994, she completed further studies in sports protocol at the International Protocol School of the Complutense University of Madrid and obtained a master’s degree in sports law from the University of Lleida.

In 1997, she joined the legal department of the Royal Spanish Football Federation (RFEF), where she was appointed head of protocol. She also managed the office of the RFEF general secretariat before being named director of external relations. She was also part of the RFEF delegations at the UEFA European Football Championships between 2004 and 2016, and at the 2006 and 2010 FIFA World Cups.

Esther Gascón Carbajosa was appointed RFEF director general in 2014 and general secretary in 2016.

She began a renewable four-year term as a member of the UEFA Foundation for Children’s board of trustees on 24 May 2017.

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Football’s new home in Za’atari camp

Lay’s, the UEFA Foundation for Children and the Asian Football Development Project (AFDP) have joined together to install a new artificial football pitch in the Za’atari refugee camp in northern Jordan.

“It’s a wonderful feeling to see how something as simple as a football pitch can bring so much joy and happiness. Football has the ability to inspire, unite and also teach children important life skills and values, such as teamwork and respect,” said the UEFA president Aleksander Ceferin, on the occasion of the official inauguration that took place on 12th September 2017.

 

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Nathalie Iannetta Sabattier

Born near Paris, France, on 15 May 1972.

Nathalie Iannetta grew up near Paris in a family of Italian immigrants with a keen interest in football. The daughter of a goalkeeper, she quickly developed the same passion for football as her father, grandfathers and uncles. It was no surprise that a girl brought up in such a family should fall in love with the beautiful game, but it was more unusual in French society at the time, where football was very much a man’s game.

Her passion never faded. After studying history and political sciences, followed by two years as an editor at Canal+, the largest pay-TV provider in France and Europe, in 1997 the Canal+ sports department invited her to work on its coverage of the Ligue 1 championship and the forthcoming World Cup, which France was to host in 1998.

Her arrival in an all-male department was seen as a minor revolution in the world of sport on French TV. As well as Ligue 1 matchnights, it was not long before her sports department bosses assigned her to the channel’s flagship programme dedicated to the UEFA club competitions.

Nathalie worked as a sports journalist for 19 years, always for Canal+, before leaving in June 2014 to become special advisor to the French president, François Hollande, on matters relating to sport, engagement, youth and community life. Her duties included coordinating the state authorities’ cooperation with UEFA in relation to the organisation of UEFA EURO 2016 in France.

In the light of that experience, in October 2016 UEFA invited her to become chief advisor to the executive office on social responsibility and relations with the European Commissionm, a position she held until 2018.

Nathalie Iannetta joined the UEFA Foundation for Children’s board of trustees on 24 May 2017. As a partner in a communication company she now splits her time between Nyon and Paris, where her husband and two children live.

 

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Fiona May

Fiona May, born on 12 December 1969 in Slough, England, is a retired Italian champion long jumper who holds 11 medals, including 3 world championship titles, and 2 Olympic silver medals.

Fiona took up athletics at the age of 12 thanks to her Physical Education teacher and coach and went on to become one of the youngest athletes in the British team at the Seoul Olympic Games in 1988.

After studying economics and business management administration, Fiona moved to Italy, married an Italian athlete and ended up competing for Italy, where she still holds the national long-jump record.

From 2013 to 2017, she was a member of the Italian Olympic Committee as an athlete representative. In 2014 the president of the Italian Football Federation appointed her as head of the federation’s integration commission. She is also head of delegation of the Italian women’s Under-19 team.

Fiona May has been a member of the board of trustees of the UEFA Foundation for Children since 24 May 2017. She is also studying for an Executive Master in Sport Governance (MESGO).

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Great new football facility in Mragowo

Mragowo, opening of the new pitch

UEFA foundation welcomes continued collaboration with FedEx and celebrates the inauguration of a second community pitch in Mragowo – Poland.

“The decision to build this football field in Mrągowo has already elevated the aspirations of people here. The pitch will be greatly beneficial in terms of community development, helping to integrate the people of Mrągowo with their neighbours and the municipality, and encouraging independence. Our aim for this pitch – to become a football3 training facility—means the pitch will not just benefit young people who use it, but also allow the teaching of football3 to spread beyond Mrągowo and have a broader impact in Poland,” said Arkadiusz Kamil Mierkowski, MSIS.

 

 

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The universal language of football

Thanks to superb cooperation between UEFA and the UEFA Foundation for Children, 19 hard-of-hearing young people from Skopje were given the opportunity to perform Coldplay’s A Sky Full of Stars at the opening ceremony of the UEFA Super Cup, sending out a strong message of integration, respect and solidarity.

