Building A Bridge To Senior Level Competitions

BUILDING A BRIDGE TO SENIOR LEVEL

COMPETITIONS
A case study of the UEFA European Under-21 Championship
FIFA Master Final Project
International Master (MAS) in Management, Law and Humanities of Sport
8th July 2009
Tanya Ng Yuen, Canada

Marc Schmidgall, Switzerland/France
Marcelo Orchis, Brazil
Thomas Schneiter, Switzerland
i
Acknowledgments
We would like to extend special thanks to our tutor Kevin Tallec Marston for providing
invaluable advice and suggestions and academic insight into the project. Special thanks go
also to our contact persons in the National Football Associations who helped us in every step
of our research, giving their invaluable time and input for the successful completion of the
project:
Fernando Arrabal The Royal Netherlands Football Association

Pierre Benoit The Swiss Football Association
Christian Bordinggaard The Danish Football Association
Panagiotis Chatzialexiou The German Football Association
Piet Erauw The Royal Belgian Football Association
Sabrina Filacchione The Italian Football Federation
Tatiana Gorobchenko The Football Federation of Ukraine
Sükrü Hanedar The Turkish Football Association
Ronen Hershco The Israel Football Association
Bartek Laski The Polish Football Association
Evangelos Machairas The Hellenic Football Federation
Iva Olivari The Croatian Football Federation
Lars Richt The Swedish Football Association
Eli Rozen The Israel Football Association
Billy Stark The Scottish Football Association
Ivo Sekerka The Football Association of the Czech Republic
Lennart Wangel The Football Association of Finland
Bojana Zec The Football Association of Serbia
Yulia Zenkovich The Belarus Football Federation
Furthermore we would like to thank everyone who contributed to this work with their
constructive ideas, practical suggestions and helpful attitude:
Marcelo Alleca UEFA Gonzalo Bossart FIFA MA 9th Edition
Thomas Junod UEFA Tiziano Gaier T.E.A.M. Marketing
Vincent Schatzmann CIES Lubomir Kotleba FIBA
Sue Ingle CIES Zoran Radovic FIBA
Vincent Monnier CIES Anne Hollensen FIBA
Kresimir Spajic FIFA MA Alumni Darryl Easson IIHF
Cem Ulkeroglu FIFA MA Alumni Françoise Schmidgall Translator
Finally we would like to thank our families and friends, that even far away, encouraged us
during our journey through this project.
Building a bridge to senior level competitions ii
Abbreviations
AFC Asian Football Confederation

CAF Confederation of African Football
CIES International Centre for Sports Studies
CONCACAF Confederation of North, Central American and Caribbean Association Football
CONMEBOL The South American Football Confederation
FA Football Association
FIFA Fédération Internationale de Football Association
FIBA International Federation of Basketball Amateurs
IIHF International Ice Hockey Federation
IRB International Rugby Board
IRFB The International Rugby Football Board
IOC International Olympic Committee
LOC Local Organizing Committee
LTAD Long-Term Athlete Development
NA National Association
NBA National Basketball Association
NCAA National Collegiate Athletic Association
NHL National Hockey League
OCOG Organising Committee for the Olympic Games
OFC Oceania Football Confederation
RFU Rugby Football Union
UEFA Union of European Football Associations
UEFA U-21 UEFA European Under-21 Championship™
UEFA U-19 UEFA European Under-19 Championship™
U-21 Under-21
U-20 Under-20
U-19 Under-19
U-18 Under-18
U-17 Under-17
U-16 Under-16
U-15 Under-15
Building a bridge to senior level competitions iii
About the authors

The authors are all students in the FIFA International Master (MAS) in Management, Law
and Humanities of Sport organized by the Centre International d’Etude du Sport in Neuchâtel
(CIES), Switzerland. The course which started in September 2008 and ended in July 2009 has
taken them to three universities in three different countries: De Montfort University
(Leicester, United Kingdom), SDA Bocconi (Milano, Italy) and the University of Neuchâtel
(Neuchâtel, Switzerland). The authors wrote this paper between April and July 2009 as part of
their Masters degree. A profile and contact details of the authors can be found below.
Tanya Ng Yuen –Having been involved with sport as a competitive swimmer for fourteen
years, Tanya’s passion for sports has transcended to the sport management side. Combined
with her four year degree in Business Administration and Marketing at the State University of
New York – Buffalo, Tanya brings two years of working experience from within the Canadian
amateur sports profession working with football and coaching. Joining the FIFA Master has
allowed Tanya to gain international experience and increase her knowledge of the sports
industry, she hopes to be use her past experiences to contribute to the international sporting
world. Email: tanya.ngyuen@fifama.org
Marc Schmidgall - Marc holds a bachelor degree in sports management from the University
of Tübingen, Germany. Before joining the FIFA Master he was professionally involved in
sports marketing and sports communications, as he worked in the sponsorship department of a
multinational company and the public relations agency of Nike Germany. He is passionate
about football and is striving to work in an international sports company. Email:
marc.schmidgall@fifama.org
Marcelo Orchis - After spending seven years working in the corporate world and having had
the experience as volunteer in the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens, Marcelo decided to follow
his passion for sports and change his career to the sports industry. Between 2005 and 2008 he
worked at the Brazilian Olympic Committee. In 2008 Marcelo decided to apply for the FIFA
Master in order to pursue a career in the sports industry in an international organization.
Email: marcelo.orchis@fifama.org

Thomas Schneiter – Bachelor degree in Hotel Management from the University of Nevada,
Las Vegas. He worked as a Sponsoring Manager for the ATP tennis tournament ‘Swiss Open
Gstaad’ and was part of the Swiss Football Association’s communication team during the
UEFA EURO 2008 Austria/Switzerland. He has a passion for tennis and international sporting
events. Email: thomas.schneiter@fifama.org

Table of Contents
1 Introduction ............................................................................................................................. 1
2 Important aspects of athlete development in sports ................................................................ 3
2.1 The development chain in sports: Youth – Junior - Senior .............................................. 3
2.2 Amateurism vs. Professionalism ...................................................................................... 7
2.3 Analysis of different competition portfolios in team sports ........................................... 12
2.3.1 Basketball ................................................................................................................. 12
2.3.2 Rugby ....................................................................................................................... 16
2.3.3 Ice Hockey ............................................................................................................... 19
2.3.4 Football .................................................................................................................... 23
3 Case study: Analysis of the UEFA U-21 Championship ...................................................... 28
3.1 About UEFA ................................................................................................................... 28
3.2 The UEFA U-21 Championship ..................................................................................... 30
3.2.1 UEFA Under-21 History .......................................................................................... 30
3.2.2. Current Competition Format ................................................................................... 31
3.3 The National Associations’ perception of the Under-21 Team and the UEFA U-21
Championship ....................................................................................................................... 37
3.3.1 Methodology of data collection ............................................................................... 37
3.3.2 Research questions ................................................................................................... 40
3.3.3 Problems/limitations of data collection procedure .................................................. 41
3.3.4 Evaluation and interpretation of findings ................................................................ 43
4 Conclusion and outlook ......................................................................................................... 54
5 Bibliography .......................................................................................................................... 56
Appendix
Building a bridge to senior level competitions 1
1 Introduction
"Sport is part of every man and woman's heritage and its absence can never be compensated
for."1 These well spoken words of Baron Pierre de Coubertin ring true to this day as sport in
general is perceived to be a good and positive fundamental to life since it includes movement
of the body, concentration, focus of the mind and fostering well-being and health. Besides
physical activity, it provides a platform for individuals with a common interest to gather, to
get to know each other and provides the opportunity to exchange information giving a sense
of belonging which is vital to life. Sportsmen and sportswomen, whether at youth, junior or
senior level, are respected, admired and often envied because they embody values such as
team spirit, fair-play, commitment and respect.
But what do the terms ‘youth’, ‘junior’ and ‘senior’ stand for? What do they mean in the
world of sport and how could they be defined? Are they related to age? How do sporting
organizations consider these three categories in general? How do they create competition
categories and organize championships for each one and what does the transition from youth
to senior level consist of? The paper aims at providing answers to these issues by firstly
analyzing and understanding the difference between youth and senior competitions within
sports and secondly by having a closer look at football and the case of the UEFA Under-21
European Championship. In order to do so, the first part of the paper provides a rather
theoretical approach on the development chain in sports showing the existence and
importance of various sports development models in different parts of the world. The concept
of amateurism and professionalism and its impact on sports and competitions such as the
Olympic Games is explained as well before giving an overlook of popular team sports such as
basketball, rugby, ice hockey and football.
The second section is more practical since it is based on the case study about the UEFA U-21
Championship. This case allowed us to gather important data to understand how UEFA
structures men’s national competition and how their member associations, the NAs, perceive
their Under-21 team and the championship. The research has been suggested by UEFA who is
interested in receiving valuable input from the NAs. However, we approached the National
Associations as independent researchers. The data is of qualitative nature and was collected
mainly through phone interviews with the various NAs. Further insight was gained by our

1
COUBERTIN P., Revival of the Olympic Games 1894, [WWW]. Available from:
http://thinkexist.com/quotation/sport_is_part_of_every_man_and_woman-s_heritage/218787.html [Accessed
03/07/2009].
group’s on-site visit during the final tournament in Sweden in June 2009. Experiencing the
event live and meeting representatives from the NAs and UEFA certainly enhanced our
understanding of the competition.
With this project we are trying to get a better understanding of the development of athletes,
compare sport development models and review the point of view of National Associations
regarding an international competition with male national team sports. We will use our
research from the UEFA U-21 Championship to answer questions about the current systems
in place and formulate a conclusion in the attempt of giving an analysis of the Championship
from a National Association point of view. Our hope is to determine to what extent football
views its athletes as youth, junior or senior and whether or not there are in fact three distinct
categories and if there are competitions which create a bridge for athletes to transition easily
to the elite level. The term ‘bridging’ will be used throughout this paper meaning in this
context building a bridge, or a transition, from youth to senior.
2 Important aspects of athlete development in sports
2.1 The development chain in sports: Youth – Junior - Senior
Motivational speaker Zig Ziglar is quoted as saying “Success is the maximum utilization of
the ability that you have.”2 Every athlete carries within them the innate ability to succeed. For
years coaches, trainers and sport scientists have come with theories and hypotheses and for
various development chains linking youth – junior – senior athletes. They have ranged from
country to country and from generation to generation. At present there are a number of
models which countries are adapting to their national sports policy in order to ensure the best
development of athletes and sport itself. The three most commonly used sport development
model theories were developed by The United Kingdom - UK Sport, Australia - The
Australian Sports Commission and Canada, Dr. Istvan Balyi – Sport Canada. These theories
are: the Sports Development Continuum, the Athlete Pathway and the Long-Term Athlete
Development model respectively. Each of these theories were developed in order to get a
better understanding of an athlete’s development cycle and to achieve optimum results
through these discoveries. We will decipher each of the models and their components,
exploring and analyzing to see indeed if an ideal development chain exists, and whether or not
they are ideal for the athlete and the sports providing these researching methods.
I) The Sports Development Continuum

The Sports Development Continuum, also known as the Performance Pyramid, was
developed in the United Kingdom by UK Sport. It is a model that represents a person’s
involvement in sport dependent on what stage they are at. There are four stages which
comprise the pyramid: The Foundation Stage, The Participation Stage, The Performance
Stage and The Excellence Stage. Like any pyramid, the Foundation Stage sets the base for
younger people to develop basic skills and movements. The Participation Stage consists of
anyone who participates in sport regularly to develop their skills. The Performance Stage is
made of anyone involved in sport whose aim is to improve their sporting skills. And finally
the last stage, the Excellence Stage, is the top of the pyramid and consists of skilled
performers who aim to achieve set standards that are measurable usually through competition.
As seen in Figure 1, there is a clear distinction in how the stages are inter-linked.

2
MOTIVATIONAL STORY, [WWW]. Available from: http://www.motivational-story.com/famous-quote.html
[Accessed 03/07/2009].
3
Figure 1: The development stages of the Sports Development Continuum.
The basis of this theory is broad. When looking at developing the theory within the use of the
Under-21 UEFA Championship it does not fit very well because it is very basic. It is very
basic; the development cycle of an athlete is far too general for the prestige of this
tournament. The athletes involved are elite athletes and as such should have a program and
development cycle which reflects their steps to success accordingly.
II) Athlete Pathway Model

The Athlete Pathway Model, designed by The Australian Sport Commission, has different
paths for junior and senior athletes. Within junior sport itself there are four different paths that
young people can take either to play or to be involved with sport. These pathways are
supported by programs, resources and facilities to enable a sport to provide the best possible
experience for juniors.4 Typical pathways offered, in this model, by sport organizations are
talented pathways, grassroots pathways, school pathways and coach/official/administrator
pathways. While the grassroots pathway is set up for young people to participate socially in
sport, the talented pathway is a direct way to higher-level competition for talented junior
athletes whether it is through the national talent identification program or specific sport
academies. However, each of these pathways is incorporated with the school pathway as it is
an integral part of the education system and helps to initiate school programs for which the
grassroots and talented pathways can be displayed. The sport ministry in the government
would coordinate the subject of sport to include health and physical education as key learning
areas in educational curricula. In addition, they would be responsible for inter-school
competitions across the country. However, not every youth is driven to become a sport hero.
In order to encourage and support participation and life-long involvement in sport,
opportunities for junior athletes to progress through sport as coaches, officials and

3
THE CANADIAN LONG-TERM ATHLETE DEVELOPMENT MODEL (2005). Figure 1 [WWW] Available
from: http://www.ispal.org.uk/policy.cfm?page=current [Accessed on 30/06/2009].
4
AUSTRALIAN GOVERNMENT (2006) Australian Sports Commission [WWW]. Available from:
www.ausport.gov.au/participating/schools_and _juniors.com [Accessed 03/07/2009].
administrators is also provided in the last pathway through the coach/official/administrator

pathway.
The athlete pathway at the junior level and the Foundation Stage of the sport development
continuum are quite similar. However, when it comes to the senior athlete pathway, the
trajectory which athletes follow becomes more focused and is tailored to ensure optimal
development and training for an elite athlete. The senior athlete pathway consists of moving
from school and club associations to international training centers to the national sport
institutes. In terms of competitions the national junior programs of sport lead to the junior
national team and to the senior national team. The athlete pathway recognizes the need for a
standard link between youth-junior-senior athletes. However, breaking down the specifics of
the overall development cycle, the link to include relevant sport science methods is missing.
This last point regarding sport science is essential with regards to the development of
footballers within the UEFA U-21 Championship. As sport uses technology to enhance and
analyze both an athletes physical and psychological abilities, the future of sport depends
greatly on science to develop an athlete. Therefore, while this theory is more structured and
specific, there are some aspects which are lacking.
III) Long-Term Athlete Development

