2020 UEFA Foundation for Children Awards

The €1 million support for 20 European children's charities.

The spring UEFA Foundation for Children board of trustees meeting was cancelled due to the Covid-19 pandemic. However, our work has continued even during this challenging period and our chairman, Aleksander Čeferin, decided to nominate the 2020 UEFA Foundation for Children awards as planned and additionally grant financial support to the Youth Sports Games, the biggest amateur sports event for children and youth in Europe.

In accordance with the foundation’s status and regulations, the decisions were taken in a written procedure.

2020 UEFA Foundation for Children awards

The foundation has asked the 55 UEFA member associations to nominate charities in their countries according to the following criteria:

All award recipients must be based in the country of a UEFA member association
Potential recipients must accept and comply with the foundation charter and ethics code
Potential recipients must have been registered with the relevant national authorities for at least three years and comply with national legal obligations
The activities carried out by recipients must be aimed at helping vulnerable, deprived or socially excluded children, and must never involve the promotion of talented young footballers

The Board of Trustees has decided to divide the total funding – €1m – equally between 20 nominees, with the 20 organisations below each receiving a €50,000 grant:

CIO	Associations	NGOs
AUT	Austrian Football Association	SOS-Kinderdorf
BEL	Royal Belgian Football Association	Koninklijke Sporting Club City Pirates
BLR	Belarus Football Association	SOS-Сhildren’s Village Marjina Gorka
CRO	Croatian Football Association	The Croatian Down Syndrome Association
CZE	Football Association of the Czech Republic	Real Top Praha
DEN	Danish Football Association	The danish christmas seal foundation
ENG	English Football Association	Coaches Across Continents Ltd
EST	Estonian Football Association	SOS Children's Village Association of Estonia
GER	German Football Association	In safe hands e.V.
GIB	Gibraltar Football Association	Help Me Learn Africa
ITA	Italian Football Association	Ospedale Pediatrico Bambino Gesù
LTU	Lithuanian Football Association	Nemuno krašto vaikai
NIR	Irish Football Association	Irish FA Foundation
POL	Polish Football Association	Hope for Mundial Association
POR	Portuguese Football Federation	Ludotempo – Associação da Promoção do Brincar
RUS	Football Union of Russia	Under the flag of kindness
SCO	Scottish Football Association	Scottish Charitable Incorporated Organisation
SVN	Football Association of Slovenia	Youth Health and Summer Resort Debeli Rtič
SWE	Swedish football Association	KIF Örebro DFF
UKR	Ukrainian Association of Football	Football Development in Ukraine

Youth Sports Games

The board has decided to allocate €50,000 to this year’s festival, which will be organised as soon as the situation eases up. This event will have a special signification after the Covid-19 pandemic, and we hope it will inspire children and help bring a positive spirit back to the region. The games are held in three countries: Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia and Serbia. In 2019, as many as 202,000 youngsters competed.

Call for projects 2020

The UEFA Foundation for Children will launch a new call for projects from 1 July to 15 August 2020. Applicants from all over the world can submit their projects on our official website, where they can find all the necessary information and the selection criteria in due time. The board of trustees will select projects and announce its decisions at the next meeting in November.

The current health crisis is challenging the world and having devastating effects on the most vulnerable communities. Our partners need our support more than ever in this uncertain period to enable football and education programmes in underserved communities to carry on once the pandemic is over.

- Urs Kluser, general secretary of the UEFA Foundation for Children