UEFA is an acronym for the Union of European Football Associations. It is an administrative organization in European football. All national football associations representing different European countries are controlled by UEFA. In fact, all questions related to European football competitions are managed by UEFA.

The history of the Union of European Football Associations started in 1954. On June 15, Switzerland hosted the discussion between the Italian, French and Belgian football associations. Their discussion resulted in formation of UEFA. UEFA headquarters were located in Paris, but in 1959 the headquarters moved to Bern.

Among the UEFA presidents, the first one was Ebbe Schwartz (while Henri Delaunay was the organization's first General Secretary). Another administrative change took place in 1995. In 1995, Nyon (Switzerland) became an administrative centre of UEFA.

There are many different UEFA competitions. Probably, the main competition held by this organization is the European Football Championship. This championship started in 1958. And unlike most of the national football associations, UEFA holds different competitions for women's teams. For example, there is the UEFA Women's Championship which started in 80ies. Of course, there are other women's competitions.

The actual number of different competitions that UEFA held during its history is pretty impressive. You can easily find information about any competition - there are many different web sites in the Internet that contain results of competitions as well as their detailed descriptions. All this information can be extremely interesting for all the football fans.

In fact, UEFA is a member of a bigger football association, which is called the Federation Internationale de Football Association (it is well known under its acronym - FIFA). FIFA comprises six different confederations (they represent six different continents; UEFA represents Europe in FIFA). FIFA comprises AFC - Asian Football Confederation in Asia and Australia, CAF - Confederation Africaine de Football in Africa, CONMEBOL - Confederacion Sudamericana de Futbol in South America, CONCACAF - Confederation of North, Central American and Caribbean Association Football in North America and Central America, OFC - Oceania Football Confederation in Oceania, UEFA - Union of European Football Associations in Europe. FIFA organizes and controls competitions between confederations' teams. The World Cup and Olympic football competitions are also held by FIFA.

Numerous other tournaments are organized by FIFA. That information can also be found in the Internet. Many web sites feature live games, so you can watch the different football competitions in the Internet.

Besides the different issues related to football, FIFA regulates the commercial aspects of football competitions. Recently, football has become a profitable business for many companies. Many of them are ready to pay for commercials and other activities related to football. FIFA's revenue for the four year cycle (from 2002 to 2006) exceeds $1.5 billions. FIFA also capitalizes on its name. For example, computer games under the FIFA name have become very popular, which makes an impressive part of FIFA revenue.