The Long-Term Athlete Development (LTAD) model, developed by Dr. Istvan Balyi in the
1990s in combination with Sport Canada, combines all aspects of athlete development as well
as sport science references. It focuses on the general framework of athlete development with
special reference to growth, maturation and development, trainability, and sport system
alignment and integration.5 It draws on experiences of former athlete development projects,
referencing positive and negative aspects of analysis from former athletes in the former East
Bloc countries and in addition uses sport science. Pediatric exercise science, exercise
physiology, sport psychology, psychomotor learning, sport sociology and nutrition are among
the sport science technologies used to provide insight and information regarding the role of
growth, development and maturation in athletic development.6
The LTAD consists of 7 stages that are segmented into three sections. The first segment
encourages physical literacy and sport for all and includes three stages: Active Start,
FUNdamentals and Learning to Train. Active Start is targeted for youth between the ages of

5
LONG-TERM ATHLETE DEVELOPMENT – Resource paper Volume 2 p. 13. (2005) [WWW] Available
from: www.LTAD.ca [Accessed 05/07/2009].
6
ibid., p.13.
0-6, here children learn fundamental movements and link them together into play.
FUNdamentals is targeted for youth males 6-9 and females 6-8, here they learn all
fundamental movement skills and build overall motor skills. Learn to Train is one of the most
important periods for children between the ages of 9 and 12 as this is where they learn overall
sports skills that are the cornerstones of all athletic development.7 From an educational point
of view this helps both parents and younger athletes learn about the recommended
progression in their involved sport at the community level.
The second segment focuses on excellence and includes stages 4-6: Training to Train,
Training to Compete and Training to Win. Training to Train is focused on males 12-16 and
females 11-15, here athletes build an aerobic base, develop speed and strength towards the
end of the stage and further develop and consolidate sport specific skills. These stages are
good as they build a base for juniors, but with the understanding that they are still in a
development stage there is emphasis on plans which are designed to enhance youth
development and not burn out up and coming athletes.
Training to compete is for males 16-23+ and females 15-21+, here athletes optimize their
fitness preparation and sport specific skills and learn to compete. Train to win is focused on
males 19+ and females 18+, here the objective is podium performances. This stage allows for
rising junior athletes to have elite training and exposure to the international scene and take the
next step to senior national and international success.
The last segment focuses on the last stage - Active for Life. This may occur at any age and
aims to create a smooth transition from an athlete’s competitive career to lifelong physical
activity and preparation in sport. The overview of the entire model can be seen below in
Figure 28.
Figure 2: The Canadian Long-Term Athlete
Development Model.

7
ibid., p. 40
8
THE CANADIAN LONG-TERM ATHLETE DEVELOPMENT MODEL – Figure 1.(2008) [WWW].
Available from: http://www.icsspe.org/members/bulletin/bilder47/4-4-higgs-figure1.jpg [Accessed 03/07/2009].
When comparing each of the LTAD model to the other two models, there are noticeable
differences within each. The most complete, however, we would argue, is the LTAD model. It
comprises the fundamentals of the other two models all while deciphering each development
stage and the ages of athletes to linking each stage of an athlete’s career with a view to
optimize athlete development. Depending on the sport, the model finds the balanced age at
which an athlete can perform optimally at the elite level. However, for the purposes of this
paper, with regards to football, we take special notice on the training to compete stage, where
the ages of youth and senior development and competition overlap. This stage differentiates
chronological age, physical age and psychological age of athletes. This is especially
interesting when taking a closer look at the UEFA U-21 Championship, where there is a
pattern that player development stages are overlapping with a competition that qualifies as an
elite level competition rather than a youth one.
When reviewing Figure 39, the sport specific charts from the English FA, it is interesting to
note the later stages of the development model as the development and sport specific training
ages overlap in the junior to senior elite levels creating a strong link and closing the gap
between ‘training and competition’. As we can see within the LTAD model and the UEFA U-
21 Championship, a similar structure is used in the ‘training to compete’ stages. This helps to
create a bridging effect between the competition and the athlete development cycle. Perhaps
this gap is also changing with regards to amateurism and professionalism as these terms are
also evolving and sports are adapting to suit current trends. The ages of athletes are varying,
skill levels are developing earlier and the profiles of athletes we once considered as amateurs
are changing significantly. Within the case of the UEFA U-21 Championship this is certainly
a change which is becoming a noticeable factor.
2.2 Amateurism vs. Professionalism

In the world of sports, the terms amateurism and professionalism have slightly changed their
meaning over the past two centuries. In 19th century Britain, where sports such as football,
tennis and cricket have their origin, amateurism was used to segregate social classes.
Amateurs belonged to the upper-class, considered themselves as gentlemen and therefore as
morally superior, doing the activity for the love of it (amateur originates from the French
word ‘aimer’, to love), without the involvement of corruption, betting, cheating or over-

9
See appendix 1.
competitiveness.10 Sport was used to educate the mind and the body and the only payment
accepted by most of the amateur sporting bodies was the payment of expenses, defined as the
cost of traveling to and from matches.
Those who did get compensated more than just expenses were considered as professionals.
Professionalism did exist in sports such as pedestrianism (race walking of today) and pugilism
(better known as boxing nowadays) where the athlete did earn money for the activity. The
money mostly came from betting, such as in the case of Robert Barclay Allardice from
Scotland, known as the famous Captain Barclay. He was a famous pedestrian from Scotland.
In 1809, he walked 1’000 miles (1’600 km) in 1000 hours for 1000 guineas (old British
currency).11 In general, professionals were lower class, blue collar workers and most of the
time not accepted by amateur organizations because it did not represent their ideals, or
educational values of sport. This concept of amateurism and professionalism started to change
in the 20th century, especially during the postwar time in the 1960s. Large amounts of
working-class students now attended university for the first time, which “led to greater social
mobility and a questioning of old restriction.”12 Also, the appearance of television had a
strong influence on sport. Sport became a vehicle for businesses to expose their brand to
people around the world watching television. This allowed the sporting bodies to exploit the
commercial side of sports. They were able to do business with various companies and to
therefore have new income sources. As these new funds started to increase, the importance of
the amateur status started to decrease, because the money allowed the sporting bodies to
invest in their facilities, in their events and the athletes could earn more prize money. The
MCC, the ruling body of cricket, was the first one to abolish the distinction between amateurs
and professionals in 1962 while Wimbledon, one of the four major tennis tournaments,
accepted professionals in 1967.13 However, there were other sports that persisted on keeping
the amateur status and its values. The best example is Rugby Union, one of the two major
rugby games, which was the longest in resisting against professionalism. In contrast to cricket
and tennis, Rugby Union adjusted only in 1995 to a professional sports model, being afraid of
losing the best players to the competition, Rugby League.14 Behind the set up of Rugby

10
COLLINS, T. (2008). Opposition to Commercialism and the Defence of Amateurism, from MODULE 2,
Economic History of Sport, c. 1900-1950. De Montfort University, International Centre for Sport History and
Culture.
11
Lecture material, DMU Leicester, presentation by Prof. Richard Holt: „World Overview of Traditions“.
12
ibid., p. 2
13
ibid., p. 4
14
ibid., p. 3
League stood Keith Rupert Murdoch, owner of the News Ltd, nowadays one of the world's
largest media conglomerates, realizing the potential to push his business through sports.
Not only the money, but also geo-political forces were behind the amateurism-
professionalism transition in rugby. Outside the United Kingdom, the British colonies did not
see amateurism that strictly and hired professional players; the situation – to keep amateurism
strictly apart from professionalism – was therefore not easy to control. Other landmarks, such
as the loss of the Suez Canal battle in 1956 by the Brits, affected and weakened to a certain
degree the status of being ‘imperial’ and ‘leader in the world’. The ever improving
transportation means was another factor influencing the situation, allowing players to compete
for money in other leagues in other countries. The United Kingdom had to adapt, not only
politically, but also when it came to rugby. In the case of rugby, the resistance of amateurism
against commercialization was especially long and shows us that not only monetary, but also
cultural, geographical and political forces influence the development of sport. In the context
of this paper, we wish to examine how professionalism and amateurism relate to youth sports
and to youth competition, especially in football, as well, if at all, it is connected to age.
Nowadays an amateur is “someone who does an activity just for pleasure, not as their job” or
“someone who you think is not very skilled at something”.15 A professional is defined as
“someone doing a job, sport, or activity for money, rather than just for fun. Someone who has
a lot of experience and does something very skillfully”.16 This definition no longer considers
social status but has much more to do with the amount of time invested in the activity and the
level of game of the athlete.
Almost every sport has its ‘youth’ or the so-called ‘under’ competition, such as FIBA’s
Under-16 World Championship or UEFA U-21 Championship. Are these youth competitions
professional or amateur, or something in between? Is there a difference in the status of the
athlete depending on the competition he is involved in? In football, FIFA’s Regulations on the
Status and Transfer of Player states the following:

15
Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English. (2003). Essex: Pearson Education Limited, p. 143.
16
ibid., p. 358.
Art 2 Status of Player: amateur and professional player17
2.1 Players participating in organized football are either amateurs or

professionals.
2.2 A professional is a player who has a written contract with a club
and is paid more for his footballing activity than the expenses he
effectively incurs. All other players are considered to be amateurs.
Relating this definition to the topic of this paper, can each competition at all age levels be for
both professionals and amateurs? The Liechtenstein Football Team is playing the FIFA World
Cup 2010 South Africa Qualifying round with mostly amateur players. Most players on this
squad are fully employed in non-sporting jobs and earn their living away from the pitch. Yet,
they do participate in what it seems to be the most prestigious, most watched, most popular
and highly professional football tournament – the FIFA World Cup. Should that be allowed?
How do professional footballers, from strong football countries, that don’t make it into the A
team feel facing that fact? It seems there is no rule. It is up to the clubs, the National
Associations and the international federations to define the format. However, due to the
development of sport and its technology over the past century, it can be observed that the
bigger and more international the competition is, the more professional the athletes will be –
because it is no longer possible to just play for fun during one’s free time and be the best.
With regards to the UEFA Uunder-21 competition, many of the Under-21 players have signed
with a top division club, where they earn a lot of money, and some of them are even part of
the A national team.18 But at the same time, they participate in this Under-21 competition
where they most likely only get compensated for the expenses they have. Can it be said that
depending on which competition the Under-21 players participate in their status changes
accordingly? Theoretically speaking yes, but in practice no, because they are dedicating 100%
of their time to football and, outside of the Under-21 competition, earn money doing so. The
following graph underlines that fact:

17
FIFA (2008) FIFA Regulations for the Status and Transfer of Players [WWW]. Available from:
http://www.fifa.com [Accessed 15/06/09].
18
According to IMScouting, Marcus Berg (Swedish U-21 Player) earns an estimated Euro 300’000 in his Dutch
Club FC Groningen. IMScouting (2008) One of the in-form strikers in Europe [WWW]. Available from
http://www.imscouting.com/player_to_watch.aspx?id=PCJOA+EvPD4poIY298l2hw%7C%7C&name=Marcus+
Berg [Accessed 04/07/2009]. In this context the A National Team is the first team of each football association
that participates in all international senior competition.
19
Figure 3: Under-21 players engaged in top division clubs in 2007
Under-21 Team Top Division Top Division abroad Lower Division
(23 players)
Italy 16 0 7
Netherlands 21 2 0
Serbia 16 6 1
England 21 0 2
It can therefore be assumed that most of these players have a professional contract playing
and earning money at a senior level, but take over the role of amateurs during this youth
competition. This might be attractive to the spectators, but does it make sense from a
theoretical point of view? Should it really be considered as a ‘youth’ or ‘under’ tournament?
We will try to provide an answer in the conclusion of this paper.
Considering football as the most popular sport, it is important to know that the Olympic
football tournament, that took place in London in 1908, was organized by the Football
Association (FA) and is considered as the first world-wide international football competition.
It featured national teams (before the Olympic Tournament was played just for clubs).20
Following the Olympic Movement all players were amateurs, in this context some countries
could not send their full international team. The tournament was played at all subsequent
Olympic Games with the exception of Los Angeles in 1932. As professionalism spread
around the world, the gap in quality between the FIFA World Cup and the football
tournament in the Olympic Games increased. The countries that benefited most were the
Soviet Bloc countries of Eastern Europe, where the top athletes were state “financed” while
retaining their status as amateurs.
Distinguishing youth and senior categories and setting rules and guidelines seems to be the
direction taken by most sports as they set the stage for competitions. Why doesn’t just each
sport organize the same competitions for the various age levels? Would that be possible? Or is
it more of a definition problem in the sense that ‘youth’ in football does not mean the same as
‘youth’ in basketball? Is there a logical thought behind the structure, the competitions and the
corresponding naming of it? As we take a closer look at various team sports and their
organization, some light is shed on this issue.