Days and days of rehearsals went into preparing to show millions of people how the world of football should be for everyone.

Yesterday I was shaking, my heart was beating; I wanted it to be our best performance. I’m very happy that such a nice thing happened to all of us. Serpil Demirova (17)

 

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UEFA Foundation for Children and FedEx return to Cañada Real

It has been a year since the UEFA Foundation for Children and FedEx, built the first ‘Field in a Box’ in the Cañada Real district of Madrid, one of Spain’s most economically disadvantaged areas. The pitch was donated to Red Deporte y Cooperación, a Madrid-based non-profit organisation.

Today, 400 children and young adults are involved in the project. 90% are boys and 10% girls aged 5 to 30 have benefitted directly from the pitch, and nearly 500 football matches have been organised there since the project began.

“The success of the pitch in Cañada Real is an excellent example of the impact football can have on a local community, and shows just how important it is to develop sustainable projects that continue to have an impact after their completion,” said Cyril Pellevat, head of administration at the UEFA Foundation for Children.

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It’s all about emotion

As part of the UEFA Youth League finals, the UEFA Foundation for Children worked with Camp Cinéma, a local organisation that gives young people the opportunity to discover the world of film production, to produce a short film showing the tournament as seen through the eyes of the young.

While Europe’s most talented young players were competing to lift the Lennart Johansson Trophy, the teenagers from Camp Cinéma had carte blanche to capture all the emotion and passion of the event. They started with the children participating in a parallel mini-tournament and then met and interviewed some of the two finalists’ players from Salzburg and Benfica.

Our young directors, who are all aged between 12 and 16, spent weeks preparing to produce this special innovative documentary about the UEFA Youth League – a football competition that marks an important point in a player’s transition from elite youth football to the professional game.
The concentrated nature of this two-day event was both a fantastic opportunity and a real challenge for our young film-makers, who were seeking to apply their knowledge of short fiction films to a documentary project while operating in a professional environment. They also had the opportunity to experience the world of professional sports journalism, conducting interviews with some of the young stars of the future.

The Camp Cinéma film crew received advice and support from the professional production team working at the tournament, as well as being given match footage from the official broadcast production for inclusion in their edit. They also had the chance to visit the OB van – the nerve centre of live broadcast operations.

We are proud to present the film produced by the children from Camp Cinéma, which shows the UEFA Youth League finals as seen through their eyes.

We would like to say a big ‘thank you’ to all our young directors and producers:
• Alicia Perrone
• Delia Simon
• Vivia Theraulaz
• Marius Müller
• Liam Macia Feferman

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UEFA Foundation for children’s projects

UEFA Foundation for children is presenting to the 41th ordinary UEFA Congress in Helsinki this video that report about the work that has been achieved since 2 years, and how football can give back to society and contribute to improve lives of kids in difficult situation.

In fact, a few years ago, on 26 March 2014, at the 38th Ordinary UEFA Congress in Astana, Michel Platini stressed UEFA’s desire to enable more people to benefit from football’s role in society. Thanks to the support of the UEFA Executive Committee and the approval of UEFA’s member associations at that Congress that day, UEFA created an independent foundation that uses sport to support humanitarian projects linked to children’s rights in areas such as health, education and integration. UEFA Foundation for children was formally established and began operating the 24th of April 2015.

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Just Play programme presentation

Presentation of Just Play Programme in the Pacific Islands. Just Play helps children in the Pacific to grow, learn and explore through football. With a ball, a coach and a safe place to play, the programme shows children aged 6 to 12 how to have fun with other children, be physically active and gain confidence in their abilities.
The exhibition was produced by UEFA Foundation for Children in partnership with the Oceania Football Confederation.

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Streetfootballworld Festival 16

The UEFA Foundation for Children supported the solidarity tournament being organised by Sport dans la Ville as part of the streetfootballworld Festival 2016. The festival took place in the heart of Lyon from 28 June to 7 July 2016 and gathered 500 girls and boys from disadvantaged communities all over the world who have been chosen for their desire to help change the world through football. Educational and cultural workshops also feature prominently, enabling the young participants to develop new skill sets and apply them in their local communities.

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Inauguration of the Za’atari House of Sports

Innauguration of the House of Sport in Za'atari

The House of Sports, constructed inside the camp, will provide a single umbrella facility for all sports activities in Za’atari refugee camp. The venue was officially opened in the presence of representatives of the Asian Football Development Project (AFDP), the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), the UEFA Foundation for Children, and French former international footballer Christian Karembeu.