European Club Association
The European Club Association (ECA) is an independent and independent lobby group for European football clubs. The task of the ECA is to protect and promote European football at club level. One of the goals of this association is also to create a new, more democratic management model to highlight the key role clubs play in football.
history
The European Club Association, which was set up to replace Group G-14 in January 2008 and the UEFA- European Club Forum, chaired by Chairman Karl-Heinz Rummenigge , was officially in step with the signing of the Memorandum of Understanding between UEFA and ECA on January 21 Established in 2008. At the first general meeting of the ECA, which took place from 7th to 8th July 2008 at the UEFA headquarters in Nyon, Switzerland , Karl-Heinz Rummenigge was appointed as the official ECA chairman.
The European Club Association adopted a similar organizational structure and selection process as those on which the European Club Forum, consisting of 102 members elected every two years, was based.
After Rummenigge had already announced in August 2017 that he would no longer run for the next term of office as chairman of the ECA, he said goodbye to the ECA on September 4, 2017. The following day, the 41-year-old Italian Andrea Agnelli took over as chairman . Karl-Heinz Rummenigge, on the other hand, was appointed honorary chairman.
structure
After the founding of the European Club Association in January 2008, it was agreed that the ECA and its 16 founding members would be represented by the provisional ECA board until the next general meeting is called at the end of the season, as the elections of the new board are not planned until then. It was decided that in addition to the four representatives appointed by the Board of Directors to be UEFA's Professional Football Strategic Advisory Board, the ECA Board would consist of eleven members. Half of the members of the UEFA club competition committee should come from the European Club Association.
Since the beginning of its term of office from 2013 to 2015, the European Club Association has been represented by 214 clubs, 105 of which are full members, 109 associate members and at least one of which is a member of one of the 53 UEFA associations. The exact number of full member clubs from the respective associations is determined every two years towards the end of the UEFA season on the basis of a ranking of the UEFA five-year ranking using the following key:
| Place in the UEFA five-year ranking | Number of clubs per country in the ECA |
| 1-3 | 5 |
| 4-6 | 4th |
| 7-15 | 3 |
| 16-28 | 2 |
| 29-53 | 1 |
After the Annual General Meeting in September 2013, the ECA board will be as follows: Karl-Heinz Rummenigge (Chairman; Bayern Munich ), Umberto Gandini (1st Deputy Chairman; AC Milan ), Sandro Rosell (2nd Deputy Chairman; FC Barcelona ), Evgeni Giner (3rd Deputy Chairman, CSKA Moscow ), Ivan Gazidis ( Arsenal London ), Pedro López Jimenez ( Real Madrid ), Andrea Agnelli ( Juventus Turin ), Jean-Michel Aulas ( Olympique Lyon ), Diogo Brandão ( FC Porto ), Theodoros Giannikos ( Olympiakos Piraeus ), Edwin van der Sar ( Ajax Amsterdam ), Michael Verschueren ( RSC Anderlecht ), Jakub Otava ( Sparta Prague ), Zoran Mamić ( Dinamo Zagreb ) and Ausrys Labinas ( Ekranas Panevėžys ).
The European Club Association is made up of numerous bodies including working groups, expert panels and committees.
Working groups
Since the founding of the ECA, working groups have been an important cornerstone of the organizational structure of this association. They offer active advice and support to the ECA Board and ECA representatives who participate in committees or working groups at UEFA, FIFA and at EU level. Your contribution is of strategic importance to the organization. In addition, they organize members' meetings and are responsible for communication within the entire association when discussing key questions, challenges and opportunities. All working groups consist of full and associated members from all four categories. The five ECA working groups include: League Games Working Group, Finance Working Group, Institutional Relations Working Group, Marketing and Communication Working Group, and Youth Working Group .
Expert panels
Just like the working groups, the ECA expert rounds and committees support the ECA board and consist of specific experts from different ECA member states. The members of each panel of experts and committees are appointed by the ECA board and act as advisory bodies. The ECA currently has the following panels of experts and commissions: panel of experts for legal advice, panel of experts for statutory matters, panel of experts for finance-related fair play, committee for social dialogue and committee for women's football .
Achievements
According to the letter of intent signed with UEFA in 2008, the European Club Association was recognized as an independent organization representing the interests of clubs on the European stage. As part of this agreement, UEFA agreed to donate an amount every four years from European Championship income to the national associations and clubs that contributed to the success of the European Championship. The final amount for the EM 2008 is 43.5 million euros (62.8 million USD), with approximately 4000 euros being paid out for each day of the player participating in the tournament. There are also plans to establish a number of commitments in favor of the clubs by UEFA and FIFA, including financial contributions for player participation in European and World Cups, subject to the approval of the respective bodies.