19
UEFA U-21 2002-09 graphics (Excel sheet). Nyon, UEFA.
20
JELINEK, R. and TOMES, J (2002) The first world Atlas of Football. Prague: Infokart .p. 38.
2.3 Analysis of different competition portfolios in team sports
2.3.1 Basketball
Besides providing a brief overview of the history of the sport and how basketball is set up,
this section will also analyze the structure in Northern America. NBA is the most famous and
most competitive professional basketball league, whereas the NCAA is the governing body
for all university sports, imposing special rules when it comes to athletics.
History
In December 1891, Springfield, Massachusetts (USA) Dr. James Naismith, a Canadian
physical education professor invented basketball by throwing a ball into a peach basket. More
than forty years later, FIBA, the International Federation of Basketball Amateurs, was
founded in 1932 by eight National Federations (Argentina, Czechoslovakia, Greece, Italy,
Latvia, Portugal, Romania, and Switzerland). Basketball was played for the first time at the
Olympic Games in Berlin in 1936. Another milestone was set in 1989 when the FIBA
Congress decided to “eliminate the distinction between amateurs and professionals, making
all basketball players eligible for FIBA competitions.”21 However, the acronym ‘FIBA’ did
not change and the BA now stands for Basketball rather than ‘Basketball Amateur’. For
naming reasons we can assume that it was smart not to change the acronym since it was
planted in everyone’s mind. But maybe the federation was attached to the name also because
of its long attachment to the amateur status. In any case, making no more distinction between
these two categories led to the fact that the US professional basketball players from the NBA
participated for the first time in the Olympic Games in Barcelona in 1992, making this
competition one of the most popular thereafter. In the case of basketball, it shows how
important this distinction between amateurism and professionalism was and what kind of
impact it had on the history of the sport itself and on the Olympic Games.
Structure
Today, FIBA, with its headquarters in Geneva Switzerland, counts 213 member federations –
5 more than FIFA – distributed in 5 continental zones. They feature a complete competition
portfolio for the youth and the seniors, for the amateurs and professionals and for the
handicapped. One of the many permanent, specialized commissions is the Youth Basketball

21
FIBA (n.d.) FIBA: International Basketball Federation [WWW]. Available from:
http://www.fiba.com/pages/print/pages/eng/fc/FIBA/quicFact/quicFacts.asp8162.asp [Accessed 15/06/09]
Commission, which is in charge of all youth activities, including competitions, camps,

coaching education and mini basketball. It meets once or twice a year. 22
When one speaks about basketball, one usually also speaks about the National Basketball
Association (NBA), the professional basketball league played, independently from FIBA, in
Northern America. Basketball is, together with American football and baseball, most popular
in the United States and Canada. Being in the top three in countries where sport is of great
importance and highly commercialized automatically has a great impact on the popularity of
the game on a global basis.
Competition
FIBA together with its member associations offers a wide range of opportunities to play
basketball, both on an amateur and professional level, for the young and the old. FISU
coordinates basketball for students worldwide (except for North America, where the NCAA is
in charge).
Figure 4: Official FIBA Basketball categories and competitions.23 – Source: Authors compilation.
Senior U-19 U-16 College/University Mini

Age All Age 19 and under 17 and under 17 to 25 11 & under
Gender Male & Female Male & Female Male & Female Male & Female Mixed
Olympics
World Ch’ships World Ch’ships
World Ch’ships Universiade
Continental Continental
Continental National Ch’chips
Ch’hips Ch’hips
Competitions Ch’hips Local Ch’chips Educational
National National
National Regional Ch’ships
Ch’ships Ch’ships
Ch’ships and conferences
Local Ch’ships Local Ch’ships
Local Ch’ships
From the table above, we can see that FIBA does not mention “youth” or “junior” categories.
There is a distinction between senior and under competitions whereas the only difference is
that the seniors have the Olympic Games within their portfolio. Interestingly enough, FIBA
eliminated the Under-21 category in 2005. This competition will be replaced by the U-16
competition by 2010. Mr. Lubomir Kotleba, FIBA Sports Director, stated that

22
FIBA (n.d.) FIBA: International Basketball Federation [WWW] FIBA.
http://www.fiba.com/pages/eng/fc/FIBA/fibaStru/bodi/p/openNodeIDs/985/selNodeID/985/commCoun.html
[Accessed 11/06/09].
23
FIBA (n.d) FIBA: International Basketball Federation [WWW]. Available from:
http://www.fiba.com/pages/eng/fc/baskBasi/cate/p/openNodeIDs/928/selNodeID/928/seni.html [Accessed
15/06/09].
“the reason for the change was that FIBA is convinced that Under-21
players are now much more mature than it used to be, if good they are
playing for senior teams and therefore we should not consider Under-
21 as youth category”.24
Confronted with the question at what age a basketball amateur usually turns professional, Mr.
Zoran Radovic, Development Director at FIBA, said that “there is no rule, but after age of 18
players are mature and able to sign the professional contract”.25 Furthermore, when asked if
the U-19 could be considered as a bridging competition, he confirmed it. “Yes, it can be
considered as a bridging competition, even though many players already have a professional
contract”.26
Today’s sporting world is part of globalization and the fast improvement in technology and
science. This allows the athlete to be stronger and more mature, especially physically, at a
younger age. FIBA seems to be very keen on adjusting their competition portfolio to these
trends, replacing the Under-21 by a competition for the youth, namely the Under-16
competition.
Within the International Treaty for minors, ‘minor’ refers to any human being below the age
of eighteen[1]. FIBA seems to be coherent with this treaty. Based on FIBA’s structure, the
categories, the competitions and its recent changes in the competition portfolio and the
statements from Kotleba and Radovic, it can be concluded that FIBA considers the age of
eighteen to be the end of youth in basketball and the start for the players to turn professional.
Basketball in the USA is not only among the top three senior sports, but also one of the stars
on the university level. It is therefore relevant to assess the National Collegiate Athletic
Association (NCAA), the governing body of university sports, also called ‘college sports’, in
the USA.
Even though university sports exist in Europe and on other continents, it comes nowhere close
to the popularity, the number of participants and the level of game of America.27 College
sports in the USA allows a student-athlete to go to classes in the morning, train in the

24
KOTLEBA L., FIBA, in an E-Mail to our study group on June 5th 2009.
25
RADOVIC Z., FIBA, in an E-Mail to our study group on June 5th 2009.
26
ibid.
27
The average attendance per game of the 2009 NCAA Championship tournament for Basketball was 20’237.
The University of Kentucky hosted a total of 422’547 fans in 19 games during their 2008/09 college basketball
season. NCAA (2009) 2009 National College Basketball Attendance [WWW]. Available from:
http://web1.ncaa.org/web_files/stats/m_basketball_RB/Reports/2009mbbattend.pdf [Accessed 05/07/09].
afternoon in mostly high-quality facilities, getting treatment from physicians and competing
in matches and tournaments on the weekends. A student-athlete has the opportunity to do that
for four years, from the age of 18 when entering college until graduation day, usually at the
age of 21/22. Even if this system is highly professional from a technical point of view, the
athletes are considered to be amateurs, meaning that they are not allowed to get any monetary
or material compensation for their performance. Once the four years are completed, he or she
can then turn professional, through the draft system, which is mostly the case in American
football, basketball and baseball.
So is the NCAA a bridging phase for student-athletes to go from youth to senior, from
amateur to professional? From a theoretical point of view – clearly no! The NCAA does not
consider college athletics as a preparation phase for a professional sports career. According to
the NCAA Strategic Plan from April 2004, the core purpose of intercollegiate athletics is
“…to integrate intercollegiate athletics into higher education so that the educational
experience of the student-athlete is paramount”.28 NCAA clearly positions athletics as
complementary to higher education, and not vice versa.
However, the reality shows otherwise. How can a huge 21’750 seat basketball stadium be
complementary?29 The athlete has four years to improve the game, the skills and the physical
ability and during all that receives professional coaching and treatment on and off the court.
Some college sports have become a multimillion business. Recent surveys show that college
football has become the third most profitable sports in the United States after NFL American
football and NBA basketball.30
The NCAA is aware of its position and the power it has in the American sports market. Even
if its long term strategy focuses more on education than on sports, it has adapted to the
situation and needs for the athletes who want to turn professional. For example, there exists a
brochure called “Pro Sports – A Career in Professional Athletics”– which gives the student-
athlete information about how to prepare for the draft, how to deal with agents, doping,

28
NCAA (2004) NCAA Strategic Plan [WWW]. Available from:
http://www.ncaapublications.com/Uploads/PDF/NCAA_Strategic_Plan59e722e0-c29a-4bf9-bed5-
1f6925387b47.pdf [Accessed 10/06/09],
29
The basketball stadium of the University of North Carolina has a capacity of 21‘750 and is now the fifth
largest arena in college basketball, and the fourth-largest designed specifically for basketball. UNIVERSITY OF
NORTH CARLOLINA (2009) University of North Carolina 2008-09 Men’s Basketball Facts [WWW].
Available from: http://grfx.cstv.com/photos/schools/unc/sports/m-baskbl/auto_pdf/0809quickfacts.pdf [Accessed
05/07/09].
30
Lecture material, DMU Leicester, presentation by Prof. Chuck Korr: American Sports goes its own way.
wagering, do’s and don’ts during the collegiate eligibility and other things to know
concerning a professional career.31 It is ‘A Guide for Making the Transition’ and shows that
intercollegiate-athletics can serve as a bridging platform in an athlete’s career.
We can conclude that North America follows a different pattern in developing their future
basketball stars. The focus lies on four full seasons of intense practice and competition during
university education, overseen by the NCAA, whereas most of the other big basketball
countries rely on youth competition at various age levels, organized by their continental
federations.
2.3.2 Rugby
History
November 1823, Rugby School, Warwickshire, England. A student of the famous Rugby
school picks up the ball with his hands and runs with it under his arm. The game of rugby was
born. At least, that is what legend tells according to a small rectangular plaque decorating a
wall at Rugby School:
“This stone commemorates the exploit of William Webb Ellis who

with a fine disregard for the rules of football as played in his first time
first took the ball in his arms and ran with it thus originating the
distinctive feature of the rugby game. A.D. 1823”.
No matter if this story about William Webb Ellis is true or not, the creation of the rugby game
has a long tradition and history. The earliest form of football with much similarity to rugby as
we know it today, did originate at Rugby School. It is important to mention that in those days
at English public schools, students often developed their own rules for the games of football
they played. By the 1840s running with the ball had become the norm and by the 1870s the
rugby rules spread all over England and the British Empire which resulted in the creation of
many rugby clubs.32
In 1871 the Rugby Football Union was founded in order to provide a more uniform set of
laws. The Rugby Football Union at this time strongly believed in maintaining the sport’s

31
NCAA (2004) NCAA A Career in Professional Athletics [WWW]. Available from:
http://www.ncaapublications.com/Uploads/PDF/2004-05_career_pro_athletics220e9cf6-6fe1-4c81-bf80-
403a92c6c38e.pdf [Accessed 10/06/09].
32
RUGBY RUGBY (2009) General History of Rugby: William Webb Ellis and the Origin of Rugby [WWW].
Available from: http://guide.rugbyrugby.com/Rugby%20Sections/History/General%20History.asp [Accessed
05/07/2009]
amateur status. The Northern clubs, however, asked for the right to pay broken time wages to
help cover any lost wages to help cover any lost wages players incurred by skipping work to
play in matches. The Rugby Football Union denied the request. As a result, these clubs
formed the Northern Union, later to become known as the Rugby League.33
The evolution of rugby also brought about the creation of an International Federation. The
International Rugby Football Board (IRFB) was founded in 1886 by Scotland, Wales and
Ireland. The IRFB clung to its amateur roots and traditions tightly, just like the Rugby Union.
However, over the 20th century the IRFB was facing growing professionalism in different
sports around the world, such as cricket and tennis which abandoned the distinction between
amateurs and professionals in the 1960s.34 It was the first rugby union World Cup in 1987
which demonstrated the commercial possibilities of the sport to TV networks which increased
the pressure to turn professional. Additionally, it was the attempt by Rupert Murdoch’s News
Ltd to set up a worldwide rugby league Super League in 1995 which, again, put rugby union
under pressure to professionalize the game. Fearful of losing their best players to the new
rugby league competition and realizing that the sport needed to move to a professional model,
the IRFB and RFU accepted professionals in Rugby Union in 1995.35
Structure
In 1998, the IRFB was re-named the International Rugby Board (IRB). With its headquarters
in Dublin, the IRB is the world governing and law making body for the Game of Rugby
Union. The IRB counts 97 Member Unions, 19 Associate Member Unions and six regional
associations. Approximately 4.2 Million people are playing the game in more than 100
countries across five continents.36 Each continental association is in charge of its own rugby
competitions. For example, FIRA, the European governing body of rugby, organizes
European Championships for 4 different age categories, U-21, U-20, U-19 and U-18.
Additionally, FIRA also organizes the European Championship on senior level.

33
COLLINS, T. (2008) The first principle of our game: The rise and fall of amateurism: 1886-1995. In: G.
RYAN The Changing Face of Rugby: The Union Game and Professionalism since 1995. Newcastle: Cambridge
Scholars Publishing, pp. 1-17.
34
ibid.
35
COLLINS, T. (2008). Opposition to Commercialism and the Defense of Amateurism, from MODULE 2,
Economic History of Sport, c. 1900-1950. De Montfort University, International Centre for Sport History and
Culture.
36
INTERNATIONAL RUGBY BOARD (2009) IRB Organization [WWW]. Available from:
http://www.irb.com/aboutirb/organisation/index.html [Accessed 05/07/2009].
Competition
The IRB has a diversified competition portfolio. On top of the IRB tournament structure
stands the Rugby World Cup. The most recent Rugby World Cup took place in France in
2007 and will be hosted by New Zealand in 2011. In addition to the traditional 15-a-side
rugby union game, the IRB also governs the so-called Rugby Sevens. The Rugby Sevens
game is currently bidding to be added to the Olympic Program and will, in case of acceptance,
probably gain more recognition and popularity in the future. Furthermore the IRB organizes
the IRB Sevens World Series, the Women’s Rugby World Cup, the Pacific Nations Cup and
the Nations Cup. When it comes to youth competitions, the IRB has very recently made some
significant changes with regards to its age grade tournament strategy. In May 2007 the IRB
announced that it will introduce the IRB Junior World Championships, which will be played
at an Under 20 level. This new competition replaces both the Junior U-19 World
Championship and the Junior U-21 World Championship. Former IRB chairman Dr. Syd
Millar justified this structural change as follows:
“The IRB is committed to increasing the overall competitiveness of

the game and [that the] … age grade tournament is very important in
this. The restructure took into account the fact that, as a result of the
player academy structures now in place around the world, many
players at age 20 or 21 are already playing professional senior rugby
for their club, province or state.”37
He explained further that

“the restructuring of IRB age grade tournaments does not mean the
end of Under-19 and Under-21 level rugby which is still an important
development tool for some Unions who will continue regional
competitions at these age grades in order to assist in their development
pathways.”38
Along with the Junior World Championship the IRB also introduced the IRB Junior World
Rugby Trophy. This competition is considered a second tier tournament and allows
developing unions to gain international experience on a high level. A promotion and
relegation system will operate between the annual Junior World Trophy and Junior World
Championship events, with the top team in the Trophy swapping places with the bottom team

37
IRISH RUGBY (2007) IRB to restructure age grade tournaments [WWW]. Available from:
http://www.irishrugby.ie/6855_8128.php [Accessed 05/07/2009].
38
ibid.
in the championship. This means that there is a clear pathway for Unions to climb the ladder
to the top teams of age grade rugby starting with the regional qualification system.39
To summarize, it is interesting to see that the International Rugby Board has recently made
changes to its age grade tournament structure. It clearly shows that it is in the interest of the
governing body to build a structure according to the needs and given circumstances in rugby.
As the above mentioned statement by Dr. Syd Millar clarifies, many rugby players at the age
of 20 or 21 are already playing professional rugby on a senior club level. Surprisingly, the
newly created World Championships at Under-20 level still has the term ‘junior’ in its name:
The IRB World Junior Championships. There is a clear distinction in the way the terms
‘junior’ and ‘senior’ are used. However, it may lead to misunderstanding and confusion, as
these terms do not clearly stand for a specific development stage in the player’s career.
2.3.3 Ice Hockey

History
As defined by The Society for International Hockey Research, ice hockey is "a game played
on an ice rink in which two opposing teams of skaters, using curved sticks, try to drive a small
disc, ball or block into or through the opposite goals."40 This basic definition stands true on
many accounts however, as societal times change the sport of ice hockey has seen its share of
changes also. Evolving from the game of field hockey, ice hockey has its roots in Canada. It
was Canadian James George Aylwin Creighton who first laid down the rules which were
implemented in the first game of ice hockey played in Montreal, Canada in the year 1875. 41
From a small indoor game the sport of ice hockey has gained increased popularity developing
and growing internationally. As of July 2008 there were 538,000 children participating in ice
hockey across Canada.42
Once the first game was initiated in Montreal on March 3, 1875, the sport of ice hockey
rapidly increased in popularity. Leagues were formed, organized games were developed and
hockey rules were published. The interest of ice hockey in Europe soon came on board as the
first international games were organized between Belgium and France in 1905. Three years

39
INTERNATIONAL RUGBY BOARD (2007) Year in review 2007 [WWW]. Available from:
http://www.irb.com/mm/document/newsmedia/0/080310irbyearinreview07_4512.pdf [Accessed 05/07/2009].
40
THE INTERNATIONAL ICE HOCKEY FEDERATION, (2008) History of Hockey [WWW]. Available from:
http://www.iihf.com/iihf-home/history.html (Accessed 04/05/2009].
41
ibid.
42
STATISTICS CANADA – The Daily – Study: Participation in sports. (February 7, 2008) [WWW]. Available
from: http://www.statcan.gc.ca/daily-quotidien/080207/dq080207b-eng.htm. [Accessed 01/07/2009].
later, the IIHF, the International Ice Hockey Federation, was founded in Paris, France, as
Ligue International de Hockey sur Glace (LIHG). It soon became the governing sports body
for ice hockey, initially recruiting representatives from Belgium, France, Great Britain and
Switzerland each signing the founding document. The International Ice Hockey Federation
(IIHF) is currently the worldwide governing body for ice hockey and in-line hockey. It is
based in Zurich, Switzerland and has 68 members. It is responsible for the management of
international ice hockey tournaments, and maintains the IIHF World Ranking. There exists
professional hockey leagues which are independent of the IIHF but which are great assets to
the sport as they promote and commercialize ice hockey. However, since the National Hockey
League (NHL) is independent and the highest hockey organization, the control of the IIHF is
limited in North America. Canada (Hockey Canada) and the United States (USA Hockey) are
the only members who have their own rulebooks as they have a need to adapt the game to suit
certain standards for their players to play in the professional arena. The countries with the
most interest in ice hockey tend to be Canada, the northern United States, Scandinavia, and
Russia particularly due to training and weather conditions.
According to Statistics Canada, they followed the participation of hockey from 1992/94 and
1998/00 and saw the participation level at the age category 15 and over - in competition
and/or tournament increase by 234,000 between the years 1992/94 and 1998/00 and the
children’s participation in the sport more than doubled. Furthermore, it could be said that
winning Olympic medals in the 1998 and 2002 Winter Olympic Games influenced
participation at the competitive level, at the children’s level and also at the membership level
since the upward trend in membership began in 1999.43 With regards to adult participation,
the sport of Ice hockey drew 1.3 million Canadian participants in 2005 over-powering the
popularity of swimming, soccer, basketball, baseball and volleyball respectively.44 As
described in the table below, the popularity of the other ice hockey nations is obvious by their
high participation levels.

43
DIANE O’DWYER (2002), Olympic Medals and Sports Participation – Executive Summary [WWW].
Available from:
www.sirc.ca/newsletters/July08/documents/OlympicmedalsandsportparticipationforSportCanada1.pdf [Accessed
04/07/2009].
44
STATISTICS CANADA, Sports participation in Canada 2005 - Culture, Tourism and the centre for
Education Statistics: Research Papers. (2005) [WWW].Available from: http://www.statcan.gc.ca/daily-
quotidien/080207/dq080207b-eng.htm. [Accessed 03/07/2009].
Figure 5: Active participation numbers of Top National Ice Hockey Associations.

Country Participants
Finland 65,000
Russia 77,70245
Sweden 65,00046
United States 585,00047
Structure
As previously mentioned, the IIHF has 68 member National Associations, which are divided
into three categories of membership, full, associate and affiliate. Each National Association is
responsible for the development of Ice Hockey and Inline hockey themselves, however the
IHHF does have a Development Committee under which Junior, Coaching and Development
issues are addressed. The mandate of the Development Committee is to offer member
National Associations a large variety of resources to assist them in the development of ice
hockey in their nations. Many of these resources concentrate on the development of the sport
at the junior levels.
Competition
The landscape of the IIHF with regards to youth, junior and senior competition is as follows.
The Youth Competitions, organized by the IIHF, are considered to be the World
Championships for the U18. The Junior category is considered to be the Under-20 World
Championships and the Senior category is considered to be the World Championships. Each
of the championships occurs on a yearly basis. The youth category within National
Associations is used primarily to organize and operate educational programs to promote
hockey within each Nation. As described by Darryl Easson, Development Manager at the
IIHF, the choice of capping the age at Under-20

45
SPORTS TRAVEL.fi, Ice Hockey Scandinavia.(2008) [WWW] Available from:
http://www.pelimatkat.com/sportstravel/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=84&Itemid=80
[Accessed 05/07/2009].
46
ibid.
47
USA HOCKEY, Development (2008) [WWW]. Available from: www.usahockey.com [Accessed 06/07/2009].

“… goes back to a decision that was made over 30 years ago, on what
age to make a junior category that will
1. Help provide senior players of the future.

2. To compel the National Associations to develop players for this age
group”48
Each Nation also holds their own national championships to showcase the talent of their
athlete and this age group is ideal as many 18 and 19 year old players are already playing for
their senior national teams, by providing this category this creates a greater platform for
athletes to display their talents. Furthermore, the IIHF believes that “this is a very important
step in a young players development and progression into the Senior and Professionals
level.”49
When analyzing ice hockey and the structure of the IIHF, it is interesting to note their
development model regarding the progression from youth to elite athletes. As hockey is a
younger developed sport, the age category U-20 is recognized by the International Ice Hockey
Federation, coaches and athletes as the bridging competition and development ages for
athletes to display their talents in order to take the next step to professionalism within their
sport. Even 30 years ago, the decision to set the U-20 as the standard for this platform was
instituted and the IIHF members understood this as a vital means for their player development
trends.

48
EASSON. D, IIHF, in an E-Mail to our study group on June 12, 2009
49
ibid.
2.3.4 Football
History
“Football has been found in many different cultures but the modern game was a nineteenth-
century innovation of the British.”50 The beginnings of modern football date from 1846-48,
when the first rules were codified in order to distinguish the game from rugby. Besides the
creation, the first Football Association (the FA) was established in England by eleven clubs in
1863 in order to draw a code of rules for all clubs. In 1871, the FA Cup started and its success
led to formation of the Football League some years later. The expansion of the sport is related
with the industrial boom in England during the second half of the 19th century and according
to the British historian James Walvin, football was “Britain’s most durable export”.51 Football
became a success worldwide because it has simple rules, it is easy to learn, there is flexibility
in the number of players and places to play and it is not costly. In this context, the Fédération
Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) was created in 1904 as an international body by
a group of people representing each nation: France, Netherlands, Switzerland, Denmark,
Belgium, France, Spain and Sweden, with main aims of creating a system that regulate
international football matches and unify the laws of the game.
An important landmark in the history of the world football and FIFA was the entry of
associations outside Europe and especially after the decolonization process of Africa and Asia
between 1958 and 1974. FIFA affiliated some football National Associations before their
respective countries were recognized by United Nations, such as Kenya, Sudan and
Malaysia.52 This fact shows the importance of football as way to be recognized within the
international community. In 1974 the Brazilian, Joao Havelange, became president and turned
FIFA into a huge institution. His presidency witnessed a boom in the game which helped
developed countries into the organization, development of the women’s football and
especially youth competitions, the latter will be outlined in the following pages.53
Structure
Nowadays, FIFA has 208 affiliated National Associations with 60 associations accepted as
members between 1975 and 2002. FIFA is responsible for safeguarding the Laws of the game,
developing the game around the world and organizing a range of competitions. Football is the

50
EISENBERG, C. et al. (2004) 100 Years of football: The FIFA Centennial Book. London: Weidenfeld &
Nicolson. Page 11.
51
WALVIN, J. (1975) The people’s Game: A History of British Football. London: Allen Lane. Page 92.
52
Nicolson. Page 286.
53
JELINEK, R. and TOMES, J (2002) The first world Atlas of Football. Prague: Infokart. Page.22.
most diffused sport in the world. In a lecture on 3th of April 2009 Thierry Regenass, FIFA’s
Director of Member Association & Development, outlined that there are 250 million
54
registered footballers of which 99.8% are amateurs and 200 million youth . “The governance
of football resembles a pyramid where each layer takes on different responsibilities in a
different geographical scope”.55
Figure 6: The FIFA pyramid of football56
As we can see the football structure has a number of layers under FIFA, however this paper
will focus on the following:
• Confederations: umbrella organizations of the national football associations in each

continent and are responsible for organizing competitions, development issues and
enforcing compliance with the FIFA statutes, regulations and decisions.57 The role of
UEFA and the UEFA U-21 will be analyzed on the section 3.
• National Associations: supreme authority and disciplinary body of the sport within the
national boundaries organizing club competitions and responsible for the coordination
of a National team to represent the country in international competitions. They have to
abide by the rules of FIFA and respective confederations. They have a monopolistic
position in the national organization of the game, as FIFA, the ultimate body of the
pyramid, only recognizes one association per country. The perception of the European

54
Lecture material, FIFA, presentation by Mike Cronin: “Members Association & Development “.
55
DUCREY,P. et al.(2003)UEFA and Football Governance : A New Model : Adaptations for the challenges of
modern football. CIES.
56
BERTONI, J. et al. (2005) Shaping the future: Opportunities for the FIFA World Youth Championshi . CIES.
57
See appendix 4.
National Associations about the UEFA European Under-21 will be outlined in the
section 4.
Competition
The organization of competitions is one of the main objectives of FIFA and the
confederations. The range of competitions for National teams in football can be identified as
senior, youth and “in between” senior and youth. The following section analyzes the different
competitions for National teams organized by the above mentioned organizations. The main
football competitions organized for National teams are:
Figure 7: Football National teams Competitions Portfolio – Source: Authors compilation.

Category Senior U-23 U-20 U-19 U-17 U-16 U-15
Criteria
Age All Ages 23 & under 20 & under 19 & under 17 & under 16 & under 15 & under
FIFA
FIFA
UEFA FIFA
UEFA
CAF CAF
Competition FIFA & IOC UEFA CAF
CONMEBOL CONMEBOL AFC CONMEBOL
Organizer UEFA AFC CONMEBOL
AFC CONCACAF
CONCACAF
CONCACAF OFC
OFC
OFC
The senior competitions are the most important for FIFA and the confederations, including
the best players of each National Association. They are a big business and the most attractive
for commercial partners such as sponsors and broadcasters. The choice of the host countries
includes several stages and politics, as this kind of event is very important for the image of the
country.58 The level of organization of these competitions requires large investments in
venues, infrastructure, transport, telecommunication, accommodations among others. FIFA
and the confederations have emphasized the technical competence of its organizers and the
financial success of the event.
Youth football, domestic junior and school competitions are played in practically every
country. “Youth” has in football terms gradually taken on the meaning of those years between
the end of childhood and becoming an adult. In most of the countries it means the period
between the school leaving age and being eligible for organized senior football. The younger

58
JELINEK, R. and TOMES, J (2002) The first world Atlas of Football. Prague: Infokart .p.24.
age groups also account for the largest proportion of organized footballers. However the first
international competitions originated much later than those of the seniors.59 After World War
II the first Under-18 championship (amateurs) was organized by FIFA as the International
Youth Tournament in 1948 in England with the participation of eight European countries in a
British Royal air force camp, with the following aim:
“To bring together young people of different countries, different and

opposed ideologies, ideas and languages. It is a mean for these young
people to get to know one another and to find out by personal
experience that, in spite of all real or imaginary differences, it is
possible to understand and respect each other. Sport should form the
basis for open and sincere comradeship.”60
This was in the post-war context, and FIFA suggested that an international youth tournament
should be organized in each continent. In 1955 UEFA took over the organization of the event
mentioned above and in 1981, it became officially a European championship and was restyled
the European Under-18 Football Championship, which became the UEFA U-19 in 2001.61
CONMEBOL was the second Confederation to create a youth event, in 1954, followed by the
others.
Twenty years later, the new president of FIFA Joao Havelange adopted a new youth football
policy, meaning that the international youth tournaments were now designed for the elite
youth players. For FIFA the youth football became a tool to development the sport in the
countries.
“...Youth is the eternal source of creative energy, indispensable

whenever there is an ideal to promote or cause to defend. Youth is
fundamental to out thinking within FIFA, and competition among
young players represents a vital element in the consolidation and the
development of football in all corners of the world as an instrument
without equal in leisure and social life”62
Following Havelange’s vision football became even more the world game, appealing above
all to the youth of the planet – spectators and players. The first real Youth World Cup (under-
19) took place in Tunisia and since 1981 the competition has been for the under-20. The idea

59
Nicolson. p.195.
60
ibid. p.195.
61
UEFA (1973) 25 years UEFA Youth Tournament Jubilee Brochure. Zurich.
62
HAMEL, H. (1999). World Youth Championships: 1977-1999. Langres: IPPAC p.19.
was to create that full-scale tournament for the world’s youth, which would also attract
commercial stakeholders. Despite the fact that youth competitions are less attractive
commercially than senior competitions, the objectives are related to development rather than
generating profit. The partnership between FIFA and its sponsor Coca-Cola was key in the
conception, the birth, the early years and the maturity of a project World Youth
Championship.63 Additionally, taking into account that every year counts dramatically in the
career of youth footballers and that there is a vast base of young players it was necessary to
create younger youth categories, such as U-17, U-16 and U-15. It is interesting to see that in
the football portfolio, there are two international competitions identified for footballers under
the age of 23. These are the Olympic Games and UEFA U-21 Championship. They can be
considered as “in between” youth and senior level. Besides the same age, both of them were
created for different reasons and in different contexts.
FIFA organizes the men’s football tournament for the IOC in cooperation with the OCOG. In
the 1984 Los Angeles Olympic Games, IOC admitted professional footballers for the first
time in order to bring interest back to the football tournament. As FIFA still did not want the
Olympics to rival the World Cup, a compromise between both organizations allowed teams
from CAF, OFC, AFC and CONCACAF to use their strongest professional players, while
only allowing UEFA and CONMEBOL teams to pick players who had not previously played
in a World Cup. Many teams therefore used very young teams. The idea of younger teams
found agreement at both FIFA and the IOC and since 1992 players of male competitions must
be under 23 years of age. However, since the Olympic Games in Atlanta (1996) three players
older than 23 have been allowed to participate in the Olympic Football Tournament.64 In this
context, since 1992 the Olympic football tournament could be considered an "Under-23
World Cup", complementing FIFA's own football tournament at Under-20 and Under-17
levels. The Confederations organize a special Under-23 qualifying tournament. However the
European qualifiers are drawn from the finalists of the UEFA U-21 Championship.
As it will be analyzed in the next section, the European Under-21 Championship was
established by UEFA in 1967 as a “bridge” from youth to senior level, therefore different
from the “Under-23” Olympic football tournament that was created based mainly on a
political context due to an agreement between FIFA and IOC in the beginning of 1990’s.