On March 22nd, a new letter of intent for the years 2012-2018 on the occasion of the XXXVI. Ordinary UEFA Congress signed by the ECA and UEFA. The letter of intent was signed by ECA chairman Karl-Heinz Rummenigge and UEFA president Michel Platini. This declaration paves the way for a successful cooperation between the European clubs and the European football umbrella organization, which should help to improve the balance between national team and club football. The new letter of intent replaces the one from 2008 and will remain in force until May 30, 2018. The four central themes of the new agreement are as follows:
International game calendar
The international match calendar, a central theme of the talks, obliges the clubs to compulsorily release their national players within the prescribed deadlines. The international match calendar for the years 2014–18 is based on a specific proposal from the ECA and was created as a result of the efforts of a dedicated working group made up of representatives from the ECA, EPFL , FIFPro and UEFA. The recommendations of the working group, which were recognized by FIFA, offer a more balanced system of 9 double matches within a period of two years without individual test matches and are advantageous for both clubs and associations.
Insurance of players' salaries
The club protection program, which was initially introduced at UEFA's expense and was to apply at the 2012 European Championship in Poland and Ukraine, was adopted and has since been financed by FIFA following approval by the FIFA Congress in Budapest in May 2012. The program currently applies to all clubs that assign the players to international matches as part of the international match calendar, including FIFA's obligation to insure the football tournament at the Olympic Games. The club protection program provides for compensation in favor of the clubs in the event that an international player suffers an injury as a result of an accident that precludes his temporary sporting activity. The players are insured for a maximum of one year from the day of the postponement period (= day of injury + 27 days) for the maximum amount of EUR 7,500,000.
Distribution of EM profits
In accordance with the declaration of intent between the ECA and UEFA from 2008, the UEFA Executive Committee agreed to provide provisions of EUR 43.5 million for the Euro 2008 in Switzerland and Austria and EUR 55 million for the Euro 2012 in Poland and of Ukraine to form. After the renewal of the memorandum of understanding, the profits of the footballer clubs for the Euro 2012 in Poland and Ukraine climbed to 100 million euros. The sum should even increase to 150 million euros for the EM 2016 in France. In view of the increasing benefits for clubs, UEFA and ECA have developed a new mechanism for distributing the profits. Its main goal is to establish a fair and balanced system, to ensure higher advantages for all clubs compared to previous tournaments and entitlements for a larger number of clubs so that they can participate in the profits. At the EM 2012 in Poland and Ukraine, the total amount of 100 million euros was divided between the final tournament (60%) and the qualification phase (40%). With this new distribution, 578 clubs received corresponding compensation from UEFA for the surrender of their players to the qualifying matches and the final tournament. This is a significant increase compared to the EM 2008, when only 181 clubs received financial benefits.
management
Finally, the new Memorandum of Understanding has also strengthened the role of clubs in UEFA's decision-making process. In the future, the votes of the clubs will be taken into account and no decision that has a direct impact on club football will be made without the clubs' prior consent. The ECA representatives are appointed by the Board of the UEFA Club Competitions Committee and the UEFA Professional Football Strategy Council.
Publications
Community & Social Responsibility Report In September 2011 the European Club Association published its first Community & Social Responsibility Report. The aim of this publication was to showcase the good work that football clubs are doing in the field of community and social responsibility. The report is a collection of 54 CSR projects of the ECA member associations. All of these projects indicate that football and sport in general play an important social and educational role.
ECA Legal Report Since 2011, the European Club Association has published an annual legal report in which the most important recurring legal problems of the club representatives are taken up. These legal reports are intended to provide the clubs with support and advice in dealing with the respective problems in the area of compensation for training sessions, administrative difficulties of the clubs and those relating to the property of third parties.
ECA report on youth academies in Europe In September 2012 the ECA published a report on youth academies in Europe, which serves as a reference point and offers a comparative look at different approaches and philosophies of youth academies across Europe.
ECA Club Management Manual The Club Management Guide, published in 2015, aims to convey knowledge about club management to the clubs. It covers sporting, business and social activities, the internal and external conditions of the clubs and strategy development. The manual contains descriptive sections, case studies, club interviews and club visits. Many examples of real-life activities were presented to enable the clubs to learn from each other.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ ECA Vision
- ↑ a b UEFA hails creation of the European Club Association ( Memento of the original from March 2, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ a b Agreement heralds new era in football
- ↑ uefa.com: European Club Forum
- ↑ Karl-Heinz Rummenigge does not stand for renewed candidacy at the ECA , accessed on September 5, 2017
- ↑ Karl-Heinz Rummenigge says goodbye to the ECA , accessed on September 5, 2017
- ↑ a b ECA: Andrea Agnelli succeeds Karl-Heinz Rummenigge as chairman , accessed on September 5, 2017
- ↑ a b ECA Working Groups ( Memento of the original from June 8, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ^ FIFA.com - Victory for football as a whole
- ↑ a b c d e f ECA Memorandum of Understanding 2012 ( Memento of the original dated July 13, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ^ FIFA Congress fully backs reform process
- ↑ UEFA and ECA Memorandum of Understanding 2012 ( Memento of the original from October 14, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (PDF; 65 kB)
- ↑ Memorandum of Understanding 2008
- ↑ European Club Association publishes Report on Youth Academies ( Memento of the original from September 25, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