63
ibid.
64
JELINEK, R. and TOMES, J (2002) The first world Atlas of Football. Prague: Infokart. p.38.
3 Case study: Analysis of the UEFA U-21 Championship
In the following section we will analyze UEFA, its National team competitions portfolio,
focusing on the UEFA Under-21 European Championship based on the organizational,
commercial and sporting dimensions of the stakeholders map.
Figure 8: The stakeholders of the Under-21 Championship – Source: Authors compilation.
As part of our research, we spent four days on site at the UEFA U-21 tournament in Sweden,
between 18th and 22nd of June 2009. During this period we visited three host cities
Helsingborg, Gothenburg and Halmstad. As part of the promotion strategy, these cities were
dressed in the look of the event and featured Fan Zones. We attended the matches Spain vs.
England in Gothenburg on 18th of June and on the following day in Helsingborg Sweden vs.
Italy. On Friday 19th we were invited as observers to a meeting at the headquarters of UEFA
and LOC where current issues were raised and action plans discussed. This empirical research
was key for this paper in order to witness the professionalization of the tournament
organization, to conduct interviews and to collect very accurate data that we otherwise would
not have had access to. These analyses are key to underpin the Section 4 of this paper that will
focus specifically on the National Associations’ perception of the UEFA U-21 Championship.
3.1 About UEFA
The Union des Associations Européenes de Football (UEFA) was founded on June 15th 1954,
in Switzerland with the principle of fostering and development of unity and solidarity among
the European Football Community. Over the decades, UEFA has developed from a mainly
administrative body into a dynamic and pro-active organization which has adapted to the
requirements of football. Today, UEFA has 53 members (National Associations) and deals
with all questions related to European football. UEFA has four strategic objectives in order to
accomplish its mission to “create the right conditions for the game in Europe to prosper and
develop”65, as follows:
• Football: organizing the best European competitions for clubs and countries, developing
coaches and referees and grass roots football.
• Governance: establishing stronger connections with all National Associations, and
cooperation with key stakeholders of the European football family.
• Revenue: making the best use of the income from commercial contracts and providing the
best satisfaction to commercial partners.
• Management: efficiently staff and resources and with a good internal and external
communication.
In this connection, the UEFA Competitions portfolio, for Men’s National teams includes66:
Figure 9: National vs. Youth Competition Logos
National Youth
As we can see above, the UEFA U-21 Championship is considered within the category of
national competitions, as is the UEFA EURO. It is not in the youth competition section. The
UEFA U-21 Championship is the second largest European National team competition.67 For
the first time in history, all 53 member associations are participating in the actual edition of
the championship 2009-2011. However, if one takes a closer look at the logos, it can be noted
that the Under-21 championship has the same design as the youth competitions. Does this
mean that the Under-21 is still a youth competition? If yes, why is it then within the national
section? What do the stakeholders think?

65
UEFA (2009) About UEFA: Overview [WWW] UEFA. Available from:
http://www.uefa.com/uefa/aboutuefa/index.html [Accessed 15/06/09]
66
UEFA (2009) UEFA Competitions [WWW] UEFA. Available from:
http://www.uefa.com/uefa/uefacompetitions/index.html [Accessed 18/06/09]
67
ibid.
3.2 The UEFA U-21 Championship
3.2.1 UEFA Under-21 History
The U-21 competition started in 1967 under the name of Challenge Cup for national
representative teams aged under 23 with the participation of seventeen National Associations.
Since then, the competition changed its name three times and its format was altered on a
number of occasions. For the edition of 1970/72 eight qualifying groups were created, the
winners of each group played quarter-finals and the remaining playing at home and away to
determine the champion. In the 1976/78 edition the age limit was reduced to 21 years in order
to diminish the gap between the Under-18 and Under -23 tournaments, and was reflected in
the inclusion of 21 in the name. It meant that players aged 21 and under were eligible to play
the championship in the qualifying stage. Following the main changes68:
Figure 10: Main modifications of the UEFA U-21 Championship over the last few years – Source: Authors
compilation.
Year Modifications
1990/92 First time that it is used as qualification for the Olympic football tournament
1992/94 First time that a host country was chosen for the finals
1996/98 First time that eight teams participated in the final tournament
1998/2000 First time that the eight teams were divided into two groups
The latest and most significant modification since the 2005/2007 edition was moving the final
tournament to odd years, in order to avoid a clash with the FIFA World Cup and UEFA
EURO.
“The U-21 Euros have grown both in terms of media attention and
status since UEFA decided to stage the final tournament during odd-
numbered years. Previously, the U-21 teams could suffer from losing
players to a senior championship the same summer. This year, Spain
and Italy can be affected due to the Confederations Cup, but all others
can bring their best teams. The aim for the Swedish U-21 team is the
same as for the seniors – to win.”69
Andrea Pirlo, Frank Lampard, Luís Figo, Petr Čech, and Zinedine Zidane are just a few
examples of superstars of today who participated in the U-21 championship. This competition

68
UEFA (2007) UEFA Under-21 Tournament Review: A Review of the Competition and the Marketing
Programme. Gütersloh: medienfabrik Gütersloh GmbH. p.17.
69
UEFA (2009) Lars Richt, Head of Swedish national teams, Newsletter No 6, UEFA U-21 Championship
Sweden 2009. p.4.
was helpful in forming their career, giving them the opportunity to show their skills to an
international crowd and to qualify for the A National team and top division clubs. Frank
Lampard confirms: “To be a top footballer you have to go through the UEFA U-21
Championship”.70 The player’s opinion is in line with the one of UEFA:
“The format has changed down the years, but the competition's raison
d'être has remained the same: to provide a stepping stone from youth
football up to the full international stage.”71
3.2.2. Current Competition Format
Since the last change, a host country, which qualifies automatically, is chosen two years and a
half ahead of the qualification phase. The host association has to establish a Local Organizing
Committee (LOC) with authorities, host cities, stadiums and football federations at regional
and local level. UEFA and the LOC establish a project plan for the organization, which also
includes draws and workshops. The qualifying matches are organized by each National
Association, following the UEFA guidelines and regulations.
For the Edition 2007-2009 fifty one National Associations entered the qualifying round
played between May 2007 and September 2008. The nations were divided in ten groups. The
ten group winners and the four best runners-up advanced to the play-off stage. The playoff
was played home and away on October 11th and 15th. The seven winning teams at this playoff
joined Sweden for the UEFA Under-21 Championship final tournament between 15th and 23rd
of June 2009. The eight final participating nations were Belarus, England, Finland, Germany,
Italy, Serbia, Spain and Sweden. The matches were staged in Malmö, Gothenburg,
Helsingborg and Halmstad. The ‘Orjans Val’ stadium in Halmstad has a capacity for 15’500
spectators and ‘Olympia’ in Helsingborg, the oldest stadium of Sweden has 12’500 seats. The
stadiums of Gothenburg (Gamla Ullevi; capacity: 16’700) and Malmö (Malmö New Stadium;
capacity: 21’000) were built for the tournament. As a result, we can conclude that for Sweden,
the event was important.72

70
UEFA (2009) Official Programme UEFA UNDER21 Championship Sweden 2009. p.4.
71
UEFA (2007),UEFA Under-21 Tournament Review: A Review of the Competition and the Marketing
Programme. Gütersloh : medienfabrik Gütersloh GmbH. p.17.
72
UEFA (2009) Official Programme UEFA UNDER-21 Championship Sweden 2009. p. 6.
During the preparation, one of the biggest challenges faced by UEFA and LOC was to
promote the championship in order to attract crowds to the matches. Henrik Larsson, one of
the most important Swedish players in the history was chosen to be the ambassador of the
Championship. UEFA and the LOC used the following slogan: “Stars of today, superstars of
tomorrow”. Such is the goal of every youngster on show in Sweden, yet the path is not always
a smooth one. During the tournament, this slogan was written on flags, banners and signage
strategically distributed in the main points of the cities. The logo was substantially used for
the event promotion, event branding, stadium dressing and sponsor promotions.
Figure 11: Host city branding.
After almost 2 years of planning and preparation, the LOC was ready to receive players,
officials, media and spectators from across Europe. One of the main issues faced by the LOC
was that the tournament was be played during the Mid Summer, which is the most important
national holiday in Sweden when most people flee the cities to spend time with friends and
family. At the same time this seventh edition was competing for attention with the FIFA
Confederations Cup in South Africa, where the National A Teams of Spain and Italy
competed. Because of that, the tournament was scheduled for fifteen days, instead of the usual
fourteen days, with the final played on a Monday to avoid the two National teams A and U-21
playing in the same day in different competitions.
A major objective for UEFA and LOC at the European Under-21 Championship is to expand
the fun experience, to create entertainment in the venues and to generate media interest. In
this context, fun-filled Fan Zones were organized by the four Swedish host cities, in central
locations with giant screens, games, music, food and beverages. The Sponsors had the
opportunity to take part with commercial displays and interactive activities.
Figure 12: Pictures of the Fan Zones on non-match days.
The commercial rights for the qualifying matches are exploited by each host National
Association, who is also in charge of their promotion. However UEFA owns and has the sole
right to exploit the final tournament commercially. In this context, the sponsors and partners
have to strictly adhere to the intellectual property rights stated in UEFA’s rules and
regulations manual for the Under-21 championship.
Intellectual Property Rights, Article 31.01

UEFA is the exclusive owner of all intellectual property rights of the
Competition, including but not limited to any current or future rights
of UEFA’s names, logos, brands, medals and trophies. Any use of the
aforementioned rights requires the prior written consent of UEFA and
must comply with any conditions imposed by UEFA.73
This provides us a small flavor regarding legal matters of this competition. This competition
has grown over the past ten years and gained in importance among the football events. The
UEFA U-21 Championship therefore needs to protect the brand so that only associated
partners can exploit it.
Since the 2002 edition, UEFA has used TEAM Marketing AG (Switzerland) as the exclusive
agent for broadcast sales of the UEFA Under-21 Championship Final Tournament. In the
2009 edition, all the matches were in “prime time” status (GMT time). UEFA signed
agreements with television companies in the eight nations that participated – Belarus (Belarus
TV), England (BSkyB), Finland (TV Viisi), Germany (ZDF and DSF), Italy (RAI), Serbia
(RTS), Spain (Sogecable) and Sweden (TV4). The latter was appointed as the host
broadcaster for the Championship. The focus was on free-to-air broadcasters. The agreements
include broadcasting in Africa, Latin America, North America, Australia and some countries
of Asia. On UEFA.com, the fifteen matches were available free of charge for selected
territories in Europe and other territories without television coverage. The broadcast platform

73
UEFA (2009) Regulations of the UEFA European Under-21 Championship. Nyon UEFA.
and the UEFA.com reached more than 150 territories.74 The chart below shows the increase in
the cumulative audience of the final tournament considering the 3 editions:
80
70 Fig. 13: Cumulative audience in mio.
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
2004 2005 2007
The sponsorship structure for the 2009 edition followed the model implemented in the last
two UEFA European U-21 Championship final tournament editions. The six EUROTOP
Partners had signed for a long-term partnership which included: UEFA EURO 2008™, UEFA
U-21 Championship (2006, 2007 and 2009), UEFA`s European Women`s Championship
(2009) and the UEFA European Futsal Championships™ (2007 and 2009). Interestingly, the
UEFA U-21 Championship is commercialized with the senior competition of UEFA whereas
the youth competitions are managed differently. Also it is important to highlight that even
with the credit crunch in September 2008, all the other spots available for the sponsors were
sold, which includes specific sponsors for the event and national supporters, demonstrating
the commercial importance of the competition. All of them using the slogan “Committed to
the Future of European Football”
Fig. 14: Host city branding with sponsors logos.

74
UEFA(2009) UEFA Competitions : Under 21 [WWW] UEFA. Available from:
http://www.uefa.com/competitions/under21/news/kind=1/newsid=830109.html[Accessed 01/07/09]
One of these National supporters, Intersport Sweden, was the official Sports Shop of the
UEFA U-21 Championship, in charge of the distribution of the tournament branded
merchandise throughout their Swedish retail outlets and also to create a web shop specifically
for the event. The company was the official on-site retailer, selling the range of products such
as jerseys, caps, t-shirts, hats, scarves, at all of the four stadia at the tournament in
Gothenburg, Malmö, Halmstad and Helsingborg.
"With the UEFA U-21 Championship 2009 in Sweden we will

continue our good co-operation with UEFA in football, one of our
major sport categories. We are proud to be a National Supporter and
our retail experience together with INTERSPORT Sweden's strong
football market position will further contribute to a successful
event."75
Figure 15: Merchandising articles of the UEFA U-21 Championship.
The launching of the ticket sales occurred four months in advance in February 2009. A week
before the beginning of the tournament 64% of the 225.000 available tickets have already
sold. The tickets were sold at stadiums and by phone, and included special prices for under 21
years old, groups of people and families. The prices were affordable, ranged between 8€ and
40€ approximately.
Figure 16: Ticket of the UEFA U-21 Championship.

75
http://www.uefa.com/competitions/under21/news/kind=1/newsid=830109.html[Accessed 25/06/09]
As mentioned above, the UEFA Under-21Championship has grown in importance over the
past editions in the field of play and with a step forward of many players in their respective
National A teams and within their clubs. In addition an increase can be observed in the
interest from the media, the public, the broadcasters and all the commercial partners.
Furthermore, the investment of the organizers has grown as well. During the UEFA European
Championship Final Tournament 2007 in Netherlands, a fan survey was done with 500
respondents by a random selection, followed by a telephone interview. The overall match day
satisfaction was 95%. The highest scoring attributes for the championship were “Fun”,
“Professional”, “Fair Play”, “Festive”, “Passion” and “Entertaining”. 60% of the supporters
visited the Championship to see the best young players in Europe.76 The results above helped
UEFA in designing the core values attributed to the UEFA European U-21 Championship
which are as follows:
• Excellence - the best European Players aged 21 to 23.

• Aspiration - the future National teams.
• Accessible - the event is open to all football fans.
• Entertainment - the matches are embedded into a comprehensive sport event package.
• Fresh & Fun - the promotion and entertainment surrounding the matches make the event
unique and memorable.
However, during this 2009 edition, we realized on site that even the organizers have
sometimes a different perception of what the Under-21 stand for. As you can see from the
following quotes, one from the official Newsletter of the Championship and the other by a
stadium speaker, the perception differs:
“This high class tournament offers a unique opportunity for all

Swedish football-lovers to watch a lot of established international
stars.”77
“Thank you for coming out tonight and supporting Youth Football”78

76
UEFA (2007),UEFA Under-21 Tournament Review: A Review of the Competition and the Marketing
Programme. Gutersloh : medienfabrik Gutersloh GmbH. Pages 116 - 117
77
UEFA (2009) Official Programme UEFA UNDER21 Championship Sweden 2009. Page.1.
78
Stadium Speakers post games announcements: ENG-ESP, June 18th, 2009 and SWE-ITA, June 19th,2009,
In this context, if the UEFA European U-21Championship is a professional men`s National

team competition with future stars, can it still be considered as youth? Following is the
opinion from Trevor Booking – Director Football Development of English FA:
“For potential senior players it is crucial to experience tournament

football and see how they cope. During tournaments, matches come in
a quick succession and many queries about players and their potential
become clearer: Who travels well? Who reacts badly to being on the
substitute bench? Who is a good ‘impact player’ off the bench? The
under-21s in Sweden could help us identify one or two players worthy
considering for FIFA World Cup 2010, if hopefully we qualify for
South Africa. In this age group, the object of winning becomes a
definite factor. The earlier ages of U-17 and U-19 place more
emphasis on the development stage, and now players need to add that
competitive edge.”79
The National Association’s opinions will be analyzed in the next section as we are presenting
the research conducted. In the end, we will analyze if the National Association’s perception is
in line with UEFA’s perception in order to see whether they follow the same pattern.
3.3 The National Associations’ perception of the Under-21 Team and the UEFA U-21
Championship
After having outlined UEFA’s perception of the UEFA U-21 Championship and why UEFA
has set up such a competition, we are now analyzing how the UEFA U-21 Championship and
the respective Under-21 National team are perceived by the participating National
Associations. In order to get an accurate understanding of how the NAs perceive the
competition and how much importance they attribute to it, we conducted a research analysis
which will be described and explained in the following. The research has been supported by
UEFA in the person of Marcello Alleca, Under-21 event manager, who provided us with
useful information about the competition and with tips on how to approach the National
Associations. Even though we received initial guidance from UEFA, we approached the
National Associations as independent researchers.
3.3.1 Methodology of data collection

In order to gather the information from the National Associations, the method chosen was
qualitative through interviews and questionnaires. The objective of a qualitative research

79
BOOKING T. (2009) – Director of Football Development of English FA, Newsletter No 6, UEFA U-21
Championship S weden 2009. p.4.
method is an in-depth analysis. The goal of such a research method is to gather information
which can include the respondent’s personal opinions and thoughts. As a result, however, the
comparison of qualitative outcomes can pose some problems in comparison to collected data
from a quantitative research method. One major characteristic of a qualitative research
method is a small sample. Our sample consisted of 25 National Associations out of UEFA’s
53 Member Associations participating in the UEFA U-21 European Championship. The 25
National Associations were as follows:
• The Belarus Football Federation

• The Royal Belgian Football Association
• The Croatian Football Federation
• The Football Association of the Czech Republic
• The Danish Football Association
• The Football Association
• The Football Association of Finland
• The French Football Federation
• The Georgian Football Federation
• The German Football Association
• The Hellenic Football Federation
• The Israel Football Association
• The Italian Football Federation
• The Royal Netherlands Football Association
• The Polish Football Association
• The Portuguese Football Federation
• The Russian Football Union
• The Scottish Football Association
• The Football Association of Serbia
• The Royal Spanish Football Federation
• The Swedish Football Association
• The Swiss Football Association
• The Turkish Football Association
• The Football Federation of Ukraine
• The Football Association of Wales
The idea was to conduct in-depth interviews with the person responsible for the U-21 Team
within each of the 25 National Associations from an administrative and organizational side.
As our interviewees were spread all over Europe, it was not possible to conduct personal face-
to-face interviews. As a result, we were obliged to do telephone interviews. Since the right
contact person was unknown to us, we had to ask our way through the National Association in
order to find out the name and the contact details (ideally email address and telephone
number) of the person responsible for the U-21 Team. Once we had all the necessary contact
details, we initially approached the person by email, explaining our project and asking if
he/she is the right person to contact and to conduct a telephone interview.80 We attached the
questionnaire to the email, so that the interviewees were aware of what questions we were
going to ask them. Also, it helped them to prepare the interview beforehand and gather
specific information they might not know from colleagues within their association. Since not
everyone replied to our initial email, we had to follow-up by phone to find out if they were
the right contact person and if they agreed to do the telephone interview with us. In general,
however, we can say that most of the contact persons were very keen on helping us with our
research. We got along very well with the interviewees and did not face any interpersonal
problems with them.
In the end we managed to receive a positive response from 18 National Associations.

However, not all of them were able to do the telephone interview with us. Three National
Associations replied to the questions in writing via email. Furthermore we had the opportunity
to meet with the responsible person from the Italian Football Federation for a face-to-face
interview during our stay in Sweden for the final tournament. In the end, we therefore have to
distinguish between three different types of data collection. Telephone interviews have been
conducted with following National Associations and contact persons:
• The Belarus Football Federation, Ms. Yulia Zenkovich (Press officer)

• The Croatian Football Federation, Ms. Iva Olivari (International Department)
• The Football Association of the Czech Republic, Mr. Ivo Sekerka (Manager
International Department)
• The Danish Football Association, Mr. Christian Bordinggaard (National Teams
Department)
• The Football Association of Finland, Mr. Lennart Wangel (Head of National Teams
Department)
• The German Football Association, Mr. Panagiotis Chatzialexiou (Team Manager U-
21)
• The Hellenic Football Federation, Mr. Evangelos Machairas (Team Manager U-21)
• The Israel Football Association, Mr. Ronen Hershco (Director National Teams
Department) & Mr. Eli Rozen (Technical Manager)
• The Royal Netherlands Football Association, Mr. Fernando Arrabal (Coordinator
National Youth Teams)
• The Polish Football Association, Mr. Bartek Laski (Team Manager U-21)
• The Scottish Football Association, Mr. Billy Stark (International Youth Teams Coach)
• The Swedish Football Association, Mr. Lars Richt (Head of National Teams
Department)
• The Swiss Football Association, Mr. Pierre Benoit (Media Coordinator Under-Teams)
• The Royal Belgian Football Association, Mr. Piet Erauw (Team Manager U-21)

80
See appendix 5.
The telephone interviews took place in May and June 2009. The shortest interview lasted 12
min, whereas the longest interview lasted 55 min. The average duration of all 17 telephone
interviews was 28 min.
The Football Association of Serbia (Ms. Bojana Zec), the Turkish Football Association (Mr.
Sükrü Hanedar, Administrative Responsible A & Under-21 Team) and the Football
Federation of Ukraine (Ms. Tatiana Gorobchenko, Press Officer) answered to the questions in
writing by email. The contact person from the Italian Football Federation (Sabrina
Filacchione, Manager National Teams Department) responded to the questions during a
personal interview on-site in Sweden. Unfortunately we were not able to get any response
from the following associations:
• The Football Association

• The French Football Federation
• The Georgian Football Federation
• The Portuguese Football Federation
• The Football Association of Wales
• The Royal Spanish Football Federation
• The Russian Football Union
3.3.2 Research questions
The overriding research questions which we aimed on answering with the data collected
through the interviews were the following:
a) What is the National Associations’ perception of their U-21 Teams (Position and role
of the U-21 Teams in the National Association)?
b) What is the National Associations’ perception of the UEFA U-21 Championship?
In order to answer these questions, we created a questionnaire. The questionnaire contained a

total of 20 questions and was divided into four sections:81
• Internal
• Environment
• Costs & Benefits
• Championship

81
A questionnaire sample can be found in the appendix (see appendix 6).
The section “Internal” aimed at providing us with a brief overview on how the National
Association is structured, how it perceives the Under-21 Team and how much importance it
attributes to the team. The second section “Environment” provided us with information about
the relationship of the National Association regarding the Under-21 Team with different
stakeholders, such as the clubs and the media. In the third section “Costs & Benefits”,
questions about problems and advantages of the Under-21 Team were asked, both from a
financial and non-financial perspective. Lastly, the interviewees should give their opinion
about the Under-21 Championship itself.
The questionnaire has been developed in English and the interviews were therefore generally
conducted in English. However, due to the languages represented in our group, we translated
the questionnaire in French, Spanish, German and Portuguese to make it more convenient for
some of the interviewees.
3.3.3 Problems/limitations of data collection procedure
During the interviews and their preparations, we faced several problems/limitations which
certainly affected the quality of responses and prevented us from conducting the interviews in
the best possible manner.
Language
The interviewees disposed of very different levels of English. Some of them without a doubt
had difficulties expressing themselves in English. Maybe, if they could have answered in their
native language, they would have expressed themselves in more detail and with more
accuracy. Also, in some cases, the interviewees did not answer the questions correctly,
probably because they did not quite understand the meaning of the question or were not sure
on how to answer to it. Therefore we often had to rephrase the questions differently and
sometimes even give possible answers to lead the interviewee in the right direction.
Contact person
It was not always easy to find out the right contact person, the person responsible for the
Under-21 team from an administrative and organizational perspective. This issue also relied
on the fact that in some cases the correct contact person does not possess the necessary
language skills to do an interview in English. In this case the interview had either to be
conducted by the press officer or an employee of the International department. However,
these persons assured that they discussed the questionnaire with the responsible person
beforehand.
Financial questions
The questions 3a (How much in percentage of the overall budget is assigned to the National
teams?) and 3b (How much in percentage of the National team’s budget is assigned to the U-
21 team?) of the financial part could not always be answered by the interviewees. Firstly, in
some cases, the interviewees considered the information as confidential and were not allowed
to communicate it externally. Secondly, the interviewees generally were not informed about
the budgets of the association. In the end only 10 out of 18 interviewees gave us figures about
their budgets.
Preparation
Even though the questionnaires have been sent in advance and we kindly advised the
interviewees to read the questionnaire beforehand, we realized that the quality of the answers
varied from interviewee to interviewee due to a lack of preparation. Some interviewees
probably did not have a single look into the questionnaire before actually talking to us on the
phone. Most interviewees, however, were well-organized and even prepared personal notes.
Lack of time
The contact persons of the different National Associations were generally very busy in May
and June. In June many international friendly matches as well as World Cup Qualifying
matches were taking place throughout Europe. Additionally, the 8 National Associations
taking part in the U-21 European Championship in Sweden were extremely busy in
organising the team preparation for the tournament. It was therefore not the perfect time to
call and do an interview with the right contact person. Also, the questionnaire consisted of 20
questions and was therefore to be considered as a rather long questionnaire. After having
carried out a test run, we estimated the interview to last approximately 30-45 minutes. We
needed to take into consideration time restraints of the interviews.
3.3.4 Evaluation and interpretation of findings
Development chain Youth-Junior-Senior

In the following section we would like to discuss to what extent the participation in the U-21
Team helps the player in his career development. Does it help the player in becoming a better
and more mature player? How much importance do the National Associations attribute to this
age category with regards to the development from a youth to a senior player?
From the National Associations we have talked to, all were convinced that this age category is
a key factor in the career development of young football players. This can be explained in
different ways. The U-21 Team can give the players a boost of motivation and make them
more ambitious to reach further goals in their career.
“It definitely helps their career and you can see this by the way they
play in their clubs. When they come from the U-21 team, their style of
game, it becomes different, they have new ambitions and new goals
and they try to be better players.” (Belarus)82
Also, wearing the National team jersey at this level fills the players with pride. In many cases,
the players went through most of the National Youth Teams of the Federation. By reaching
the U-21 National team, they are only one last step away from the A National team.
“First of all wearing the U-21 jersey brings a strong reputation to reach
the National A Team. And wearing the jersey of National teams at
international level helps a lot in the improvement of the players, it
increase their values and promotion, and makes them well-known on
the international and national level.” (Turkey)83
Furthermore, the U-21 Team is a great possibility for the players to present themselves on an
international level and to take the next step in their career by signing with a new club. Many
National Associations see the U-21 age category as a benefit for the players, as they can
benefit themselves through good performances from new future employment opportunities.
Especially for players from smaller federations, where the players play in less-developed
leagues which do not get any public attention outside the country, it is a great opportunity to
take the next step and go abroad.

82
Interview on 11th May 2009 with Yulia Zenkovich (The Belarus Football Association).
83
The answers were given as an E-Mail attachment by Sükrü Hanedar (The Turkish Football Federation).
“For example, we had a U-20 in 2007, they finished second in the

World Cup. And from that team, immediately after the World Cup, 8
players went and signed with very professional, good clubs abroad.
Definitely, and mainly in U-21, because it is a professional team it
helps the players in their career.” (Czech Republic)84
Additionally, many National Associations see the Under-21 Team as the only opportunity for
their players to gain experience on an international level. The players do not necessarily
participate with their club teams in European club competitions where they could have the
possibility to experience different styles of play:
“Playing international matches is always important for the

development, because you play against players who are stronger. You
play against teams who use different systems. It is always a good
experience for the players.” (Belgium)85
According to the Scottish FA, the U-21 age category is essential for the development of the
player’s career. The interviewee outlines that the gap between the U-19 National team and the
A National team is too big, so that there is certainly a need for additional categories like the
U-20 or the U-21. This seems to suggest a need for a bridge between youth and senior
competition to close the gap. Also, because he considers the U-19 Team as a youth team and
doesn’t see players at the age of 20 or 21 as youth players anymore, they are adults.
“I think that most people would agree that they are not a real youth
team. When players get to the age of 20 – 21, they are adults and so
therefore it does help to close that gap U-19 to the international level. I
think that it’s a very important level.”(Scotland)86
To summarize one can say that the players benefit in many ways from the Under-21 National
team and it therefore truly helps them in their career development. Interestingly, this opinion
is shared by all 18 interviewed National Associations without restriction of any kind.
Perception inside the National Association of the U-21 team

The perception of the U-21 Team inside the different associations is in general very positive.
Of course, the A National team plays usually a bigger role in the associations, but 15 out of 18
National Associations clearly point out that they give a lot of importance to the Under-21

84
Interview on 12th May 2009 with Ivo Sekerka (The Football Association of the Czech Republic).
85
Interview on 11th June 2009 with Piet Erauw (The Royal Belgian Football Association).
86
Interview on 13th May 2009 with Billy Stark (The Scottish Football Association).
Team as well. The Under-21 National team players are perceived as the future A National
team players and therefore the Under-21 Team should get the necessary consideration:
“The U-21 team is very important to us and enjoys a high status. The
U-21 is the fundament for the A Team and most of the players find
their way through the U-21 to the A Team.” (Switzerland)87
In two associations, however, it seems that the Under-21 National team enjoys a higher status
than the A National team. This relies in the fact that the Under-21 National team was more
successful in terms of sporting results in the past than the A National team:
“Ok, well we think that our team is our pride. We don’t have many
successful performances with our National team. They have never
been to the World Cup or to the Euro. But this is the second time that
our U-21 has made it to the tournament. And we are very proud of this
achievement. And we hope that maybe in the future this will help out
the National A Team to grow.” (Belarus)88
“U-21 team is very appreciated within the football organisation, maybe

(at this moment) is the biggest "brand" of the FAS. Reasons for that
are result achieved in the last three final tournaments and successful
qualification for this year's final tournament in Sweden.” (Serbia)89
Even though the majority of the National Associations generally attribute a lot of importance
to their Under-21 National team, there is one National Association that emphasizes that the
Under-21 Team is clearly sidelined by the A National team:
“Within the FA, the team will always be behind the National A Team.
If the A Team gets 10, the U-21 Team will get 1. The A Team is
getting big consideration while the U-21 gets low consideration.”
(Italy)90
Another fact that shows that the Under-21 Team generally plays quite an important role in a
National Association is the record keeping of data of all players. All 18 National Associations
interviewed, confirmed, that they keep trajectory statistics on the performance of the Under-
21 Team and the respective players.

87
Interview on 12th May 2009 with Pierre Benoit (The Swiss Football Association).
88
Interview on 11th May 2009 with Yulia Zenkovich (The Belarus Football Association).
89
Answers were given as an E-Mail attachment by Bojana Zec (The Football Association of Serbia)
90
Interview on 20th June 2009 with Sabrina Filacchione (The Italian Football Federation).
“We have an official database where you can find all details on all
matches, how long they played, the starters, did they get injured,
yellow cards, etc…These basic statistics they are on the internet on our
webpage, and the coaches they have like an internal database where
they keep the remarks and where they can follow all the details of the
players.” (Denmark)91
When it comes to the question how the clubs perceive the Under-21 National team, it seems
that the Under-21 category is very well appreciated. The Under-21 players promote not only
their National Association internationally but also their clubs. Furthermore the Under-21
National team is a great opportunity for clubs which do not play internationally to allow their
players to gain international experience, to get international exposure and to increase their
market value.
“Clubs have recognized what it means to them for any of their players
to be on the National team. It is important for the player himself, but
also for the club as a whole. Every performance in the National team
makes the player's reputation better, also the reputation of the club.”
(Serbia)92
As a result, it is not surprising that the relationship between the clubs and the National
Associations regarding the Under-21 players is generally good. The Under-21 matches are
played within the official UEFA football calendar, which makes it a lot easier for the National
Associations to ask the clubs for the release of the players.
“We have a good collaboration because the U-21 games are played
within the official football calendar, so therefore the teams have to
release the players. And therefore we don’t have any problems to get
them. So the clubs definitely support the idea of the U-21.”
(Belgium)93
In this context, it is important to mention that the Under-21 Team apparently enjoys a special
status compared to the other Under National teams.
“With the U-21 it is a bit easier than with the other youth teams. The
U-21 is using mostly the official UEFA dates and those UEFA dates
are managed also with the leagues. Always when we play the matches,
in the league there is a break. Usually we don’t have problems with
that but we have issues with the other youth teams. For example for
the U-20 for the World Cup which is going to be played in September,

91
Interview on 20th May 2009 with Christian Bordinggaard (The Danish Football Association).
92
93
all the leagues in Europe are in process, and it becomes a problem for
all, not only the Czech team.” (Czech Republic)94
Can we draw the conclusion that the Under-21 National team follows the same procedures as
the A National team when it comes to the release of players? If this is the case, we can say
that in a certain way the Under-21 Team sets itself apart from all other youth teams within a
National Association.
In general we can say that the U-21 Team is very well perceived by the National Associations
and the clubs. From a National Association’s perspective, the U-21 National team is
considered to be the future in elite football who will be responsible to represent the country
and who will contribute to the future reputation of the National Associations.
Amateurism vs. Professionalism

Even though all National Associations have a similar organizational structure in terms of the
different departments they have, one has to highlight the differences when it comes to the
question where the U-21 National team is located within their organisation. In many cases the
U-21 National team is administered by the National Teams Department, which is in charge of
all National teams of the association:
“We have one national teams department where all the national teams
are belonging. And that is where the U-21 is.” (Sweden)95
“The U-21 team is located underneath the National Teams

Department.” (Denmark)96
However, there are National Associations that clearly differentiate between the A National
team, the U-21 Team and all other National teams of the Association. As a result they are
located in different departments.
“Actually in Czech Republic it is divided. We have two so-called

professional National teams which are sponsored by the Sponsors. It
means the A-Team and the U-21. And those two teams are leaded or
organized by the International Department. The other National teams,
it means from U-20 down to U15, those National teams are organized
by the National Teams Department.” (Czech Republic)97

94
95
Interview on 20th May 2009 with Lars Richt (The Swedish Football Association).
96
97
“The A National team and the U-21 Team work together in the same
office. … All other National teams are in a different department.”
(Germany)98
The fact that the A National team and the U-21 National team are administered by the same
department and that all other National teams are located in a different department shows that
there is a strong link between the A Team and the U-21 Team. In the Football Association of
Czech Republic they consider both the A Team and the U-21 Team as “professional National
teams” which distinguishes them clearly from all the other National teams. A similar point of
view has been given by the Royal Netherlands Football Association:
“We have 2 departments, one is the amateur department, the other is

the professional department. The professional department consists of 5
teams, the teams I have just mentioned (U-18, U-19, U-20, U-21)
including the national A Team. The other teams are under the concern
of the amateur department, this is for example the women, futsal, the
U-17, U-16, U-15 and so on.” (Holland)99
Again, the U-21 is considered as a professional team and belongs to the same department as
the A National team. In this case, even the U-18, U-19 and U-20 National teams are
administered by the professional department.
The above mentioned statements might suggest the conclusion that in many cases there is a
strong link between the A National team and the U-21 National team. Both teams seem to be
very close to each other, at least from an organizational and administrative perspective. But
what about technical links between these two teams? Do they have anything else in common?
“Yes of course, there is always big communication between the 2

coaches, especially because our first team has a lot of young players
from the U-21 team. So we have a lot of players that can play both on
the A team and the U-21 team. Right now we have around 7-8 players
who can play on both teams. The two coaches do the selection
together.” (Belgium)100
“The coaches work very closely together… We always have players

on the A Team who can also play for the U-21 Team. … Sometimes
we even organize small events and trainings camps together with the A
Team to show the players that the U-21 Team leads to the National A

98
Interview on 15th May 2009 with Panagiotis Chatzialexiou (The German Football Association).
99
Interview on 26th May 2009 with Fernando Arrabal (The Royal Netherlands Football Association).
100
Team. We do not see the U-21 Team as last “U-Team” but as

precursor to the A-Team. … It is a stepping stone to the A Team.”
(Germany)101
“A team and U-21 team are daily linked in terms of dates of

international friendly and official matches. Therefore, cooperation
between head-coaches of these two teams is necessary almost on
everyday basis. In this moment, 5 to 10 players are playing both for
the A and U-21 team, so good synchronisation and coordination are
needed, in order to see in which team the players will play and when,
and what is important for their optimal development and
improvement.” (Serbia)102
Especially in terms of coaching there seems to be a big link between these two teams. Many
players of the U-21 Team already play for the A Team. For that reason there must be an
interaction between the two coaches of the respective teams. In the case of the German
Football Association the two teams even do training camps together which highlights that the
U-21 Team and the A Team in a certain way merge together.
However, what is very interesting to note is that most of the National Associations do not pay
the players any bonuses related to their performances. As the Italian Football Federation
confirms, the players are only refunded for certain expenses during their stay with the U-21
National team:
“We have 23 players on the team. 22 of them are sharing a double-

room and the captain has a single room. Each room is assigned 100
Euros per day for internet and phone expenses. The players have to
decide themselves how they share this amount. The players do not get
any bonuses for wins or draws. But should they win the tournament for
example it is up to the captain to negotiate a price for the team with the
National Association, such as a scooter or a notebook.” (Italy)103
The idea of sharing cost within the team would most likely not be found within a professional
team. Can the players as a result be considered as amateurs? And how does this apply in the
context of the professional structure of the championship? As seen during our stay in Sweden,
the participating teams are lodging in the best hotels in town and the players are surrounded
by a big professional staff. But they are not remunerated for their participation and
performances? This situation reminds us of the Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA), the
governing body of the traditional Irish amateur sports hurling and Gaelic football. All players

101
Interview on 15th May 2009 with Panagiotis Chatzialexiou (The German Football Association).
102
103
Interview on 20th June 2009 with Sabrina Filacchione (The Italian Football Federation).
participating in these sports remain amateurs receiving only little compensation in order to
cover their expenses.104 Interestingly, they are playing in front of big crowds and manage to
sell out one of Europe’s biggest stadiums, Dublin’s Croke Park, with 83,500 spectators.
Furthermore the GAA benefits from 6,9 Mio.€ through television rights sales and 43,9 Mio.€
from gate receipts.105 The environment in which these sports are played is highly
professional, but the players stay amateurs. The concept of the GAA is an example “that it is
the professional management of the business, not the pay of the players, which produces the
successful norms of 21st century sport”.106 This concept can be compared to the NCAA,
where the amateur athletes play in front of big crowds in a very professional environment.107
In European football a similar approach is non- existing. However, the concept of the Under-
21 age category as laid out by many National Associations has definitely some parallels. In
the end the treatment of the players reminds us more of a youth team than a professional
senior team.
To summarize, from both a technical and administrative point of view, the A Team and the U-
21 Team are very close together. It seems that the U-21 Team is more attached to the A Team
than to all other National teams. In terms of professionalism, the Under-21 age category is
very advanced and moves more and more into the spotlight of the National Association and
the public. It serves as a development phase and as a bridge into the A Team, into top-class
football clubs and, as a result, into the world of highly professional football.
The National Associations perception of the UEFA European Under-21Championship

As laid out earlier in the paper and experienced on-site in Sweden, we realize that the UEFA
Under-21 European Championship is perceived as professionally and well-organized. The
fact that the level of play during the tournament is on a very high level led to an increased
interest of the public and the media, especially since UEFA decided to carry out the final
tournament in odd years. Before that the tournament was played in even years and clashed
with other major football tournaments, such as the FIFA World Cup and the UEFA Euro,
which prevented many players to take part in the Under-21 Championship. Generally, the
interviewees have a positive attitude towards the championship:

104
Lecture material, DMU Leicester, presentation by Mike Cronin: „The GAA: past, present, future“
105
106
107
The average attendance in NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball counts 22,239 spectators for the Top Team
Leader. NCAA (2009) 2009 National College Basketball Attendance [WWW]. Available from:
http://web1.ncaa.org/web_files/stats/m_basketball_RB/Reports/2009mbbattend.pdf [Accessed 05/07/09]
“It is the highest that you can win in your youth career in Europe and
95% of the players that play that tournament will be successful among
the professionals. It is a huge event and almost every match is great.
There is less tactics involved in the game and there is less money,
advertisement, TV rights at stake then the A team, but other than that
the market value is very high…” (Switzerland)108
The participation of the National Associations Under-21 National team in the championship
is, as mentioned above, very beneficial for the players, the clubs and from a technical point of
view also for the National Associations themselves, as it helps to develop good players for the
A National team. From a financial point of view, however, the Under-21 Championship does
not generate any benefits. The costs of participation in the championship exceed the income
generated through ticket sales, television rights sales and sponsorship. This opinion is shared
by all 18 National Associations interviewed. To the question “What are the three main costs
of the Under-21 Team?” there is a strong consensus among the interviewees. 17 interviewees
answered to that question, and all of them mentioned accommodation and transportation as
two main costs. The third most commonly mentioned cost factor is the salary of the team
staff. At this point it is important to note that according to the regulations of the UEFA U-21
Championship, each National Association is assigned financial contribution for its
participation from UEFA. Due to the low level of financial income for the competition the
National Associations are very pleased to receive this contribution in order to balance the
costs. To the question on how they consider that contribution to their National Association, 12
answered with ‘important’, whereas 5 interviewees even consider it to be ‘essential’.
Unsurprisingly nobody stated it to be ‘irrelevant’.109
12
Figure 17:
10
8
Question: How do you consider UEFA’s
6
financial contribution to your National
4
Association?
2
0
Irrelevant Important Essential
In terms of importance compared to the FIFA Under-20 World Cup and the Olympic Games
football tournament, the UEFA Under-21 European Championship clearly wins the race. Out
of 17 responses to the question “What is the most important competition between these
three?” eleven interviewees were in favour of the European Championship, whereas five

108
109
Possible answers given: essential, important, irrelevant.
voted for the Olympics and only one for the FIFA U-20 World Cup. This result is not
surprising as many interviewees mentioned the high level of play during the competition
which takes place over two years and not only over a short period of time:
“[At the Under-21 Championship] … the level of the players is much

greater than at the Olympic tournament and FIFA… also because it
takes place over two years and not like the Olympics over two weeks.”
(Denmark)110
12
Figure 18:
10
8 Question: What is the most important

competition between these three?
6
0
FIFA U20 Olympic Games UEFA U21
The high status which the UEFA U-21 Championship enjoys among UEFA’s member
associations is also reflected in the fact that many National Associations are bidding to host
the final tournament. Out of the 25 National Associations from our sample, 15 National
Associations have bid to host the final tournament in the past.111 The final tournament has
become very attractive to many National Associations as various reasons show. One reason is
to use it as a test event for a major senior competition, such as the FIFA World Cup or the
UEFA Euro:
“The main reasons were that we also signed up for the big Euro and
wanted to show that we are good at organizing and I think we proved
that.” (Switzerland)112
Furthermore it is a chance for small National Associations to host an international football

competition as most of them are not able to organize major tournaments. It allows them to
promote football in their country and to get international exposure for the host cities:
“We would like to take the Danish FA to the next level. We would like
to host more and more international football events. We think that this
could be a great way to make all the employees of the Danish FA

110
111
Information given by UEFA during a meeting in Nyon in April 2009.
112
better. A challenge on an international level, we would all benefit from

that. … The Danish FA would be a better FA getting these
international events to Denmark and also to increase the cooperation in
Denmark between the clubs, our cities and the authorities.”
(Denmark)113
“[The reason is to promote] top class football in countries which are

not able to host A-tournaments.” (Denmark)114
Summary
As a result, one can say that UEFA’s Under-21 age category is overall very well perceived by
the National Associations. The National Associations attribute a lot of importance to the team
and consider it as an important development stage in the career of a young football player. As
all National Associations interviewed mentioned that the participation in the championship is
linked to a financial loss, it leads to the conclusion that the National Associations see their
Under-21 Team as an investment into the future. The main goal of this age category is to
deliver well trained and developed footballers for the A National team. For this reason it is
not surprising that the Under-21 Team is very close to the A National team both from a
technical and administrative perspective. Even though the Under-21 Team carries the term
“Under” in its name, which is clearly associated with youth teams, it can not be considered as
a youth team anymore. One has to note that due to the age structure the players are legally
adults and furthermore they are mostly playing professional football on a senior level in their
club teams.115 Why would you consider the Under-21 players ‘youth players’ and ‘amateurs’
whereas on a club football level they are clearly considered ‘senior’ and ‘professional’?
When it comes to the perception of the UEFA U-21 Championship, the NAs also have a very
positive attitude. The championship is, in terms of set-up, awareness, appearance, stadia
capacities, attendance, media interest and commercialism, much bigger than a youth
competition. However, it is still far away from the level of UEFA’s senior competition. This
leads us to the conclusion that the Under-21 championship has a ‘stand-alone’ status. It is a
competition which stands in between UEFA’s youth competitions and UEFA’s senior level
competition, the UEFA EURO. It builds a bridge from one to the other.

113
114
115
Under-21 players can be up to 23 years old by the time they play the final tournament.
4 Conclusion and outlook
Undoubtedly, the sports world has evolved over the last decades to become a highly
professional industry. Needless to say, this development will continue as it seems that there is
no end in sight when it comes to the professionalization of sports. For example, the recent
trend of ‘public viewing’ at major sport tournaments is becoming standard, whereas until the
FIFA World Cup 2006 this new entertainment strategy was unknown. However, as we have
outlined in our analysis and research above, the professional world of sports still has
challenges to face and adjustments to make. As we speak about youth competitions portfolios
in different team sports, not everything seems to be totally clear and logical. On the contrary,
we find ourselves in a clutter of different terms, names and abbreviations without being able
to follow a worldwide understandable standard. What does the term ‘youth’ stand for in
basketball? Why do they in rugby and ice hockey only talk about ‘juniors’? When are you
considered to be a ‘senior’ player in football? These questions cannot easily be answered
without having conducted an in-depth analysis of the respective sports. The scope of this
paper only allowed us to provide a brief overview of the sports mentioned in section 2.3, but
it certainly gives us a general impression on how different sports federations structure their
competition portfolio with regards to youth and senior. This paper aims at discussing the
current situation in football, in particular with regards to our case study the UEFA U-21
Championship.
If we take a closer look at the UEFA U-21 Championship and the respective age category,
one has to note that it is not clear what this competition stands for and how to perceive the
participating teams and players. Are they senior or youth players? What about the term
‘junior’? Are they amateurs or professionals? The term ‘under’ which is a characteristic
feature of this competition, does not reflect the positioning of the championship by UEFA.
UEFA does not consider this tournament as a youth football tournament, as the championship
is not within the youth competition portfolio. It is clearly located in the same category as the
major UEFA competition, the UEFA EURO. However, the logo of the Under-21
Championship is reminiscent of the logo of the two youth competitions, the Under-17 and
Under-19 Championship. Also, when we look at the age of the players playing for the Under-
21 National team, we are dealing with players up to 23 years of age. Interestingly, they are not
necessarily under 21 when they play the final tournament at the end of the 2-year
championship cycle. Additionally, we noticed during our visit on-site in Sweden that UEFA
and the LOC were not clear in their communication when it came to describing the players.
The stadium speaker thanked the spectators after the game for supporting ‘youth football’,
whereas in the official programme of the tournament you can read quotes on how the
championship should not be related to youth:
“Europe’s best young players will be in Sweden. And despite the

name, this is not a youth tournament – it is the ‘tournament of the
stars’. We can certainly expect football of the highest quality!”116
What is the sense of having this term “under” in the competition’s name then? UEFA’s
uncertainty about the positioning of the championship is reflected in the National
Associations’ perception of the tournament. Therefore it is not surprising that there are a
couple of National Associations which use different terms for their Under-21 Team. Instead
of using the French term ‘moins de 21’, the football associations of France and Belgium call
their teams ‘Equipe espoirs’, which translated into English means ‘team of hope”. The same
approach exists in Portugal where the National Association calls its team ‘esperanças’. As a
result, we can say, that there is a need in repositioning the Under-21 competition by
reinventing the brand, consisting of name and logo. As Christian Bordinggaard from the
Danish Football Association mentioned during the interview, the idea of changing the name
already exists in the Danish FA:
“We try to kill the word ‘youth’ or ‘Under-21 team’, but we have not
found a clue on how to do that. … There are still some people in
Denmark that when they hear ‘Under-21’ they think that (the players)
don’t even have hair on the chest yet.” (Denmark)117
To summarize, we would encourage UEFA to consider a re-branding for the Under-21

Championship. The name does not do justice to the players and the whole set-up of the
competition. This fact relies not only on our personal experience but also on the general
opinion of the 18 National Associations that we interviewed. However, further research has to
be done with all the member associations of UEFA. The UEFA U-21 Championship is a
unique tournament in the world of football. Even though the Olympic football tournament
exhibits a similar age structure, the Under-21 Championship was clearly established as a
stepping-stone competition between youth and senior. It provides the athletes with an
unmatched competitive edge. It builds the bridge from youth to senior.

116
LAGRELL L-A., President of the Swedish FA, Official Programme, UEFA U-21 Championship Sweden
2009
117
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Building a bridge to senior level competitions
Appendix 1 – LTAD model for English FA

Appendix 2 – LTAD model for Speed Skating

Appendix 3 – LTAD model for Canadian Curling Association

Appendix 4 – Football Confederations
• Conmebol (Confederación Sudamericana de Fútbol)
Members: 10, Foundation: 1916
• UEFA (Union des Associations Européenes de Football)
• AFC (Asian Football Confederation)
• CAF (Conféderation Africaine de Football)
• CONCACAF – (Confederación Norte-Centroamericana y del Caribe

de Fútbol)
• OFC (Oceania Football Confederation)
Appendix 5 – Initial contact email to the National Associations
Ladies and gentlemen,
We are Master’s students from the International Center for Sport Studies (CIES) at the University of
Neuchâtel, Switzerland, finishing our studies in Sports Management. We are currently completing
our final project with regards to the development of European football and the structure of National
Associations. In particular, we are looking at the National Associations’ perception of their U‐21
National Team.
As a member of UEFA and a participant in the UEFA European U‐21 Championship, we would like
input from the ____________________. Our group has designed a questionnaire that we would like
to send you as a guideline for a phone interview. We hope that you are the right contact person and
would appreciate your co‐operation.
Thank you in advance for your feedback. We look forward to hearing from you.

Tanya Ng Yuen
Thomas Schneiter
Marcelo Orchis
Marc Schmidgall
Appendix 6 - U21 National Team - QUESTIONNAIRE
1. INTERNAL
a) What is the overall organisational structure of the National Association?
b) What is the official job title of the main person responsible for the U21
team?
c) Is there any link between the U21 team and the National A team?
d) Do you think the participation in the U21 team helps the player in his career
development to become a better more mature player?
e) How is the U21 team perceived within your organization?
f) Do you keep statistics on the performance of the U21 team and the
respective players?
2. ENVIRONMENT
a) How would you consider the relationship between your National

Association and the clubs regarding the U21 national team players?
b) How closely do you work with the media to promote the U21 team?
c) Do you have a specific marketing strategy to market the U21 team?
3. COSTS AND BENEFITS
a) How much in percentage of the overall budget is assigned to the National

Teams?
b) How much in percentage of the National Team’s budget is assigned to the

U21team?
c) What are the three main costs of the U21 team?

1. ____________________
2. ____________________
3. ____________________
d) What are three non-financial problems associated with the U21 team?
1. ____________________
2. ____________________
3. ____________________
e) What are three financial benefits associated with the U21 team during the
qualifying stage of the Championship?
1. ____________________
2. ____________________
3. ____________________
f) What are three non-financial advantages of the U21 team?
1. ____________________
2. ____________________
3. ____________________
g) According to the regulations of the UEFA European U21 Championship,

each National Association is assigned financial contribution for its
participation. How do you consider that contribution to your National
Association?
o essential
o important
o irrelevant
4. CHAMPIONSHIP
a) How is the UEFA U21 championship different from the FIFA U20 World Cup,
from the Olympic (note: not applicable to UK) football tournament?
b) What is the most important competition between these three?
o UEFA U21 Championship

o FIFA U20 World Cup
o Olympic Games
c) What is/was your motivation to bid for the UEFA U21 Championship?
d) In your opinion, what is the ultimate goal of the UEFA U21 competition?

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BUILDING A BRIDGE TO SENIOR LEVEL

FIFA Master Final Project

International Master (MAS) in Management, Law and Humanities of Sport

8th July 2009

Tanya Ng Yuen, Canada

Fernando Arrabal The Royal Netherlands Football Association

AFC Asian Football Confederation

About the authors

2 Important aspects of athlete development in sports ................................................................ 3

2.1 The development chain in sports: Youth – Junior - Senior .............................................. 3

2.2 Amateurism vs. Professionalism ...................................................................................... 7

2.3 Analysis of different competition portfolios in team sports ........................................... 12

2.3.1 Basketball ................................................................................................................. 12

2.3.2 Rugby ....................................................................................................................... 16

2.3.3 Ice Hockey ............................................................................................................... 19

2.3.4 Football .................................................................................................................... 23

3 Case study: Analysis of the UEFA U-21 Championship ...................................................... 28

3.1 About UEFA ................................................................................................................... 28

3.2 The UEFA U-21 Championship ..................................................................................... 30

3.2.1 UEFA Under-21 History .......................................................................................... 30

3.2.2. Current Competition Format ................................................................................... 31

3.3.1 Methodology of data collection ............................................................................... 37

3.3.2 Research questions ................................................................................................... 40

3.3.3 Problems/limitations of data collection procedure .................................................. 41

3.3.4 Evaluation and interpretation of findings ................................................................ 43

4 Conclusion and outlook ......................................................................................................... 54

2 Important aspects of athlete development in sports

2.1 The development chain in sports: Youth – Junior - Senior

I) The Sports Development Continuum

II) Athlete Pathway Model

administrators is also provided in the last pathway through the coach/official/administrator

III) Long-Term Athlete Development

2.2 Amateurism vs. Professionalism

Art 2 Status of Player: amateur and professional player17

2.1 Players participating in organized football are either amateurs or

2.3 Analysis of different competition portfolios in team sports

Commission, which is in charge of all youth activities, including competitions, camps,

Senior U-19 U-16 College/University Mini

“This stone commemorates the exploit of William Webb Ellis who

“The IRB is committed to increasing the overall competitiveness of

He explained further that

2.3.3 Ice Hockey

Figure 5: Active participation numbers of Top National Ice Hockey Associations.

1. Help provide senior players of the future.

Figure 6: The FIFA pyramid of football56

• Confederations: umbrella organizations of the national football associations in each

Figure 7: Football National teams Competitions Portfolio – Source: Authors compilation.

“To bring together young people of different countries, different and

“...Youth is the eternal source of creative energy, indispensable

3 Case study: Analysis of the UEFA U-21 Championship

Figure 8: The stakeholders of the Under-21 Championship – Source: Authors compilation.

3.1 About UEFA

Figure 9: National vs. Youth Competition Logos

3.2 The UEFA U-21 Championship

3.2.1 UEFA Under-21 History

3.2.2. Current Competition Format

Figure 11: Host city branding.

Figure 12: Pictures of the Fan Zones on non-match days.

Intellectual Property Rights, Article 31.01

70 Fig. 13: Cumulative audience in mio.

Fig. 14: Host city branding with sponsors logos.

"With the UEFA U-21 Championship 2009 in Sweden we will

Figure 15: Merchandising articles of the UEFA U-21 Championship.